House Hunters International!

Friday night the reality of being here sunk in and even though I've been having a great time and everyone has been really helpful and nice, I got pretty homesick.  I miss everyone back home alot and I know this is just the beginning of a long transition period.  Right now life is pretty unstructured, hectic, and cramped.  I feel like it's a big hurry up and wait game of running around doing errands but having no real home base (no pun intended there!).  My hotel room is pretty small and cramped and while I'm grateful being on base now, I know I can't stay here much longer or I'll go crazy!

Thankfully the housing office was actually pretty helpful in suggesting some apartments to look at and Paula and Wolfie have been checking German papers looking for listings!  Today Paula and I went out and looked at three different apartments.  I really felt like I was on House Hunters International. We'd go in, walk around, the realtor would come in and answer questions, and then Paula and I would leave and discuss :)

Apartment #1 -great location but pretty dingy
- Amberg is the closest thing to a big town that is reasonably close to base.  It has a stunning old downtown with cobblestone roads, churches, coffee shops, bakeries, shopping, everything really!  The first apartment we looked at was right off of an alley of the main road.  I'd literally be a 2 minute walk to everything.  BUT, it was really cramped, didn't have alot of windows and was pretty dingy. It did have 2 bedrooms, a decent sized living room and a small area for a table.

Apartment #2 - Huge living space in smaller town
- Aside form Amberg, the other town I'm considering living in is Sulzbach-Rosenberg.  It's where Paula lives and is a little closer to base than Amberg.  Sulzbach is smaller and doesn't have as many restaurants, shops, etc.  The apartment was actually the lower level of a house and is a little over 1300 sq ft!  It has 3 bedrooms, a very large living room and 1 bathroom.  The floors weren't very good, the bathroom was an interesting shade of green, and I'd be a 3 minute walk to the train station (which can be good and bad considering convenience vs noise level).

Apartment #3 -Country living in the big city
- The last apartment we looked at was back in Amberg.  This was in a quieter neighborhood that is about a mile and 1/2 from the inner city (25 minute walk, 10 minute bike ride, 5 minute drive). The apartment was on the third floor of a house that was on the end of the street.  The back of the house faced open country fields and lots of forest area.  A terrace off the living room overlooks the fields while the views from the front of the apartment look down into Amberg.  This one had 2 bedrooms and 1 bath and was about 925 sq ft.  Smaller than the one in Sulzbach and a about a 25 minute drive to get onto post.  I would also get a garage parking space so I wouldn't have a scrape my car in the morning!

I have a clear favorite.  Paula and I have one more to look at tomorrow.  I don't have to make a decision anytime soon, I can basically live at the hotel indefinitely. But, I would like to make a decision soon!  Of the 3 so far, let me know which one you think I should go for!

I tried to be as nonbiased as possible when writing these :)