Mission: searching for a room in Innsbruck

It was the end of October. After spending quite a lot of time in Innsbruck since June, I got an idea that living here in winter could be a great experience. So it was time to find my own place. I had never had flat viewings in my life. Living in the same flat for 8 years in Ljubljana was cosy. Also when I gave my flat away, I had exactly 4 viewings, all in the same afternoon. But I can say I had luck, because the fourth couple was exactly the type of people you want to live in your flat (:

But searching for a room in Innsbruck is another story. The time I was searching was probably the worst possible: the colledge started and everyone was looking for a flat. People told you right away: "Yes, we have 20 or 30 (or more) candidates for our flat." Innsbruck is a student city and because of that a lot of them accept only students (cause otherwise, other roommates don't get a subsidy for their rooms). Another difficulty you might be dealing with is time. For example: you write them on Monday and they reply, that you can come next week on Wednesday at 5 p.m. Which is a problem if you work everyday till 6 p.m. And when you ask if you could possible come a bit after 6 p.m., they reply: "Ok, but please hurry up, because at 7 p.m. we already have another person coming." And yes, people here have interviews with their potential new roommates. They ask you everything possible. I remember a guy living here said that when they were looking for a new rommate in their flat, they had 40 people coming and they had conversations with each of them. I asked: "40? Isn't that a bit too much? Do you guys really have time and energy for all those people?" He said: "Yes, it's important to me with whom I will live." Another friend told me that his friend didn't find a room here, so he moved to some other austrian city. It's actually not that hard to believe that now. And another fact: it is an expensive city. Someone told me, that the rents here are higher than they are in Vienna.

So, having about 20 flat viewing on average is kinda normal here. I don't know how many I had, but I would say about 10 or 12. And sometimes it was fun. There was a guy which I met at two flats in the same afternoon. In one flat they had sauna, but was full with things. The girl said I can clear it and use it if I want to. Come on, if I had sauna in my flat I would be in it the whole time! :D So yes, you can hear a lot of interesting things while visiting these random people. One girl told me that their roommate moved away because the room reminded her too much of her ex boyfriend :D

Last but not least, it's not a bad idea to do some Couchsurfing, when having difficulties while searching and you actually don't know how (and when) things will turn out. 

So yes, it was exhausting, but at the end I found a really cute flat, located literally under the mountains which means we see them from every room. A guy living here in Innsbruck said while we were talking about some city: "They might have the view on the mountains, but we have them here." Actually I feel like I'm here on a vacation. A bit longer vacation (: 

The view from a living room. I call it magic (: