The Apartment

We visited this particular apartment on our trip here in February and it was a very pleasant surprise when we arrived to find that it was actually larger than I remembered. Basically we have 3 bedrooms - 1 double, 1 small single and one large single with bunkbeds; a good size lounge; a kitchen-diner; a big bathroom (which also has a small washing machine in) and thankfully a second WC. Of course as we're on the 4th floor there's no garden but we do have a reasonable sized balcony. Fortunately there are also plenty of cupboards and places to put all our stuff (not that we brought a huge amount), as well as a little storage cage down on the ground floor for things like suitcases and boxes.
The local area is ok, we are on a fairly busy road which can be quite noisy - especially when the teenage boys ride their mopeds up and down late at night. There's a small supermarket open 8am till 10pm directly across the road which is great if you run out of milk or bread, or get the nibbles in an evening! D can walk to work if he needs to which is handy at the moment as we only have 1 car. The main downside is that there is no playground within a reasonable walking distance - the good one that is closest too us would be possibly be ok to walk to, but the return is up a very steep hill and a bit too far for small legs.
Laundry is a bit of a pain - there are 2 slots available each day, 7.30-2 and 2.30-7.30pm and you have to pre-book on a little board whenever you want to use it. Fortunately not all of the apartments are occupied, or not everyone wants to use it, as there are 20 apartments in the block, and of course only 14 sessions available a week. I'm managing to get in on a Tuesday morning at the moment but it's a bit of a nuisance having to go up and down to the laundry room several times - those girls create a lot of washing! The little machine in the apartment is useful though just to do the odd emergency load if we're starting to run out of anything. It's just drying things that's a problem; we have a clothes horse which is great to put on the balcony if it's a sunny day, but takes up half the bathroom if not. I'll certainly be glad when I have unlimited access to my own washing machine and drying facilities!
All in all, it's not really all that bad. Of course it's very different to where we were before but we're gradually getting used to it, and after all it is only temporary.
Photos will follow when I get round to changing the batteries in my camera...