We’ve gotten very lucky on the moving front. A lot of folks that have moved here have told us it took 20 apartment viewings to get an apartment. With this warning in mind, when my coworker David (and his super awesome partner Adrienn) asked if we were interested in taking over their lease when they moved, we literally jumped at the opportunity. 

The apartment is located by Wollishofenplatz, at the end of the 7 tram line. It is about ~20 minute tram or bus to downtown and reminds me a lot of where I lived in the Richmond district of SF. 3-5 story apartment buildings, small shops and restos, replace the 38 with the T7 tram. If we walk half a kilometer up the hill, it turns to gravel paths and we can get to the Uetliberg trail network. We can walk directly down from Wollishofenplatz and in ~10 minute you hit the lake.

The apartment itself has 2 bedrooms with lots of windows, an ikea kitchen with limited counter space, a salmon tiled bathroom, and two balconies. We’re on the second floor and can hear the neighbors upstairs as well as the T7 storming by every 10 minutes. I think we landed in a great spot for our needs (commute and trail running) and price range.

We had an airbnb for 2 weeks before moving into Albisstrasse (the street we’re on). Sans voiture, we did trips on our bikes, shuttling bag after bag about a mile to the new place. We looked quite ridiculous, and I wish I got a pic of Freddy biking with our ski bag!!

On Saturday, we made the pilgrimage to IKEA. Again I must remind myself moving sucks no matter what, but Saturday was certainly a low.

Mistake #1: The day started off rough as we were trying to go to IKEA in DietLikon, but I navigated us to Dietikon. Oops! We went to the Spreichbach location instead, only wasting about 30 min.

Mistake #2: We did not eat a big enough breakfast, felt deep ennui as we got lost in the IKEA corn maze, having to do the loop twice after somehow skipping the Küchen section at first. By the time we got to choosing kitchenware, Freddy had lost all motivation and was willing to purchase colored plates (a line in the sand he had deeply drawn the night before). I still got white plates because I knew it was the funk talking. After another bout of malaise in the lamp section (“just pick a fucking lamp I don’t care”), we stormed off to check out, where we realized we had picked up another persons cart!! We skulked back to the lamps where we dropped the cart off sheepishly, then spent another ten minutes searching for our cart. Mind you, if we had lost this bounty, it would have been three hours wasted. Me, laugh-crying, and Freddy fuming from his ears, we finally found the damn cart 3 sections back from there. Because of the kerfuffle, we forgot to buy a bulb, so our apartment only has built in light for the kitchen and bathroom. We’re working with headlamps on until we get any lighting.

Mistake #3: We did not sign up for the IKEA family app. Do that!! Good deals and you can return for free.

By the end of this endeavor, we were able to obtain Swedish meatballs, so that was a win.

There’s a lot more interior design to do, so please stay tuned!