Thursday 4 November 2010

Expat Life: A History of a Dutch Window (II)

A couple of days after I published this photo about the living room's window and its new decorations with curtains, flowers and candles,...


From Coisas Minhas


....we received a letter saying that a Hostel for hard drug addicts and long term psychological patients would open nearby our house.
The future Hostel building was located just in front of our bedroom's window. As you see below, also a big one. And we were living in the first floor.


From Coisas Minhas


A hostel, in my opinion, is a good solution for this kind of situation. The drug addicts are followed by doctors and have better living conditions:a daily shower, food and bed. They don't sleep in the streets or steal food in the supermarkets. But for me, it's difficult to watch hard drugg addicts everyday. I have lost some childhood friends with these kind of problems and I prefer not to be reminded of it. So, we decided to search for a new house. However, I felt such a frustation by then because I had so much work, cleaning and painting the house and replacing the old appliances.

As you may remember, we had just one month (November 2007) to look for a house, sign a rent contract, come back to Lisbon and bring back our furniture, books, etc, to the Netherlands.

Our main priority was to find a house in Almere where the prices were [and still are] more affordable. The city's centrum was our target because we were not familiar with Almere. So, this house was perfect, with a view to the canal, nearby the restaurants, the stores, the City Council, the theater, the cinema, the library, the lake and the park. The perfect place to begin the discovery of the city... and the Netherlands. :-)

Our landlord, who lived in Groningen, had paid for the paint cans and the new appliances (the fridge, the washing machine and the glass-ceramic cooking plate) but we had all the work, specially me. We never thought that a hostel like this could open here, in such a central place. Just when I finished the works and we were preparing ourselves to enjoy more the house...

After a couple of days, a committee was organized by the owners of the apartments. They are still fighting against the hostel location.

Now, you know why we decided to look for a new house in March 2009...:-)

It was related with the great exposure of our bedroom's window.

However, I also have a funny memory of it... when I got scared with the knocking noise of the window's cleaners. I thought I would clean the windows just as I used to do in Lisbon...;-)) I wasn't expecting them...:-)

12 comments:

Margarida Elias said...

Coitada! Que história. Fico a aguardar o próximo capítulo dessa aventura.

Presépio no Canal said...

O proximo capitulo foi a mudanca para Tussen de Vaarten ;-)
Leste o post anterior? :-) Ate ao final, tive trabalhos suplementares. Tinham de fazer a substituicao da janela da sala de estar quando estava a empacotar as coisas para as mudancas...so a mim...

Telma said...

Xiii bem isso foi um bocado mau, de facto também não ia gostar de ter essa vista, apesar achar gloriosa a forma como os holandeses tratam os "seus" toxicodependentes, talvez essa localização central faça parte da própria integração.

Beijocas e resto de boa semana

Presépio no Canal said...

Ola, Thelma, Bom Dia!
Podes crer, foi uma situacao chata, ate porque gostava muito daquele local...
Bjs!

Orange said...

Initially the window cleaners came as a surprise to us as well, but who would not do with some extra help :)

Anita said...

Eu ri MUITO com seu link. E depois a explicacao deles em holandes de eles serem alocados la para terem um ambiente seguro e estavel. Bom... isso se os vizinhos nao sairem todos correndo como voces fizeras, hihii. Voces estao certissimos, a gente tem que ta sempre desviando de coisas baixo astral, mudando de endereco se for necessario e tal. Beijoca Sandraaaa ! (rs, rs, rs)

Presépio no Canal said...

Arwa ;-) Yes!!! Extra help is very useful specially for us expats ;-) Bjs!

Anita ;-) lol Ha muita gente a querer sair, muito apartamento a venda... Os meus ex-vizinhos, por exemplo, querem vender a casa e nao estao a conseguir por causa da possibilidade do Hostel ficar ali. Complicado...
Bjs!! ;-)

Sara said...

Quantas peripécias! Eu não duvido que tomaria a mesma atitude, a não ser que me fosse de todo impossível. A minha casa é o meu santuário de paz e tranquilidade e acho que sofreria com tanta dor e perda perto de mim.

Ainda bem que, apesar das peripécias, tudo acabou em bem!
Beijinhos :)

Presépio no Canal said...

Tal e qual, Sara ;-) Beijinhos :-)

ana said...

Sandra,
Realmente que história! Ainda bem que conseguiu encontrar um sítio agradável.
Bjs :)

Presépio no Canal said...

E verdade, Ana! Durante 3 meses (so aos fim-de-semanas), palmilhamos a cidade e visitamos bairro a bairro, ate que nos decidimos por aqui. :-)
Bjs!

Presépio no Canal said...

Ola, Rosa ;-)

Bjs!! :-)