Accommodation hunting in Vienna

If you find yourself in the situation of having to move to Vienna in the next period and you are concerned about finding accommodation, or if you are just curious about how my experience was in this matter, than you should read this article.

As a very organized person that I am, I started researching the topic a few months before I had to move to Austria… from May if I remember well, so 3 months before. I can say this helped me in order to get to know the market and discover what my needs and wants are. However, I find it 99% impossible to rent something without being personally in Vienna because the chances to have a mismatch between the internet and even the phone perspective and the one of the reality are extremely high (basically, to be cheated). My experience stands as a proof that you can find a very good place to rent, according to your criteria (assuming they are realistic), without using a real estate agency, but rather your own work, knowledge and perseverance. Indeed, it is a competitive market, where the good places “go” almost instantly and you have to keep your eyes and ears constantly open to any opportunity and your mind aware of the wide range of possibilities. From my point of view, it is not worth paying the high commissions of the real estate agencies, which usually amounts to the rent for one to few months and/or a percentage of the contract value, when you can just invest some time and effort and find it yourself.

Whatever the solution you choose, to find a flat by your own or to use the help of a real estate agency, it is highly important that you visit the flats before renting. In my case, I came with two weeks earlier in Vienna and I stayed for some days in the flat of a friend of mine who was in Romania during that period. If you don’t have friends in Vienna, you might choose to stay in a hotel, aparthotel or hostel.

Going back in time and space, I tried to speak to as many people from Vienna as possible, to join Facebook groups for accommodation, FB groups of Romanians in Vienna (such as the one of the organization LSRS Austria for young Romanians abroad), I posted on my personal FB page, told my parents to ask their friends and acquaintances, talked to the university representatives and so on. The key point here is: get information from as many channels as possible! Someone might help you with a useful website, someone else might have a friend that rents his flat or a friend that might rent you the house while you visit flats… you never know where the opportunity pops out!

Therefore, I would like to give you some useful websites:

Ø  http://www.jobwohnen.at/  - this is the website where I found my place to rent. Really useful, offers are posted daily. It is only in German, but you can deal with it if you learn some key words and afterwards use Google Translate. It has offers only from private persons.

Ø  http://www.wg-gesucht.de/ - also an useful website. It has both a German and an English version, though some descriptions of offers might be only in German. It has offers only from private persons.

Ø  http://www.willhaben.at/iad - It is only in German.

Ø  http://www.bazar.at/ - It has offers from both private persons and real estate agencies.

Ø  http://www.provisionsfrei.at/ - It has offers only from private persons and it is in German. The drawback is that you have to pay in order to be able to contact the owner of the flat, otherwise you don’t see any contact information. Someone told me that he found his flat through this platform, so I decided to give it a try, but I found the offers quite little in number and new ones are posted rarely.

Other websites of real estate agencies indicated by some people are:

Ø  http://www.findmyhome.at/

Ø  http://www.immobilien.net/

Useful Facebook groups where people post about the flats or rooms they rent are:

- Wohnungen und Zimmer in Wien/ Rooms and Appartements in Vienna

- Wohnungen in Wien privat zur Vermietung

- Ich brauche bzw. habe eine Wohnung Wien

You have two big options if you are planning to move to Vienna: renting a room in a larger flat, known commonly here as WG, OR renting a flat, be it a studio or a larger apartment. For me, the best alternative was finding a studio. In the preparation phase, at home, you should also discover through your own research what are your required and preferred aspects about the accommodation you plan to find, such as the districts, the type of accommodation, the budget for rent and guarantee (known in German as “Kaution”), proximity to the transportation links or to university etc.

You should know that in 99% of the cases, when renting a room/studio/flat or anything else, you are required to give a guarantee (“Kaution” in German), which will be given back at the end of the contracting period, if the place is in the same good state. For larger flats, a transfer fee (“Ablȍse” in German) is also required for the furniture and everything contained inside. The guarantee is most of the times above 1000 Euros or equal to the value of the rent for 3 months, in the case of studios.

If you plan to live in Vienna at least for a year, I advise you to take into account both a short-term rent and a long-term rent for the beginning. Of course, the long-term is preferred, but in case you don’t find what you want in the required amount of time, than renting something for a month or two can give you extra time to find something convenient for the long term. You should also know that during the summer period, including September, a lot of people are still on holiday or abroad for other reasons, so your chances to find something on the short-term are higher.

In my case, I succeeded to find exactly what I wanted and the reason is probably a mix of various ingredients such as hard work, divine help, perseverance and luck.  About one week before coming here, I started giving many phone calls in order to establish appointments. Overall, I had 4 appointments before finding the flat that I wanted. You have also to be prepared for owners to call you and cancel the appointment because the flat has already been rented meantime, as it happened in two cases for me. The appointments themselves are the biggest adventure! One of the places had a horrible entrance of the building, another one was terrifying placed next to a night club with spices and the flat itself was very dirty, another one had the bathtub, believe it or not, in the kitchen, and another one was very dark, required a high guarantee and was available only starting September. As you may see, there is a great deal of things that you can’t foresee, so take your time and explore!

After all the work and the uncertainty, when I finally found this amazing studio, it was unbelievable. Now, it was all over! I can focus on other things! What I learned from this experience is that hard work pays off! You just have to research, research, research and never give up!

Good luck with your quest!

Life at crossroads: from Romania to Austria!

What it takes to change your life? Courage and trust. In this way, I embarked on my journey to Austria. I arrived here on August the 6^th, knowing only where I am going to study and where I am going to live for the first 10 days until I find a place of my own to rent. However, it is not my first time in this country, but I dare to say the 5^th time. Somehow, different reasons kept bringing me back here once in a while, from the 9^th high school grade.

I felt in love with Vienna right from the beginning. Who would have guessed that I was going to move here, for an indefinite number of years? I find it useless to set a specific number of years, when only the opportunities and the turning points of life will determine this. In high school, I started thinking about doing my Master abroad. As my mind was trying to figure out in what city I would like to study, Vienna always popped out. You see, for me, the lifestyle of a city is very important. I just can’t move to a country just because it has an extraordinary good university if I don’t feel myself at least a bit attracted to that culture, people, weather and so on. Later on, when I conducted a solid research concerning my studies abroad, Vienna turned out also this time to be the solution. Here, I had a good faculty with the profile I was looking for, taught in English - Webster University, International Relations -, I loved the atmosphere of the city and the architecture, I was willing to learn German, which would use me very well in the future, I had the possibility to find a job since it was an international city, it was not as expensive as other European capitals and it was relatively close to Romania.

So, here I am: a new resident of Vienna! Now, 10 days from my stay have passed, 10 days in which I learned once again to deal with uncertainty, to have faith and to enjoy a new beginning. Luckily, a friend of mine, to whom I thank very much, allowed me to stay in his studio from Vienna while he was in Romania, in order to search a studio for myself. Therefore, in the first 4 days I had appointments for visiting flats and eventually, on Sunday evening, I found a great one to rent! But finding a flat here is another story, which I will develop in a future article, including also practical suggestions for those interested in finding accommodation. On Tuesday, I moved to my new place and from there on, I settled. However, I did not waste the days and, taking advantage of the first sunny days, I got familiar once again with the city, with its spirit. Museum Quartier is a great place to go in the evening, it has a lot of cafes, but also benches and shapes to sit on and enjoy the conversations, movie projections and so on; Stephansplatz is always vibrant of tourists, but walking on its small side streets, one can discover dozens of antiquities shops and galleries; Nestroyplatz is a chic place, leading you to the Danube, to many cafes and displaying an architectural combination of old style and large multinational futurist buildings. One of the highlights of my stay here remains the visit at the United Nations Headquarter, at the Vienna International Center. Celebrating 35 years since they have been working in this building, they had a free visiting day on the 15^th of August. Having in mind that UN is one of the organizations where I would like to work, this opportunity was more than welcomed. Despite the fact that, of course, there was a relatively long waiting line, and that the tour was limited due to time constraints, I enjoyed being there and getting in contact with the UN.  After three Model United Nations, I got to actually enter a conference room and take the seat of the Director – General. Life has its own mysterious ways.

Let’s not forget to mention the people of Vienna! It is an incredible mix of cultures! I encountered incredibly helpful people, right from the beginning, when a young women just passing by showed us how to buy the right tickets and after a few minutes came back in the train station searching for us because she forgot to say something important regarding the validity of the tickets. But I have also seen all kinds of weird of people; especially the area Praterstern which, even though an important transportation hub, can turn out to be dangerous and thus it is worth avoiding it as much as possible (however, maybe due to the high number of police men, I never witnessed any incident).

After all, why take this step and make such a big change? Well, there are many reasons, but, behind them all, there is an irresistible attraction in living for a while in another country. And what better moment to do that other than now? For me, it really seems like the normal course of action, I feel like I should have been here and I should have done things this way; I don’t feel strange and I don’t feel a lack of adaption; I just feel like HOME. Don’t get me wrong, I still love Romania and it will remain my first home, I will always pride with my home country but now, I am ready to have for some time… two homes.

The secret of adaption lies in the feeling of being at home… wherever your head lies…

Power of youth - the UN Youth Delegate program

I have always believed that the power stays in our hands, the young people, to change the world that we live in. Not because more aged people are not capable, but because we are gifted with the energy of youth, with the drive given by the fact that we believe that our future is in our hands and there is still a lot of time to fulfill our dreams.

Having this thought in mind, I found an opportunity which is worth spreading the word about. I would have joined the program myself, but I am at a point where I decided another course of life for myself. Therefore, I want to write about the program “Youth Delegate at United Nations” from Romania. However, if you are reading this article and you are not Romanian, you have to know that it has also been implemented in other countries; you just have to research about it. 

It has been launched by the Ministry of Youth and Sport and it implies that two young people, a girl and a boy, will have the possibility of representing Romania in New York at the UN General Assembly from September/ October 2014 and at the Commission for Social Development from February 2015. However, having this position requires your involvement for one year, period during which you will have meetings with young people round the country, as well as be involved in other related activities.You can find more details about the program here.

As basic requirements, in order to be able to candidate, you must be a Romanian between 18 and 25 years old and you must have spent at least 6 months in Romania in the year before the moment of candidature. You can check here the stages of application, the requirements of the application file, the profile of the candidate, the role of the UN Youth Delegate, as well as other details. You can also join the Facebook event.

This short description from the official website of the UN Youth program may answer some questions regarding the global movement. : “Since 1981 the United Nations (UN) recommend Member States to include Youth Delegates in their national delegations in order to ensure direct youth participation. The inclusion of Youth Delegates in the work of its Mission to the United Nations gives a country legitimacy in representing the views of its young population and promotes the voice of young people in global decision making”.

And after all, why do this? Why run for the position? It is a chance for you to act, to intervene in the society, to bring up front all your potential and, nonetheless, have a year marked by personal and professional development. 

Music in the mountains

Once upon a time, there has been a charming mountain town, an enchanting music sound and a young, energetic lady. Driving through sinuous road curves located between forests and passing through small towns, we arrive in Sinaia (Romania). I have been several times before here, since it is only 40 min away from my home town, but this time I go with a different, new, purpose. Dressed elegant, together with my parents, we enter the 4* star hotel.

What brings us here? A special invitation for us, as partners in the opening event of the International Festival Enescu and the World Music (in Romanian: Festivalul International Enescu si Muzica Lumii). This initiative is worth praising but, in case you haven’t heard about it, let me tell you a few words. It is an international festival meant to promote classical music, with a tradition of 14 years. Not only the Romanian Youth Orchestra and the Romanian Sinfonietta Ochestra take part in it, but also foreign orchestras, such as it was this year the Youth Orchestra of Spain and the Youth Orchestra of France. It lasts for almost a month, from 5^th of August until 27^th of August and, what you should especially note, the entrance is for free. There was a high number of people in the audience and I hope that their interest to be there, to spend two hours seating on a chair and listening to music, is a solid foundation towards educating the great mass of population in the field of music. Through this statement I do not mean to express any disagreement with other forms of music but, on the contrary, to support diversification, openness and learning through music.

In this context, the travel agency owned by me and my parents, SETA TRAVEL, had the pleasure to be a partner of the foundation that had the initiative and organized this event since the beginning. We handled issues such as transportation and accommodation for the large number of people and numerous parties involved. We have only beautiful words and sincere feelings for the leaders of the Foundation Friends of Music – Serafim Antropov, that put so much dedication and passion in bringing this festival to real.

Just sitting and listening to that music… for which I don’t have words to describe, created the perfect space to let my thoughts and feelings fly away. Especially at a moment when a big change was about to happen in my life. The interpretation has been absolutely amazing, driving the audience from peaceful and serene moments to sparks when the body was about to jump off the chair dancing. The pieces interpreted belonged both to internationally renowned composers, as well as to Spanish ones, since the Orchestra that gave this show was the Youth Orchestra of Spain. Below is a link to a movie showing some parts of the concert.

Therefore, I invite you, dear reader, to take some time, make a short trip and be a spectator to one of the other concerts which are part of the festival. You can find the schedule by entering one of the useful website below. After all, we all need a break from time to time, particularly considering the fact that it is summer. Dare to explore the unknown and make this moment a memorable one!

Useful websites:

http://www.festivalenescu-sinaia.ro/

http://www.setatravel.com/

https://www.facebook.com/setatravel

https://www.facebook.com/PassionForRomania