Learning about people and places...

We thought we had found a nice place to live in. Well, we didn't tell you about it before because first we wanted to be certain that everything was in order...

This morning the first cold shower came when Nick (our young wonderfully British real estate agent) called us to say that the owner not only didn't want to lower the price, but actually he wanted it raised from what advertised! 

Taken by an urge of generosity, the landlord then proposed that we could actually pay a little less (let's say 50 euros/month) if in the contract we committed to fix at our expenses the water damages from the roof and the wooden beams eaten away by the woodworms. 

So, let's see... about 100 square meters of roofing times the price of reparations/meter plus the new  coating... plus repairing and treating the beams (may be even replace one or two)... plus discovering and fixing a few other problems while doing the original job... Well, that should be a very good deal! We would probably spend around 2-3000 euros while saving 600 on a one year lease. Fantastic!!!

Or not?

Back to square one. OK, fine, no problem, that's part of life.

We like the area, though. Just a few miles North of the main action, about 6 minutes drive from the school, walking distance from a lovely bay of crystal clear water, a very quiet neighborhood and a charming (unreadable) name: Bahar ic-Caghaq, pronounced more or less Bahar itch haar (please, don't ask how they got those sounds out of those letters we don't have a clue, of course). The name is also evocative: ”sea of pebbles“ is the translation, nice.

At this point we decide to start searching for similar properties in the area, possibly featuring a landlord with a less developed sense of humor than the first one, of course. We are quick and determined and we immediately start calling all the agents sending out the tam-tam: “Please show us all the properties you know in Bahar ic-Caghaq! We love it there!”

We finally got to the afternoon and on the way to some errands, we thought it would have been nice to have a little swim in our new found paradise, the lovely bay mother of our dreams of a new home, a new life and a new peace...

”Oh NO! you don't really want to swim THERE! Do you?“ said with terror the 19-years-old young woman who had joined us on our innocent mission... 

”Humm... why?... is something wrong there?...“ we asked with a slight sense of premonition.

Now, you know that if you invite the young daughter of some friends to a swim with your family on a Sept. 1st hot afternoon, just a few miles North the coast of North Africa, the young lady should be happy about it and definitely not be too choosy about time and place. You just know that she's been raised well enough not to put up a tantrum for no reason in front of a couple of grown-ups friends of mom and pop... You know that. So, what's going on here?

”But everybody knows that you cannot swim there!” - she cries - “There are even the signs from the Health Department! It's because of the dump! You see that green hill over there? That's not just a hill, that's the huge pile of trash of the old landfill! This whole area is not a good place to be in! When the winds blows in your direction you can definitely smell where you are! You CAN'T really think to stay here, can you?“

”Sea of pebbles“ what a wonderful euphemism!

Strange enough, we just decided to start looking for properties in a different part of the island...