Movin' On Up

Matt and I learned recently that our landlord had sold our building and that we had 28 days to get out. I scoured the lettings and within 2 days I had viewed 12 apartments in the area we hoped to stay in. The second to the last apartment was the winner- a two bedroom "penthouse" in the Rathmines area. This apartment is about ten minutes walk from our first place here and is in a nice neighborhood. The apartment was filthy but the sheer size of it (big for Dublin) excited us. It is older and has very ugly worn green carpet and not a piece of furniture in the place matches but with 2 bedrooms, a fireplace, and a patio looking to the Dublin mountains how could we resist? We took it and moved in over the weekend. We didn't realize how extremely dirty it was until we started cleaning it. We have been working hard on it since we moved in (cleaning, rearranging, furnishing, throwing many things away) and it is starting to really come together. I wish we would have taken before and after pictures!

Our new place is a bit closer to the grocery stores but now further from the gym so yesterday we bought a couple of used bikes. The guy I bought my bike from lived on the north side of Dublin so he agreed to meet me in the city center to show me the bike. Getting the bike home was quite an adventure. The city center is only about three miles away but those three miles are filled with oodles and oodles of cars, bikes, scooters, pedestrians and the most dangerous- double decker buses. Since bikes generally ride in the bus lane I had my work cut out for me- make it home without getting squished by the buses. Transport by bike is normal for many people in Europe but for me bikes have only ever been for working out. I have never ridden a bike in such chaos as the city center. I am glad I made it home but I think I will limit my bike riding to the gym and perhaps the grocery store (my bike has a cute little basket that I could stick a couple liters of milk in). Sometimes I can't believe I used to own a new 4 bedroom house and 2 vehicles when these days I am excited and so thankful to have moved up to a 2 bedroom apartment and a bike!