Firstly, thank you to everyone who sent such nice messages to me, especially my friend back home who has family here and offered me a place to stay with them until I got sorted. Everyone’s care and kindness made me miss home but it’s lovely to know I have such nice people to go back to when I return to England.
If you aren’t caught up – read the week two blog! Two flats were found for me today which I asked to go and view. The first was a little further out of town than I am now but very close to the metro and in a nice quiet area. It was clean, tidy, safe, and I’ll have two bedrooms (they are connected for some reason so I will have a single bed and a double bed). The bathroom is shared but with three other people and it seemed clean which is all I care about at this point!
The second property was in my favourite area of the city, Avenida da Liberdade. I think I like it so much because it reminds me of Paris. Anyway, while it was a great location and meant I could have walked to work, it was not the cleanest of places. No mould this time – but the bathroom and kitchen were a bit below par. And when I asked how many people live there and they replied “seven” (sharing one bathroom, yes), I knew my mind was made up.
It did have this view from the balcony, which was hard to say no to. But actually, I don’t think it is a good idea to live in your favourite part of town anyway. Back home I know that if I lived in my favourite part of York, the loveliness of it would soon wear off.
I asked if I could take the first property and move ASAP. I am moving tomorrow! Which is actually my birthday, so happy birthday to me… packing and moving yay!
Regardless of my personal calendar I am relieved to be leaving this place. Messages from friends kept asking why have I put up with this for two weeks. It’s a good question. I don’t really know. I guess it was mainly because I thought most people on the Erasmus+ programme would be in the same situation. I didn’t want to be the person who complained about dirty accommodation when everyone else’s was like that too.
If the group I flew over with was closer then I would have known that others were in nicer, clean accommodation. But because we didn’t really bond, I didn’t know until meeting the January group on Saturday night that a) we should expect nice clean properties, and b) there was an option to move.
Lessons have been learnt from this experience – or one major lesson:
Speak up!
I didn’t even go into full details in my last post about the conditions here but it isn’t just the bathroom. The kitchen is also incredibly grim and cooking in it has been a real challenge. Hence my eating out a lot.
Additionally my room is next to the lounge where people watch the tv quite late and smoke. The walls are very thin and the smoke smell fills my room some nights. I was asked to complete a form before coming out here which explicitly stated I am a non-smoker, so I don’t know what the point of that was. Noise is also a problem when it rains as the shutters outside are held up by huge metal boxes which make an unbelievable racket in the wind and rain. I actually took a video last night to show my boyfriend how loud it was and why I was getting no sleep.
Apart from the smoking and occasional noise, the other people living here have been nice to me, despite the majority not having the best English skills. I will make sure to write them a note in my very patchy Portuguese to thank them for showing me around, being kind, and taking me out with their Brazilian friends. I might pop to the “bica” house one Friday night and see if they’re there.
Today I got the 24E tram back to Campolide for the last time. There are two things I will miss about living here: the tram ride home, and the walk through Parque to the metro each morning (I take the metro because there is a branch of A Padaria Portuguesa on route, obviously). But of course these do not make it worth staying in this hellish building. And I can get an old-fashioned yellow tram anytime. To Parque in fact.
Before the tram, for some self-love, I went to Nicolau for pancakes (instead of dinner – if you think I am going to try and cook in this flat one more time you’re having a laugh). Plus it doesn’t look like I’ll be doing anything to celebrate my birthday tomorrow so a solo pancake trip it was. Nicolau is a superb all-day brunch place. They have two branches but both are usually super busy so I thought a Monday evening would be a good time to go. I recommend.
Better start packing! And hopefully return to some cheerier, sunnier blog posts next week.
Latest posts:
- Week four: coronavirus update – I have to go home
- Week three: food, guests, and more food
- Happy birthday to me: an unexpected moving day
- Week two: a lot has happened
- Week one: walking, pastries and coffee
Chamo-me Hannah 