Moving into my apartment

Hola! I am back with another post for the Barcelona diary, this time it is about how it was to move into my first apartment in Barcelona 🙂

So in my previous post I said that I found an apartment but it was kind of risky, and that I definitely don’t recommend the agency where I rented the apartment. Read on further to know why.

It was finally the 4th of August 2022, moving day! but first things first, I stayed at a hotel in the neighborhood Eixample and started with the training for my new job on the second of August. As this was also a workday I had to do my training as well today, but luckily I arranged that I could leave earlier so I could move into my new apartment.

I also got a computer from my job so I could work from home, but unfortunately something went wrong and it got sent to the Airbnb were I stayed before the hotel. So I had to pick that up first. After that It was time to check out and start with the moving day.

First I had to pick up my key at the office of the agency, when I came there they told me some bad news… like I told before I never saw the apartment, only the pictures online, well they guy that I had the appointment with told me that the person that lived there before me didn’t really took care of the apartment. In other words, the apartment was in bad shape, great…. Now I was kind of scared and nervous in what kind of state the apartment would be when I arrived. He told me the microwave, TV and couch would be replaced because it was in no state to use anymore. Which made me think what the previous owner did with it’s apartment… But I tried to stay positive, at least they would replace some stuff right. Even though I didn’t see the apartment, especially now he said it didn’t look like the pictures anymore, I still had to sign the contract there at the office.

On my way to the apartment I was thinking about how bad it could be. I would meet another employee of the agency there, she was there already to see what exactly needed to be replaced. When I arrived, I saw that the apartment indeed didn’t look like the pictures anymore. It was sooooo disgusting, the walls weren’t white anymore, there were all kind of spots on it. The couch should be beige, instead it was kind of yellow with burned holes that were probably caused by cigarettes. I was kind of in shock and I think the employee saw that on my face cause she immediately offered to look for other apartments that were available as well. I agreed to that, because she needed to do something at the office first we made an appointment for later on that day. Not exactly how I imagined my moving day would be, but lets see how the other apartments are.

So later that day I met here at the address of the apartment, which was located in Barrio Goticó, not my favorite neighborhood to live but right now I was open for anything. However when I saw the apartment it was even worse than the first one. It was also kind of dirty and way smaller then the one I had but the price was the same. Eventually I decided I will just take the first apartment, the one I would already get in the beginning. She told me that cleaners would be there till the end of the day and then I was able to move into my new apartment. I also made a mental note that I probably would have to clean a lot on the first days.

I was by myself in Barcelona, and because I was there only yet for 2 weeks I didn’t really got to know anyone else. So I had to move all my stuff by myself. I had 4 suitcases 2 bags and packages of the computer, so there was no way I could bring it all at once. I decided to go with the taxi from the hotel to my apartment and then back with the metro to the hotel to pick up the rest of my stuff. In the end I had to go back and fort 3 times before I moved all my stuff.

Once I moved everything I suddenly thought about that I didn’t had any towels yet to shower. It was already 9 in the evening and the stores would close at 21:30, so I raced to H&M to get some towels real quick.

After that I called it a day and got ready to go to bed, when I wanted to make my bed I noticed that the mattress covers, duvet and cushions were really dirty as well. So I made another mental note for the next day to shop for bedding. oh and the cleaning service was crap, so I definitely had to really clean the apartment for the next few days.

So this was my moving day, didn’t really turn out as how I expected. But I took a risk and knew it could end bad. However I tried to stay positive, I had an apartment for the next 11 months and would try to make it my own. Eventually I would look for another apartment.

I think you can see why I would not recommend the agency, even if the story about the previous owner was true or not the communication was really bad. How they only told me about it when I was about to move in and pick up the keys is not professional. When I got the message that I got the apartment they told me that I can’t move in right away cause they had to get the apartment ready. So they definitely knew already before I was suppose to move in that the apartment didn’t look the same as the pictures online.

What did you learn from my mistakes:

Make sure you have enough time to look for an apartment, book an accommodation for a longer time of period and react to as many apartments as possible
don’t rent an apartment at SH Barcelona
Make sure you see the apartment before signing anything.

Stay tuned for the next post, It will be about my first week in my new apartment 🙂