I am now on a two-city apartment hunt. Our Amsterdam lease is up, and turns out I will need to relocate to Paris for most of September and October. Of course, this should be good news --how glamorous! But in reality it is just turning out to be one big headache.
I just can’t get over the cramped spaces and hugely inflated prices! Paris is far, far worse than Amsterdam. Can you believe a housing agency just sent me a list of 17m2 studios for 1000 euros each!! Yes, you heard correctly--seventeen square meters--that is literally the size of my current bathroom! The photos all show dimly lit rooms, with strange “space-saving” contraptions--beds popping out of the walls, beds perched overtop of desks, and kitchen tables neatly tucked in closets. It makes the space shuttle look like luxury living!
The A’dam apartment hunt isn't going all that well either. Moe and I visited several possible apartments this week with no luck. The only place we actually liked turned out to be way out of budget. Of course, my good old Winnipegger self can’t help but imagine what I could get back home for that price. For $2,000 Cdn I could live in a penthouse complete with maid and butler! (yes, slight exaggeration). Things are getting so desperate that I was almost convinced to rent a houseboat?!
Remember my houseboat, before we we roomies? NOT very romantic once you are living in it! But, I must admit it was kind of fun for awhile. My biggest problem was almost dropping my keys in the water...several times. Groceries too. If you do go that direction, the Jordaan is great!
Paris....you lucky girl! Have You'll definately need the Zagat food guide there!
