The apartment hunt in Wien was tricker than we thought. In the end, we also got so tired of looking at apartments that didn’t tick all the boxes. Out favourite altbau had the disadvantage of being on the second floor and on a corner site, meaning you heard lots of noise from two busy streets. One street was a street with trams. Trams that run from 0500 to 0000hrs. On arriving for the second search, the relocation agent informed us that she had no altbaus to show us! It was interesting sitting in the back seat of her car to watch SK digest that piece of information and although he stayed calm and although he expressed mild dissatisfaction, you would have to know him well (which I do) to realise that he was really ticked off. This information could have been shared earlier and we could have widened out the search area accordingly. We kept an open mind and hunted all day friday and saw eight apartments, too many. I fell in love with one of them a dachgeschoss in a beautiful altbau building. The building really is spectacular. The problem with dachgeschoss though is they get warm. You’d be as warm as a cat on a hot tin roof in them in the summer unless you can find one that is northish or eastish facing and doesn’t have the sun beating in all day long. We are used to living in a warm as toast timber frame that gets warm in the summer and are hoping the northish/eastish (definitely the less sunny sideish) facing dachgeschoss that we chose won’t be too toasty. Even if it is, it has a roof terrace. When the list was narrowed down to the dachgeschoss in the altbau building with the roof terrace and the quiet bedrooms versus the altbau on a corner site with the tram noise, the dachgeschoss won the day. I was shocked by how taken I was with this dachgeschoss. I was shocked by how I was seduced by the terrace. But being practical about it, people with newborns don’t get out much at night. In Wien, you won’t want to get out much at night or in the evening for dinner because they don’t have a smoking ban. In the summer, obviously you can sit outside restaurants, but in the winter, the smoky atmosphere is really annoying. It’s the biggest drawback to Wien. A roof top terrace to sit on and drink a cold beer on a summer’s evening seems like a great idea. Austria has warm summers. An apartment has been found. With a separate kitchen.

January 26, 2010 austria, austria baby!