We finally have a place to live! After some initial potential sketchyness involving being asked to get into a car and go into an underground car park, which we flat out refused to do, we met the lovely Alan who actually wasn't a serial killer. He sorted us out after we called him about a different property in North Vancouver and showed us a ridiculous apartment that is available for a month and includes:
FURNITURE! Actual furniture like a bed, table and chairs etc
A huge pool and jacuzzi in the building
A gym in the building
Huge window view of the area around the waterfront
An Irish sports/bar and grill across the road
Huge TV and internet
The rent is a few hundred $$$ more than we wanted to pay but we did haggle down a little and all bills are included. Most properties come on the market in August so we've bought ourselves some time.
In other news we paid our first trip to Walmart. It may be evil but when you're on a budget like we are it's pretty much the holy grail. Think Tesco with Penneys and TK Maxx stuck onto it.
The apartment search drags on! We are reconsidering our original budget, having already reconsidered where we want to live... There are places to rent but they are dayum expensive and come with nothing. Essentially an expensive, impractical warehouse. When you do find somewhere on craigslist that seems promising you eventually get something like this:
'Thanks
for your interest in my property. I am looking for a responsible &
clean tenant that will be able to take good care of my apartment because
I'm not given my apartment for rent just because of money but due to my
transfer to Washington DC, USA. I'm an Overhauling manager, but have
just been transferred to ****** plc in DC, you can view our site at *******I left country with hope that I will be coming back in a
month's time,but right now the company have ask me to stay for 2yrs
under contract with them that why I have made up my mind to put up my
apartment for rent I also have another property in Germany but the
government took over the whole territory.
I
spent a lot on my property that I want to give you for rent and I want
to use the rent fee for my Daughter pocket money fee,She is studying in
England UK and I would want you to treat it as your own and I would like
you to keep it tidy all the time also want you to let me have trust in
you, the rental fee $850 per month has including utilities for the whole
of the apartment. Please let know if you can take good care of the
place very well? Hope you have a nice day and you will need to provide
the below information;'
They then cunningly ask you to fill out an 'application form' to make it look SUPER PROFESSIONAL.
Aparantly Vancouver has lots of homeless people in the winter. Well, there's quite a few in the summer also. They're not the shaking, harsh-voiced messes that occupy the streets in Dublin, but generally polite poeple. There's also a load of street punx who probably live at home but sometimes sit outside and sing/shout about wanting change for beer. One of them looks like Seth Rogen.
And to finish on a light hearted note, we did manage to get bank accounts set up (though getting money into them is a different story) and a brief sniff through the job section online seemed promising.
Ourselves and the other Irish couple we've met in the hostel have pretty much the same routine at this stage.
Wake up at approx 6am, fail to fall back asleep and go have breakfast in the kitchen here using food bought in a place called London Drugs (Boots with a food aisle) or one of the small shops on a side street. We don't buy food from the 7-11 anymore, regardless of how American it makes us feel.
Spend the next few hours either online looking for houses, replying to emails about viewing or wandering around looking at apartments/suites and in our case yesterday buzzing the manager of each building and asking if there are any apartments for rent.
After a few hours of this we generally give in to curiosity and check out some shops (if we haven't done so already en route) and get some food in one of the infinity amaze restaurants/cafes around the place.
Repeat stage 2.
Be a tourist for a while. This place is amazing and has so much going on with every subculture, race, creed, sexual orientation you could imagine.
Stumble back to the hostel and take over the common room (it takes 5 Irish people to take over the typical hostel common room) and watch terrible TV until we pass out at about 10 PM.
This brings me nicely to WORLD'S WORST TENANTS.
'Here, token woman, try to look feminine will you..? Ok...that's the pose you're going for? Ok...'
This is a programme where a Stone Cold Steve Austin lookalike bring his team to properties where there has been noise complaints/eviction notices etc and usually ends up tackling some half naked drug dealer before the cops show up, ask wtf is going on and arrest the tenant for CRIMINAL DAMAGE or something. It's mental.
Then there's also REPO GAMES a reality/repo/crime game show where repo men turn up to a house as usual but...get this...ask the unfortunate people general knowledge questions in a game show style. If they get the questions right, they keep their stuff, it they get them wrong, then the stuff is repossessed!
But we've done other things too. Yesterday we visited the West End, the gay-friendly district in Vancouver. Gay pride flags are everywhere along the telephone poles etc, the bus stops are painted pink, everyone is friendly and there are lots of quirky, independant food stores, shops, cafes and restaurants. It's a really relaxed area with amazing views and we'd love to live there if the rent wasn't so bleedin' high.
Things we've learned so far:
The price of pretty much everything is BEFORE TAX. That Tsunami Bomb t-shirt is still a bargain but is gonna cost an extra $2.
You should explore a bit before you buy food. Paying $10 for a fruit salad and an apple is not the way to go.
If you buy a monthly bus pass you can take 5 kids on the bus for free on Sundays.. Srsly. What?!
The bus is $2.50, but you can use it again within 90 minutes. Also, if you give $1.75 into the on-bus machine by mistake and tell the bus driver it's $2.50, this generally works as well.
So after years of wanting to travel to North America, weeks of deciding where, months of waiting on a visa and 15 hours of travelling (back in time) my self and my one in particular are in Rain City, ie Vancouver in Canada. We've been wandering around stumbling over our jaws and have even managed to make two friends who we may never see again once we all find accommodation but hey.
There's a boat aboot
As if to mock our desperate need for a shower, the sun was splitting the mooseses upon arrival and it's been toasty today as well. We've doggedly stuck to travelling in a straight line along the main street so as not to get lost, but have also taken an actual bus to an actual tourist destination, the simply ridiculous Stanley Park.
Things we've learned so far:
Staff everywhere are SUPER friendly. 'Hi guys, how was your day, what are you doing tonight??!?!' This is not ideal after 15 hours travelling and not being able to tell which direction is blue. Though it's nice when you get used to it and on the rare occasions that they are clearly genuine.
People in hostels are friendly and even having a day extra of experience can make you seem like a guru.
You shouldn't buy food in an all natural and organic food market if you are trying to save money.
The toilets flush in an unusual manner.
Seeing skyscrapers on one side and snow-topped mountains on the other, all while it's sunny is a bit strange.
