We rented a flat in Cadiz, this one is bigger than the one in Portugal and it has two bedrooms and a nice size bathroom......but when we checked the beds underneath the bedspreads, nicely ironed, it seems they forgot to make the beds??? We checked the closets and found many sets of linens, all sizes, "ironed" including pillowcases, bedspreads, towels and even the kitchen towels. At least we found cleaned and ironed linens to use. As we continued to explore the apartment, and like everything in life, we found things we liked and others that we didn't. It's all about expectations. Let me start with the likes:
- location, two blocks from the beach.
- a large kitchen very well equipped including some supplies such as species, teas, coffee, sugar, etc.
- building, nice entryway, has an elevator and spotless clean.
- at a glance, the furniture in the living room, dinning room, bedrooms all look nice and comfortable, lots of closet space, side tables, lamps and a flat TV in the living area.
- proximity to the train station, super market and many other shops all walking distance. To go to the old city, we can either walk, about 35 minutes, or take the bus a block from the apartment.
Now, we are not complaining....but we have to share the don't likes:
- heating is gas and manual. There is a big radiator (see picture below) that holds a propane tank, it wasn't easy to turn it on, I will tell you why later. It doesn't have a big reach, so it doesn't warm up the whole apartment.
- no internet, the listing offered it, so therefore the dissapointment.
- the bed size in the main bedroom was advertised as King size, it's queen. No bad, but why post something incorrect?
- there is cable TV with a DVR, but 99.9% of the channels are in German. Are you smiling? Wait....we managed to find two in English after reading the entire TV manual. Uhrrrr! I think they forgot we are in Spain, no spanish channels either.....ughrrrrrrr!!! for God's sake we are in Spain. Crazy!!!! Sharing this so in case you rent anywhere you better ask and don't believe everything posted.
- Last but not least, all instructions everywhere around the apartment with posted notes are in German, ughrrrrrrrrr! What are they thinking? In my correspondence with the owner he told they have rented it to Americans, Australians, Canadians, New Zealand and many Europeans.
We have to check our attitude, yeah...and decided it was time to adopt the attitude for this trip, "if we don't like, we will start liking it." Nevertheless, it took us a day to adapt.
So back to the gas radiator, here it how it looks, it's on wheels...
We arrived around 10pm. We had to call the owner to find out what to do about the heating. Luckly he answered the phone and struggling with the unit, we got it on. After we hung up and trying to get settled for the evening we realized the bedroom wasn't getting warm and we decided to roll the unit to our bedroom. Thank God, it worked and we were able to get a nice night sleep. The saga continued the next day. We went out to check the surroundings and when we got back, the heater was off.....no gas!!!!! So we had to grab every blanket we found. It brought me back to my roots. When I grew up in Bogota, at 8K feet above sea level, cold as here, we didn't have a heater. I never knew about heating until I moved to the states. We used blankets and warm clothes and we survived! Not the same for Ed. He didn't know any better as heating was part of his home growing up. So lack of it wasn't acceptable. Well, we found out we needed to replace the gas tank as the current one was empty. After struggling with the owner, who had become unreachable, he provided instructions via email the next day to change the propane tank and voila!
Why is heating so important? Well, during the day we reach temperatures mid 50's, but at night temps drop to the mid 40s. From the map above you can see Cadiz is a small peninsula and gets wind from the Atlantic. During the summer this place must be a paradise because the winds make the summer very comfortable and homes do not need AC.
The conclusion, we all are used to certain standards that when they change our world changes and we lose our comfort, and it changes our mood, and so on. Expectations govern our world and we have control over them before or after!!! The apartment is beautiful but the heating and the Internet temporarily put a cloud over our experience.
Check it out our flat....
Without Internet, my writings are not the same, as I am rushing to get it done!
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