A New Home!

We were so lucky. That's what everyone keeps telling us and that's what we keep telling ourselves.

After a very disappointing start to the house hunt (i.e. calling around 20 ads only to find ALL of them taken already), we were feeling a little defeated on our first day in Galway. You see, all of the university students were arriving around the same time, so we were competing with all of them for housing. This was Tuesday, however, and we were told the Galway Advertiser was updated each Wednesday. Good news indeed.

The next morning came (after a very restless night of sleep in the hostel- the pub is right across the street), and we set out to get our hands on the Advertiser. The pages were available at 2pm, and we immediately started circling ads that looked promising. The requirement: 3 beds (remember, our friend Amber is coming in a month). One of the other problems we had encountered the day before was that a lot of places needed to be rented for the full school term, and we will only be here for four months. So, when an ad said they could rent by the week or month, we decided we'd go ahead and call it first. A nice woman named Anne answered the phone and said we could take a look the next morning. Hoorah! We made one more appointment to see something that night, and we were feeling a but more hopeful.

The apartment we saw that night wasn't horrible. It was for a double room in a townhouse with three other single bedrooms. As Beth said, it was very typical college-style living. They had the lights off at 8pm to conserve electricity and there were clothes hanging to dry from anything the protruded off the wall. The other people living there were very nice, though and it was smack dab in the city center. We decided we could live there if we had to, but we'd wait to see the other place in the morning before giving an answer.

I'm SO glad we did! At 10am we knocked on the door of 11 St Bridget's Place Lower, a cute townhouse with a red door and the name Ave Maria above it (they like to name houses in Ireland). The owners, Anne and Michael, welcomed us like their grandchildren and served us tea and biscuits. Beth and I fell in love instantly. It was decorated like the cutest country home with red sofas with lacey pillows, gold rimmed mirrors, antique pictures, and tiny fireplaces. Anne was a worried about our jobless circumstances, but we assured her we could pay the first month's rent and the deposit up front and that we wanted more than anything to find a job so we could stay on the full four months. She agreed. The rest is history, at this point. I've blocked those last three nights at the hostel out of my mind and I don't want to stay in another one again for some time! (I'm exaggerating, but I was just so relieved to be out of there).

We moved in on Sunday, hauling our suitcases through the rain from the hostel. Thankfully, though the house is located in a quiet cul-de-sac, it's literally only a five minute walk to city center and absolutely everything we could need. As soon as Anne and Michael were gone, we rushed upstairs and frantically unpacked. Some 6 loads of laundry and a grocery store trip later, we finally felt settled. I'm SO SO SO happy with the place we found. Pictures are below!
My Bedroom:


Sitting room:
Kitchen: