Apartment hunting from hell

Thursday, November 12^th

What a long day today was. We woke up about 6:30am and started our day by putting our bikes together. Actually the first thing was coffee of course and (Leah really wants me to tell you this) When I turned on the TV this morning the first thing we saw was a commercial with an enthusiastic gentleman asking us “DO YOU HAVE CANKLES?” We laughed ourselves stoopid.

We then set off and caught a City Cat over to the Uni. City Cats are the river ferries that cruise up and down the Brisbane River. They’re really cool and make a perfect way to get from CBD down the river to the Uni. I think the one way fare was something like $2.80 and the ride took about 20 minutes.

The University of Queensland has a beautiful campus. So many trees are blooming right now the smells of flowers are everywhere. The semester is almost over and I overheard more than one student talking about exams. I felt a bit old and nostalgic. (I shaved my beard tonight on a whim, this may be the reason)

We accomplished quite a bit while we were there. Leah got her student ID card. We both purchased Go Cards (prepaid discount public transport passes). And we ate a breakfast of Souvlaki and chips (chips are french-fries here). Weird I know, but it tasted great, besides we couldn’t resist the pull of a fast food stand called “Souvlakihut”. I dare you to try.

While we were on campus we found the Uni Cycle shop and stopped in to see if we could buy a wrench to put our pedals on the bikes. I had managed to get both bikes rebuilt early this morning using only the multi tool I packed in with my bike. The only one they had for sale cost $39 but the guy at the shop agreed to lend me his and save me the cash. Great guy him. I agreed to get the wrench back to him tomorrow.

We also found the accommodation office and spent a few minutes looking up potential apartments on-line. So armed with a couple of printed pages we set off to find a place to live. We grabbed a bus and made it over Taringa and the first unit, actually two units in one complex. The place was descent just not really great. The one good thing is it’s available right now. We didn’t know at the time but that was going to be our main obstacle of the day. Most of the rentals we would find aren’t going to be vacant until at least the end of the month.

From Taringa we walked to Toowong and the shopping center there. In the area of the shopping centre we found five or six different rental agents. Only one had a unit available now and the nice rental agent, Jane, drove us over to see it. I’m not kidding when I say it was shitty. From the outside it resembled some of the places we saw while in Costa Rica and the inside resembled a garbage dump. The fridge was full of mold, the bathroom had a giant dead cockroach in the middle of the floor, and when we finally found the laundry room (around back and down a weird alley) it was literally full of shit. I mean some animal had been in there and there were about ten turds on the floor. Needless to say we didn’t take it.

We went back to the shopping centre and talked with several people about mobile phones. I didn’t realize how different Australian phone plans were from American ones. Everything is pre-paid and even though it’s pre-paid if you don’t use your quota you lose it. I’m too tired to go into it right now but I didn’t get a phone yet either. I have to tell you though. Trying to find an apartment in a foreign city with no cell phone and very limited access to email is enough to make your brain hurt.

On the bright side, tomorrow we have a bunch of appointments to see units starting at 9am. Our bikes are both put back together and in working order, and aside from a bent rear brake rotor for me, none the worse for wear.

We had a nice dinner tonight here in the hotel, we used a $20 voucher they gave us when we checked in and our meal only cost us $23.

We’re a little nervous about not being able to find a place, turns out three days to find an apartment may have been a little ambitious. We asked about extending our stay here at the hotel and were informed they don’t have a room for us on Saturday. We have to find something tomorrow or it’s gonna get interesting.

It’s 9:35pm and I feel like I’ve been up for days.

A few quick observations about today:

-Packs of cigarettes here actually have pictures of lung cancer on them. Nasty.

-$2 sushi hand rolls are my dream

-Chicken Parmesan is served with chips

-Aussies are laid back and that’s great, but when you’re a stressed American who needs an apartment yesterday, laid back realestate agents are annoying as hell.

-Aussies are really friendly.

-Not one person has said G’day to us yet. Not one!

Wish us luck for finding a place tomorrow.

Cheers

Todd