When I came here, I had this crazy notion that if I were physically in Leiden, and allowed myself to be drawn through the town, that my apartment would just reveal itself to me. Don't get me wrong, I was also doing my due diligence by emailing and calling on good housing leads. I also arranged apartment viewings as well. But I still had this unshakeable belief that I'd find my new home by walking around the city.
So that's what I've been doing. And in doing so, last Friday I came upon a Spanish restaurant that smelled amazing. I ended up chatting with one of the waiters and of course mentioned I was new in town and looking for an apartment. He said he knew a guy who could help me and offered to send me the info over WhatsApp. Great!! I love a good lead! Remember this guy (Roberto), he'll be important later in this post.
Monday I had an apartment viewing. Very cute property, but a little too far outside the city center and the neighborhood had a very low energy feeling. I knew I wouldn't be happy there.
Today I had another apartment viewing. But first I stopped into a few shops as I am on the lookout for a good pair of boots. In one store, a really good song was playing on the radio. The singer sounded familiar so I Shazam'd it - turns out it was Elvis Crespo (my favorite Merengue singer) and the song was AWESOME (it's so good at 00:44 into the song). I took this as a good sign for the day. We'll see!
On to the place I was viewing... It was on Rapenburg, a very good street and close to the city center. This place had a lot of potential. Except once I got into the apartment, the property manager informed me that it was being rented as unfurnished. UGH! Furnished status of a unit was something I'd been looking at very carefully. Unfortunately, this place was labeled incorrectly on the housing site.
*sigh* Another dead end.
After I left that viewing, I had this sense that I needed to walk around the city. I felt like the apartment that was meant for me was very close to revealing itself. That song I heard in the shoe store earlier that morning had to have meant something... right?
So I found myself on Middleweg and decided to walk the whole thing. Then I decided to go right. Then left. And then I saw a sign for a property management company. Turns out it was the same company Roberto (from the Spanish restaurant) had told me to call. A sign perhaps??
I popped into their office and said that Roberto sent me. The guy at the front desk said 'Oh yes, Roberto! Great guy!' Ok - maybe this is going to work!!
I explained exactly what I was looking for and we flipped through many properties. No real winners, but some good potentials. Those were listed with other companies though, so he gave me their info so I could contact them.
He was about to send me on my way when his office mate started chatting with him about potential units. Turns out, they just received a new property that morning (it wasn't even posted online yet!) and it had many of the key details I was interested in.
He pulled up the property on the computer and it was love at first sight :-D I'd found my place. And the price was right within my range, utilities were included, and I could rent it furnished. SCORE!!
We arranged a time to view it tomorrow (Thursday). If all goes well, I'll sign the papers by the end of the week!!!
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