Trouble at Prosek

As I promised, I will explain a little about the reasons behind my upcoming move. When I first got here in January, I didn't know so much about the city, including its different regions and what prices to expect for accommodation in various areas. Also, since housing documents are part of the paperwork needed to apply for a visa, I felt like I had to arrange everything quickly. I ended up taking a place at Prosek in Prague 9. It's right by the metro so it only takes 15 minutes to get to the center, but it's also in a newer part of the city and lacks a certain amount of character. Prosek is mostly populated by tower blocks of flats, and I live in one of those. I found myself wishing that, as I am living in a city with some of the most beautiful architecture in the world, that I had chosen something more "Prague-like". Also, the price - I can't complain too much because I think that the price is not bad, but it also isn't that great for the area. I am probably paying too much for the location and size, and I am fairly certain I am paying a lot more than either of my current flatmates.

Still, these two factors alone would not have compelled me to engage in the dreaded apartment search and move. More troublesome has been the behavior of my flatmates. One of the reasons I chose to take this room was that when I met the female roommate (who I am actually subleasing from - she rents the whole apartment and subleases to me and the other guy who lives here) I felt she was super nice and we could be good friends. However, I found once I was living here that she is not a very social person, and never really leaves the apartment except to go to work. When at home, she is studying about how to write Microsoft Excel programs in her room. Suffice to say, we never ended up hanging out and doing stuff together.

The main trouble started with a guy who is nicknamed "Shaman" - not by me, that's just his nickname.  The Shaman showed up on the sofa one night - no big deal, someone is just having a friend over for the night, right? Well, he stayed on the sofa again the next night, and then I was off to Mlada Boleslav for two days. When I returned, a queen size air mattress had appeared in the living room/kitchen (all other furniture had been rearranged to accomodate this monstrous inflatable bed). The Shaman was apparently going to be around for a while. Nobody bothered to ask whether it was OK with me if their friend hung out in the living room/kitchen for a while or anything. Iva just said "This is Štěpán, we call him Shaman - he is really nice".

Well, the Shaman actually lived in the living/room kitchen area for a month and a half. Keep in mind this apartment is really small. The living room/kitchen is the only area there is aside from the quite small bedrooms. The Shaman doesn't speak any English, either, so my interaction with him was very minimal. It mostly consisted of my pouring my cereal in the morning as he rolled off the air mattress in his underwear, and my awkwardly looking away. I am pretty sure he was actually paying some money to stay in our apartment, but there was no offer to reduce my rent or bills for the month or anything like that. It was just kind of an uncomfortable situation that I wasn't very happy about. I tried to imagine what the reaction would be if I decided I would have a random guy friend decide to blow up a mattress in our living room and stay for a few weeks. I would just tell Iva "this is Matthew, we call him Medicine Man - he's really nice. He's just going to pay me some money, but it's nothing you need to worry about". I don't think it would go over so smoothly.

The Shaman incident had me feeling a little iffy about Iva, but there was still my other roommate, Milan. I knew he had a little crush on me, but it seemed quite harmless, and he was always really nice to me. Sometimes he would make comments that made me a little uncomfortable, such as "I'm starting to think you are the perfect woman". But it still seemed relatively harmless. Until it didn't anymore. I had been hanging out with a guy from Seattle who was studying in Prague, and I had him over a couple of times. Then, as I was making dinner in the kitchen the night after the second time he was over, Milan caught me off guard by starting a conversation that quickly went into territory that was absolutely none of his business and ended with some pretty offensive comments on his part.

I decided that a Shaman in the kitchen is one thing, but I definitely don't need to be put down and sexually harassed in my own apartment. So, that's when I decided to move out. I told Iva I would be moving right after that. This was back in late May. She asked me if I could stay until the end of August, since it's easiest to find new flatmates from September, so I agreed. That's the story of why I'm moving. And, guess what? Just last weekend, the Shaman reappeared! He swept in, blew up that air mattress, and was here again for two days. Now, he's gone again, but the bag with the deflated air mattress is still sitting in the living room as an ominous warning of his possibly imminent return.

The apartment search had been pretty unfruitful until a couple of days ago. I even got caught up with a scam artist on Craigslist! It was really crazy. He had a whole elaborate story going. I got a little suspicious after a while and googled his name (he had sent me a copy of "his" passport) and his lawyer's name (from the badly written lease he'd wanted me to sign). I didn't find any information about either. Then I googled his email address, and it came right up with an alert from scamwarners.com. They caught this guy in action trying to rent out a phony apartment in Copenhagen - using the exact same email (from the same email address) he had sent me after I replied to his Craigslist ad. Here is a link, where you can see the scamwarners posting, and my reply to it with the emails he sent me.

scamwarners.com posting

Right now I am waiting to see the inside of an apartment that will hopefully be perfect for me. I saw an ad online for a room that was posted by a current tenant. They gave the phone number of the landlord, but when I contacted him he was in Bulgaria, and he won't be back till next week after I have left for Italy.  However, he seems very nice and he said he has the room that was listed, but he also has another room in the same building that he thinks I will like much better, it's recently renovated and he said the people living there are really nice. His daughter will be able to show me the room tomorrow before I leave.

I am really hopeful, as the area is great and the building is awesome, at least on the outside. I went to see the building in person because I looked at it on googlemaps streetview and it looked really cool. It has Mary and Jesus and sculptures of women in Art Nouveau style on the facade, painted in pastel colors. It has the building date, 1909 written on it. And there are planters hanging from the balcony with beautiful pink and red flowers. It's right beside one of my favorite parks in Prague (Letna), with one of the best views of the city, and another park, Stromovka, is super close as well. Also, the price is lower than what I pay now.

I've got my fingers crossed.