The Hunt Ends

Niall and Leonie's

On Monday Dale and I were starting to feel pretty antsy.  Luckily, when we checked on daft.ie, there were more lettings to view. The realtors had clearly been off work for the weekend. One of the places showed no pictures as it had been put up moments before, and of the other two, one looked interesting, and we took a chance on the other. Dale forced me to make some phone calls this time since he had been scheduling most viewings. I hate making phone calls, but did want to contribute. We first walked to the place with no photos, which was only 15 minutes from Niall’s home. It was inside a red brick house and was the first flat after passing through the two front doors, the stained glass above the inner door reading, “Glenart.” As usual, the flat was small, but it was actually better than most of the other places we viewed because it had a very tall bay window, making the room quite bright, as well as a separate bedroom instead of being a studio. It was a little on the dingy side because of its age, but I was most taken with the windows, and Dale with the good neighbourhood. We were turned off by the laundry machines being in a shed in the back garden—which has no grass and is surrounded by grey brick walls. However, it was out of our price range at 700 euros per month. The reason we went to check it out was because the heating bill is included in that 700.

Our room in Niall and Leonie's place

Our walk back to Niall’s was rainy, and I’m sure I looked funny wearing bright red shorts and hiding under an umbrella at the same time. By the time Niall was home and could drive us to our next viewings, it was sunny again. We were interested in the house on Leister Road, which had a long green back garden and laundry inside the apartment. Unfortunately we discovered that the washing machine was broken and you had to share the ones out in the shed. Plus it was a studio and had, as Dale later put it, “Not enough room to do a push-up.”  The next place we visited was another single room where the bed was around the corner, but still virtually in the kitchen. The lady we spoke to was very helpful, and she suggested we try to catch her husband at another flat that he was about to sell. Niall made sure we snatched up the chance to see this one before it went up online, even though it was 750. He even haggled a little for us by asking the landlord if he could take it down to 700. As his previous tenants were still there—and very messy tenants they were—the landlord didn’t say anything decisive, though he did smile thoughtfully. The place wouldn’t look so bad cleaned up, and it had the part-living room, part-kitchen separate from the bedroom. We would have considered it if the price were lowered, but by the next day it was sold! The crazy part is Niall says the students will have their grades back next week and will then be looking for housing in droves. Talk about time pressure!

Niall took us back to Vincent and Rosaleen’s as he and Leonie prepared for their vacation off the coast of Spain. Dale and I talked about the place with the bay windows, and how we were unsure of the price. We told Rosaleen and Fionnuala about it, then went upstairs for a private conversation before I called the landlord and asked if it was still available. So there you have it; we saw the flat the day it was posted, called to snatch it up the very next evening, and were told we could move in the very next day. I hung up the phone with shaking fingers. We needed to bring a 700 euro deposit as well as the first month’s rent of 700 euros. This was steep for two people without jobs, and even though it’s pretty standard for landlords to ask for it, Dale looked like he might pass out. I, on the other hand, finally started to get excited. We were about to move into our first home together, in Ireland, and it would be my first home of my own altogether! Downstairs again, Rosaleen smiled as we told her the news, Niall coming in from outside at the same time.

“Oh, you called him?” he asked. Then his face broke into a big grin and he said, “Congratulations!”

It started to sink in in earnest.

The following day Niall collected us from Dalkey and drove us down our new street lined with tall red brick houses all packed together with narrow grass gardens in front. We had had to use our Visas to get 600 euros each out of an AIB ATM the day before because that was the maximum amount per day, so we stopped to get out the last 200 before arriving. The landlords, Robert and Catherine, welcomed us in. They made a note of our payment and I signed our contract, which has no minimum monthly stay. Bonus! I handed over a work reference letter from Roisin’s company, but the landlords didn’t seem to care about it. Niall helped us haul our luggage in, and then we were handed our keys—all eight of them. There is a key for the first door into the house, then two keys for the locks on our own door, and another key to unlock the back gate so we can get to the laundry shed. Multiply that by two for each of us. One of the door keys is an old narrow thing with a cube-like head, and so is the garden key. They have “ancient” written all over them. Too bad we can’t seem to get the ones for the flat to work properly.

Our first home

Niall drove us to Dunnes for our shopping, and Euro Star, which is similar to a dollar store. We bought groceries and some cleaning supplies. Fionnuala and Rosaleen had kindly put together a bag of items for our first night, which included dinner and toilet paper. On behalf of himself and Leonie, Niall bought us some tea towels and a drying rack for our clothes. We needed to pick up some utensils and a duvet cover, but for the most part the flat was fully furnished. When we got back, Niall left us to get down to our cleaning and unpacking! The first thing I did was throw baking soda all over the carpets, the seats, and the mattress, to be vacuumed up an hour later. We used vinegar cleaner to wipe down all handles, doorknobs, counters, and even some grimy walls. Dale tried to de-pinkify the shower, but it never did come clean. The next day I walked in with a, “What the-?!” because there was a slug on the floor. How the Hell it got there, we have no idea. I still don’t really trust that bathroom. We cleaned out every little spider from every little crack throughout the apartment, but the little daddy-long-legs keep coming back. Luckily they aren't really bothering anyone in the corners of the high ceilings. In the process of vacuuming the corners, I accidentally vacuumed a chunk of paint off the wall the size of my palm. Whoops. Insert bookshelf.

A double rainbow welcome for good luck!

For dinner we couldn’t figure out how to work the stove, so we used the microwave to cook noodles and chicken. It was weird. Dale called the next day to see what the problem was and it turns out we have to flip the big red switch on the wall beside it. The switch that was right in front of our faces. While he was at it, Dale asked how to get the hot water working. Apparently you have to flip a switch in the bedroom closet, and then wait ten minutes. It’s also a small tank, so showers are probably not going to be fun. The bedroom is fairly dark, so we made sure to clean the window. It didn’t make a big difference. We made the mistake of leaving it open that night, inviting in a big daddy-long-legs, as well as the noise of everyone slamming the garden gate as they made their way to work in the morning. The bed was incredibly springy in a poky way, so we flipped the mattress for the next night, then flipped it back the following one.

But the bay window out front is beautiful. The white curtains blew far into the flat as we aired the room out, and we don’t even need to turn on a light until nine o’clock in the evening. I’m happy with our choice so far. We went for a walk that first evening, and I picked some lavender sprigs as we got to know our neighbourhood. I placed them strategically around the apartment, and did the same thing the next day with our empty orange peels. Although we have no TV—we haven’t decided if we will borrow Niall’s and pay the 160 euro TV license fee—and no internet until Saturday, we had been smart enough to get a couple movies on the laptop, so we relaxed and watched Waterworld after our hard work. Our reward the following day was a few rounds of Dutch Blitz, a card game our friends back home are crazy about. We decided to keep our score running all year. I’m scared. I lose a lot.

We also visited the bank, where we were told a signed tenant’s agreement is not enough proof of address. It will probably be a month before we get a bill with my name on it. How we will get proof for Dale, I don't know. Thank goodness Visa only charges 2.5% per use in the meantime.

Dale and I spent Friday in the city centre visiting the USIT office to print off more resumes, and then went door to door along the streets near our new place to hand them out. Before we left Dublin the rain started to come down, so we waited it out under the protection of a large tree across the road from the statue of Molly Malone. One of the famous Viking Tour buses drove by right then, the horned-helmet clad occupants growling at the “Celts” along the side of the road. If the Vikings/tourists are lucky, the Celts/natives will growl right back. The open-topped yellow vehicles are most known for ending the tour by driving straight into the river—the vehicles are amphibious. As they rounded the corner where Dale and I stood, they all started chanting at us, “KISS! KISS! KISS! KISS!” After a second of shock and hesitation, I stood on my toes to give Dale a quick peck. They all applauded and cheered their approval as the tour guide roared into his microphone, “THERE IS ROMANCE IN DUBLIN!” You can’t walk away from that without a little extra spring in your step.

Generally we applied for work separately while one of us waited outside. We thought it would look weird for us to ask for work together. Most places said they would hang on to our resumes. When I asked one lady if she was hiring, the response was, “I wish.” Another said, “I barely have a job myself.” After going into a hotel to tell the owners that an umbrella had been knocked right off of its table and was pierced on a fence, which brought us a hailstorm of gratitude, we found a hardware store that actually was hiring. It didn’t have any signs up yet, so we were lucky to find it, and both applied. It was awkward going in right after Dale had applied, but I didn’t want to pass up the chance. We scoped out some more places to apply, but it started to rain heavily and I was cold in only a dress, so we called it a day and returned home to watch a movie. On Saturday morning we had internet hooked up!

Country roads

Sunday we went to Sligo with Rosaleen, Vincent, and Rita, who is Ged’s aunt. Ged and Siobhan are English relatives, and our hosts for the day. They have an annual Bank Holiday weekend party in their summer house in the west. Siobhan is Rosaleen and my grandad's sister. It took two and a half hours to get to the party, but we passed an old castle on the side of the highway as we went. It was just casually sitting there, like, “Hey, can I get a lift?” Sligo itself was beautiful. We flew through country lanes which were only one car wide at 80km/h, and had to break suddenly a few times when other vehicles showed up going the opposite direction. But mostly the roads were quiet, overgrown, and full of butterflies.

On a walk in Sligo

Through the fields to the lake

Horses to the left of the lake

The house was very small and cute, with over 20 people attending the party. The view of the countryside around it was too tempting not to explore, so Dale and I took Ged and Siobhan’s feisty boxer for a short walk. We quickly learned that when you run into someone else walking the country road, they are probably going to the same party as you, and you are expected to stop and have a conversation with them. How friendly strangers were was amazing! After our short walk, we then accompanied Leo, another relative, through a farm where a horse and foal stood against the fence, and walked downhill through the tall grass to a lake. Leo told us about a second lake just out of eyesight called the “Vanishing Lake” which has all sorts of superstitions surrounding it because, occasionally, it will simply vanish overnight. The official story is something about a crack in the limestone below, which bursts and swallows the lake whole. Back at the house, we ate dinner outside with the fields behind us and the sound of someone tuning a fiddle inside. We met Malachy Senior, whose son we had dinner with back in Canada—we seem to have swapped places. Even the younger Malachy’s girlfriend went with him. Malachy the senior offered to host Dale and I in Mayo sometime, which is an offer too good to pass up. Ged and Siobhan offered to host us back in Stockport, England sometime too. All in all, I was glad to have made the trip out and sad that all we had for taking pictures were our Blackberrys. 

A beautiful day in Sligo

Ged and Siobhan's summer home