Tere!

Do you know how long I have been in Estonia? I’ve been here for more than three years now. (My fourth year started last August.)

In short, I have changed places to live almost every year.

Previously I talked about how to move to a new place in Estonia in this article, so please read it first if you are thinking of living in Estonia.

This time’s account is rather a background story of moving to a new place in Estonia.

I decided to move out because I was sick of my Hong Kong flatmate’s attitude, behaviour as well as his ways of thinking. Normally we decide where to live based on school or office location, bus stop, supermarkets, etc. At that time I didn’t have any new determined job yet so I had no idea in which area to live.

When I came to Estonia, I shared one flat with 11 other people in the city centre. Then I got a job so I moved to Mustamäe where the office was. This was the second place.

However, since I was so sick of my Indian flatmate, I moved to another place in Mustamäe but it was still a walkable distance from the office. This was the third place. Remember? The one that I had to agree to the flatmate agreement like what Sheldon in “Big Bang Theory” made. (Sheldon is better in fact.)

Besides, at the third of my hospitalisation, the Hong Kong flatmate was a part of the reason that I was there, so I decided to move out besides a new job.

However, at that time I didn’t have any new job yet (as mentioned earlier), and had no idea where the next office would be located when I was looking for a new place. That’s why it was kind of hard to decide.

In Tallinn many nice but cheaper flats are in Lasnamäe where lots of Russians live. Mustamäe has smaller flats like 11㎡~. In the town, of course the rent is pricey. Põhja-Tallinn is fancier but there are few supermarkets in the neighbourhood. Kristiine has few properties. 

For those reasons it was quite difficult to find an ideal place.

However, there was something that I could not compromise — the size.

Since I’ve had a 160cm office desk, I needed a space that I could have such a big desk and some space for the laundry dryer rack.

Without real understanding the size of rooms, I found two places. One was in the town, and the other one was in another area close to the town.

Since my friends always told me to live somewhere not in Mustamäe but in the centre. Then I went  to see the former place which was way different from the pictures and so small. 20㎡ was actually really small (for me).

For this reason I went to see the other place. The kitchen was not separate but that was not my priority. There was a separate bedroom and the bed was semi double. The toilet was together with the shower, but there was a bathtub. Also there was enough space for my lovely 160cm desk. Eventually this place became my new home.

The owner can speak only Russian, but when we have something to tell each other, we use Google Translate or something to communicate. Her husband can speak English so when there is something important he can talk with me.

It’s the first time for me to live alone since the time I lived in Kyoto, and though it’s good to have someone to talk with, it’s also important to have my own time. Therefore I’m planning to invite people for dinner at some point, such as former good colleagues. (Like I send Christmas cards to the company that I worked for in Japan.)

By the way, of course I have had many objects because I have lived here for over three years, but I still haven’t used any moving service. Even this time.

Because I didn’t have enough money.

I went back and forth multiple times to the new and old places by spending one month. (The hardest time was when I was carrying the desk legs. Those were surprisingly heavy.) The reason why I mentioned “one month” is that my broker told me that the owner couldn’t wait for one month. Ergo I had to pay for double rents with my mum’s financial support, but instead I had enough time to carry all my stuff.

In this house there was a coffee machine (that I had longed for), a refrigerator as well as a laundry machine, but one electric appliance was missing — a microwave. (I’ve had a rice cooker and a toaster.) I could buy a microwave at 50 EUR at IKEA, which is not too expensive. However I thought that there should be something cheaper, so I checked on Facebook’s marketplace, and found one for 35 EUR. It was heavier than I thought (though it was crazy to carry such a thing by bus), so I eventually took Bolt to carry it and in total it cost around 40 EUR. (There was one more cheaper microwave in the marketplace but the size was bigger than the space so I gave up.)

By the way, you can buy a laundry rack at Maxima (supermarket) for 10 EUR. Also I could buy a mop with disposable (wet/dry) wipes, so I can clean the house too. I’m quite satisfied with life here. (But super technically speaking, I want a meat slicer. With it I can cook more Japanese dishes, but it costs 100 EUR and big.)

That’s all about moving to a new place! I hope I will stay here for a while (like more than a year)…

Aitäh! 🙂