Closing in on an Apartment

Ack! Finding an apartment in Palma has been one of the most frustratingly slow and painful processes ever recorded in the history of my life. We've looked at newspapers, websites and signs hanging out windows to find numbers to call and inquire. And then the phones cost 50 euro cents per minute to call and most of the time nobody answers or the apartment is already rented. We have combined forces with another couple and a single guy to look for a three bedroom apartment in order to save money. But, even with all the help it still takes a long time to wait for people to call back or get the apartment ready to look at it. There are also tons of rental agencies that operate here and the apartments we've looked at that are listed under an agency charge a commision of a full month's rent. So, most apartments we're looking at are in the 850 euro price range and that means the commission is 850 euros! So much money. But split 5 ways makes it much more affordable although it is a painful price to pay on top of the normal month's worth of deposit and first month's rent, which is standard.

But, today we got our first call back from our second choice apartment asking us when we wanted to move in. Since we've been working at finding an apartment for the last week as a full-time job, it was a very welcome phone call. We call the apartment "the museum" because it is decorated like one. Luckily, the owner is showing the apartment so we wouldn't have to pay a commission. It also has two double rooms and a third room with two twin beds so the bed situation is ideal, which is unique because most apartments only have a single bed in the bedrooms. So hopefully we'll be able to follow through with this apartment tomorrow after our orientation and get ourselves moved in. Our couchsurfing hostess, Bea, has been a most gracious host allowing us to return to her apartment after we had no other place to go. She went to Seville yesterday and left us with the keys to her place. She's the perfect host for us right now since we are in such a limbo until we can find an apartment. We're still waiting for a call back on our first choice apartment but we've been waiting since last night so I'm not holding out too much hope for that. It's been a long process and hopefully we're coming to the end soon. We've been extremely lucky to stay in a place that doesn't charge us so we've been doing fairly well with money but euros go quickly since the exchange rate is always working against us. Hopefully the recent crash won't adversely affect the exchange rate since we won't be paid until the end of October at the earliest. Signing off for now and crossing my fingers for an apartment soon.