Finding a Winner

Most of us got to sleep in a bit after our late night out Friday. Such party animals we are, staying up until 10pm! But I digress. Today we had two more apartments to see and even though I really liked the place we saw yesterday, I was still keeping my options open; Vienna has a lot of different types of fabulous to offer.

The first place we were off to was back in the first district only a block away from the Staatsoper and very close to the U-Bahn line John takes to work. The building was slightly underwhelming and the apartment was liveable, but in no way was I over the moon for it. Again, the owner was just incredibly gracious and personable. 

What's that? Just holding up this balcony...NBD.

We had an hour in between our appointments, so we bummed around downtown until it was time to hop on the U-Bahn back to the 4th district.  This second apartment is only a few blocks away from the same station we have been walking nearly a mile to every day since we got here. The street is quiet, with a classy looking pub just across from the apartment building. There may not be any fantastic embellishments on the door, but there are some very virile half naked men performing feats of strength as decor on the facade. So, it's got that going for it. The owner of this apartment is Italian, very straight forward and accommodating.

 The first thing I noticed about this apartment was light; the ceilings are very high and there are a lot of windows. This place has two large bedrooms, a living room and a moderate sized dining room across from the kitchen. I already knew that my standards for American kitchens weren't even going to hold a candle to the one I'd have here, but this was the first kitchen I can honestly say I liked. It has a new gas range and oven and a big perk over here: an actual freezer--nowhere near the size I'm used to, but it'll fit much more than a a few ice cube trays. While we were wandering around the place, the girls were already making themselves at home in what would be their room.  It was a pretty big win. 

Hopefully, the new street on which we'll live

After viewing the apartment, we walked around the neighborhood to get a feel for what was nearby and we were pleasantly surprised to find we are already quite familiar with the surrounds, as it's within our little footprint we've created from our temporary apartment. We ended up stopping to sit in a little sunny alcove to enjoy a picnic lunch before strolling home. It was a gorgeous environment to discuss the pros and cons of our top two apartments. 

In the end, we decided that the apartment in Wieden would require much less work to make it feel like our home and it's close enough to downtown that we're only a stop away from my beloved Vienna, so we've put in an offer. That doesn't mean we'll necessarily get it, but we're getting this ball rolling regardless. 

This isn't actually the door, but the girls were being cute

Even though I spent nearly 24 hours panicking about our housing situation, I'm really happy with our options and the choices we've made so far. And you remember that list of three apartments the housing service sent us?  The one that set me into a panic? The apartment we hope to rent was the only one on that list I didn't immediately throw out. I get it, God.  I'm not in control--you've got it covered.