All new in May!

Hi, Y'all!

I like May - it's spring, everything in nature starts growing brand new, lots of  people near and dear to me have their birthdays in May, the hubs and I celebrate our wedding anniversary in May, and at least in Germany there are two very conveniently located public holidays on Thursdays.

And this year something else was added: We moved house! We had a rental contract that was limited to two years, and if you've lived in it for a certain amount of time, you can leave earlier. We learned that at the beginning of the year and kept our eyes and ears open to see if we could find a nice new place to live.

Then we learned something else straight away, namely that these notice periods of three months or more, which are familiar from Germany, have no relevance here. Of course, you would actually have to give the landlord two months' notice before moving out, but as is so often the case, this is a mere recommendation :-) As soon as you tell the landlord that you want to move out, you can basically start packing. We weren't aware of this at first, and when I responded to the first apartment ads and said that we wouldn't be able to move in for another two months because of the notice period, we were always told: "Then come back to us later, the apartment here will be rented out tomorrow and the new residents will move in the day after."

Oookay, we then agreed with our landlords that we would move out at the end of April and I looked at a bunch of apartments around Easter. In the meantime, we had briefly considered moving to the sister island of Gozo, because it's a bit quieter and more unspoilt there. But that would have lengthened our commute so much that it's only really worth it if you can work completely remotely. So I limited my search to our current place of residence, because we really like it. 

And it's like everywhere else: there are nice and less nice apartments, sometimes the location is right but the size isn't, sometimes the furnishings are very nice but the price is completely over the top, sometimes the location and furnishings are great but then there's no elevator to the fourth floor - there's always something. But if you're prepared to make the odd compromise, you can find some great things. And that's exactly how it went! 

After browsing through a bunch of ads on Facebook Marketplace and looking at a good ten apartments, we almost said yes to one. Nice view over the town, new kitchen, modern furnishings, space for an e-bike, and Heinrich was welcome. There were only two (bedrooms), but we would squeeze a desk into each one and then it would be fine. 

Then a real estate agent called me, who had already shown me two apartments that were out of the question, and told me she had something I might like. I didn't hesitate for long, and at 8:30 on Easter Monday morning (which is not a public holiday here) I had the viewing appointment. It turned out that the estate agent was a niece of our old landlords (El Mundo es un Pañuelo...), and also the proud dog mom of a Frenchie named Louis :-) If that's not a good omen... And what can I say? I walked into the apartment and instinctively knew it had potential. 

Just as big as the previous apartment, namely 3 bedrooms (approx. 140 m²), more or less the same layout, i.e. a long hallway (Apple Fitness will be pleased), from which the rooms lead off, and which then ends in the open living room and kitchen area. It's on the third floor of an apartment complex that looks a bit like a former hotel, has an elevator (with a working emergency service :-D ), a nice balcony with a great view (He fählt nur vum Balkon die Aussich op d'r Dom. [This is a quote of a well-known song in cologne dialect which means "Everything here is just like home, only the view of the cathedral is missing".]- well, actually we do have a nice view of the church, so we can't complain at all).

There is also a Mediterranean tiled floor, which is very handy in contrast to the previous high-gloss tiled floor. In other words, you don't immediately see every water stain when Heinrich has had another sip of Eau de Tap. There's also air conditioning and a brand new 8 kilo washing machine (Alex thinks I can fit a whole parallel universe in there, like in my handbag). By the way, the washing machine is located in a built-in cupboard on the balcony, which is very common here. Of course, it never gets cold enough here in winter for the pipes to freeze over. 

The kitchen doesn't have a dishwasher, but it has everything else you need, especially storage space - which I really like, because we do have a lot of stuff. And since the day before yesterday, we also have a brand new stove and oven, and - another first for me - both run on gas. This is also very common here, as you can see from the numerous frog-green gas cylinders on the terraces and balconies everywhere. After some initial hesitation (won't anything explode here???), I have to say that I can understand why professional chefs swear by gas. 

The furniture, especially the kitchen and the living room wall unit in rustic oak remind me a bit of a 70s cellar bar - a little alcohol and I start dancing disco fox :-D OK, that falls under the aforementioned compromises that you have to make. But to be honest: If you painted the kitchen cupboards and the living room wall with a light cream colored chalk paint, it would look really good, I am definitely sensing vintage/shabby chic vibes. Here's a picture from the chaos of the move so you can get an idea...

But what really speaks for the apartment is the location. When we walk out of the front door, we are right by the sea in just three minutes! That was a thing in the last apartment: we had a fabulous view of the bay, but to be able to dip our feet in the water, we either had to take the car or the bus. It's a bit like holding a lollipop in front of a child's nose but not letting them lick it. 

And now every day the two gentlemen (two-legged and four-legged) spend their lunch break by the sea. It gives us such an incredible quality of life that we can now imagine settling here permanently. It is indeed beautiful!

The journey to work has remained more or less the same - the bus takes exactly 2 minutes longer, but the bus stop is much closer than before. And the view from there is also very nice:

Well, and in the meantime we have also re-registered - you have to do this here just like in Germany every time you move. However, they do not simply put a sticker on the ID card, but they even issue a complete new ID card. As an EU citizen, this is not a problem, the only thing that was problematic was getting a parking space nearby! And because I also have a small educational mission, here's a bit about Maltese addresses: The zip code in Malta consists of two components, namely three letters representing the city area and then four numbers. That's pretty precise; the hotel two blocks away, for example, has a different postal code to our building. What is not handled quite so precisely, however, is the house number. Many buildings here have a name - ours is called Halcyon, for example, and that's enough, there's no house number. You don't necessarily need a name on the doorbell or letterbox either. It's enough if it has the apartment number on it, then the postman knows where to ring the bell.

By the way, we had completely underestimated the effort involved in our move :-D We thought it would be a walk in the park, after all we wanted to move without furniture and had done a proper clear-out before moving to Malta. But miraculously, our household has exploded again and my little blue beetle has bravely transported box after box to the new apartment. Now we feel really comfortable, but we don't want to move again for the next few years (at least two)!

With this in mind - have a good time and enjoy May!