My 25th move with a bunch of banana boxes

Our old flat

After relocating myself 10 months ago to Brno, Czech Republic, I was hoping the next move will be back to the US or to Japan, but we decided to move within Brno. It was unfortunate, as the flat was very contemporary and nice (heard that it was designed by a famous architect) and was very close to the center of Brno. But, we could not bear the noise problems. We believe there was some structural problems as we could hear the trams going by as if we were sleeping outside, and there was a massive construction going on right off of our balcony.

Construction outside of our old flat

We started to look for a new apartment at the end of September. Another reason for that was our visa renewal. Here in the Czech Republic, you need to have a rental contract to cover the duration of visa. So, we needed to find an apartment by mid Oct when we needed to start our visa renewal process. Anyway, we looked at 4 or 5 flats, and finally we decided on a wondefully renovated apartment; a bit further from the center but only 2 tram station away. Mostly we liked the owner, so we decided right away. The signing of the contract took a while, as the realtor needed to send the Czech contract to the translator for us to be able to understand the content in English. Plus for the visa purpose, we had to ask for a list of all the owners in the building (not only the flat but for every single flat in the building), the owner's land register statement proving that he is the person who owns the flat, and his notarized signature. Yes, the renter had to do a lot more to rent the apartment to the foreigners like us. So, we really appreciated everything he did for us while he himself was busy with his new job and move.

Contract was successfully signed by mid Oct, when we submitted our application for visa renewal with whatever the documents we had then (you don't have to submit all the docs all at once). And I was off to Japan knowing that I had to jump right into the move preparation after my trip.

The move took place on Nov 6th and 7th. Amazingly we collected lots of items in a year in Brno. Mainly because the flat didn't have nothing but the bed, and we had to buy a sofa, a cabinet (to store dishes), desks, etc. The mover (the company called Stehovak) decided to spend the fisrt day to pack and the second day to move. Prior to that, we also wanted to pack the immediately needed items into our suitcases, and we managed to do so after another quick trip to Prague on Friday the 5th. On Saturday, four movers came around 9am (the great thing is that the Czech movers are on time!) with a whole bunch of banana boxes!! The first time I learned that they will be packing our clothes directly into the banana boxes, I panicked (sorry I am Japanese ^^). I immediately got some plastic bags and started to pack all our clothes into them before they got to them :-) Another thing was they packed almost everything that day, so the plan to just relax our last night there completely failed. Our living room was filled with the banana boxes. I have to say, though, the movers were really efficient and professional. I was completely satisfied with them. And the good thing was that they had one person who spoke English, which helped us so much.

hubby working on the floor
before the move

Next morning they came back around 10am and loaded all the boxes to their truck. They were done in a couple of hours. Very efficient! The original plan was that I would stay at the old flat to clean and my hubby would go with the movers to the new place, but I decided to go with them after looking at the number of boxes. They were done unloading all the boxes and furniture by 3pm, and this time the new flat was filled with a whole bunch of banana boxes again. I started to unload them one by one, and it seemed like an infinite work ahead.

My hubby had to leave for his business trip early next morning, so he had to return the rental car that evening. He went off, and I kept working till he came back. I was exhausted by then, so we stopped for that night, took a walk to a nearby restaurant for a quick bite (I have to say we finally found the good and moderately priced restaurant in Brno!), and went to bed. Of course gG was still being uneasy, and he woke us up early, which was good, as my hubby had to leave the house by 7am.

After my hubby took off, I kept putting things away one by one again. It continued all day on Monday and Tuesday, except that I had to go to a foreign police, etc. On Tuesday, the movers came back again and took all the emptied boxes. I was wondering whose living room will be filled with them next :-)