Flour Power

I really couldn’t take all that pinkness. Maybe if it wasn’t so strong, or if the stay was shorter, I could have endured. But not this way. And the pink curtains with the pink Playboy bunnies didn’t help either…

So I spent this past weekend repainting the room. I decided for a red color. Not “Benfica red”, but a darker shade of red. They call it “English Fire”.

Saying the painting process was hard is an understatement, but I’ll describe all the pains in another post, if I can get myself to write it. It started on Saturday afternoon (was supposed to start in the morning, but I couldn’t wake up early after one week of sleeping only 5 hours per night) and lasted until just a few hours ago. That included going to the shop to buy the paint, removing everything from the room, placing some masking tape, applying the first coat, waiting for it to dry, applying the second coat, waiting for it to dry while washing the brushes and the roller, removing the masking tape, and finally moving everything back inside the room. That basically meant spending the whole weekend stuck inside the house and, to make it even worse, the weather was the best since I arrived. Even the sun decided to show up…

All things considered, I still think it was worth it. I can now spend bigger amounts of time inside my room without going nuts, and it’s somehow cool to have a room that you painted yourself. Ando so, without further ado, I present you “The Room”, now in red:

I don’t believe in miracles, but something out of the ordinary happened yesterday, just one day after I wrote a post “complaining” about how difficult it is to find a room to rent in the center of Galway. I thought that only a miracle could save me:

As you can see, this is not easy. I have to change my requirements a little bit. Like looking at places a bit further from the centre, and also considering paying a bit more (which means less beer). Unless some perfect house miraculously shows up…

Well, I guess some kind of miracle happened! Here’s a summary of how it went.

On the way back home, at the entrance to the apartment complex (called Dun Aengus) where I’ve been staying since last thursday (at Sónia’s place), there was a handwritten note saying that a single and a double room were available. I called immediately, since rooms in this area are very sought out for, both because of the great location and because they’re quite modern. I managed to arranje a viewing for an hour later and after dinner I was moving in, from number 57 to number 54.

I won’t go into a lot of details, but I want to mention the most awesome of them all. First I was shown the single room and I thought it was nice: not too small, furnished and with a nice view to the marina. Then there was the double room, and just before showing it to me they told me something like “But there’s a small thing… that you might not like…”. And this is what I saw (minus my stuff).

Yes, that’s right, the room is pink! PINK! I was shocked at first, but then they told me I could paint it, and that they had painted theirs just a few days ago, so I relaxed a bit. I still considered taking the single room instead of this one, but its color was not that better – purple! I ended up choosing the double because if I have to paint it anyway, I might as well take the biggest room.

So I found exactly the house I was looking for. It fills all my requirements (location, price and Internet) and it even comes with a very good extra: friendly and party-ready flatmates (who are Polish, btw, which by itself is another bonus).

I’m now on the process of setting up the room (my clothes are still inside the suitcase), and I have to pick a new color for the room ASAP. The plan is to paint it on the weekend.

Any suggestions?

Who said that finding a room to rent would be easy? No one did. And if someone had, that someone would be dead wrong.

It’s not that I didn’t start early. I spent some time on http://www.daft.ie/ (the self-proclaimed “Ireland’s Biggest Property Site”) and when I arrived I already had a list of more than 20 places that seemed “nice”, which is quite difficult to evaluate because most of the listings don’t have any photos. My requirements were something like:

• Close proximity to the centre (not more than 10 minutes of walking);
• Rent not higher than €400 per month;
• Internet connection.

So when I got here I was ready to start with the viewings and all that. I have to confess I didn’t start as fast as I could have, but I was still getting the hang of the city, to know where each place is located. And now that I know, it seems that every place is already taken. Or the house doesn’t have Internet (although the listing says it does). Or the description has “males only” and “ONLY PROFESSIONALS” on it (I don’t know about you, but that scares me a little bit). And so on…

After a great deal of phone calls I’ve been able to view 3 places:

1. Great location, good price, but soooo small…
2. Good location, spacious house, but no Internet…
3. Good location, cozy atmosphere, but only available on the 27th…

Number 1 will not alow me to fit in bed. Number 2 is not even an option if I can’t get Internet there. And I still have to find a broadband provider that doesn’t require a 12 month contract (I’m staying for 6). Number 3 seems like the most viable option, but I don’t want to be occupying Sónia’s (my host, and a former participant of the Inov Contacto program – C11) living room for so long. And even if I do decide that I want the room, the current occupants still have to choose me from all the people that want it…

As you can see, this is not easy. I have to change my requirements a little bit. Like looking at places a bit further from the centre, and also considering paying a bit more (which means less beer). Unless some perfect house miraculously shows up…

On the upside, I now have quite a good knowledge of the street names in the city centre.