Finding a Home in London

Alright so...trip went well, immigration was okay, I arrived safe and sound in London and I was ready to get started with the series of things one has to do when settling down in a new place, searching for a place to live being the first one (for me, at least).

The very next day I arrived, I decided to start flathunting...I had sort of started back at home in Mexico, but it was not easy being there really, and I actually learned that even being here didn't make it all that easy, especially being "Back To School" Season, which I was not aware of. So, I started the hunt on several popular websites (Gumtree, Moveflat and others), there were TONS of options, many of them good ones, many of them bad ones, and other many of them too good to be true...like, so good they turned out to be scams--fuckers! Most of the times, whenever I either emailed or called for a flat, it had been already taken...like, super fast! Same thing happen for some viewings, I had some arranged and they turned out to be gone, the first viewing totally sucked because it wasn't until I got to the flat and pretty much woke up the guy I'd arranged the meeting with that I came to know it was, yet again, ALREADY TAKEN! That sort of pissed me off coz he could have called/texted me to let me know and avoid the trip all the way there; then another viewing got canceled because the landlady was working late, then...she never got back to me, pfft!

Anyway, I did a couple more viewings (not too many really) and just yesterday while going from one to another I ran into a little convenience store with a lot of ads/posts on the window and decided to start calling, I figured I had time to check them out since they had to be nearby, a few of them-you might not believe-were already gone! Then I saw the guy from the store putting up a new ad so I thought to myself "well, it's just up now, it HAS to be available!" and it was, called and the guy was nice enough to come back (as he was already on his way) to pick me up and take me to see the place, which was alright but a bus ride and a 10-minute-walk away from the tube station.

On my way back, I went to see another one I'd called for before, this one I liked right away. It was a house, not too big but not too small, a pretty decent size I'd say, the room size was also good and the Tenant was/is a Chilean lady who seems to be very nice; so far, it was a nice place not too crowded--which I have to say I like because I honestly don't know how tolerant I could be with a lot of people coming and going and partying and being noisy/dirty, etc...so I found this place quite convenient as I knew I'd be able to keep my privacy and be respected, while being in a very good location, surrounded by shops, markets, restaurant, cinema and most importantly, the tube station within walking distance, not to mention also within walking distance is Brixton Academy--a good venue for rock concerts! Um, did I mention it was properly priced on top of it all? So yeah, after 5 days of being in London I found myself a nice place to live, which has me very happy for the moment because it means I can now go to step number two of the plan: jobhunting, but that...that's a different story so we'll leave it for another post.

So, here are a few pictures of what will be my new neighbourhood.