Victoria and I went up to Sheffield on Saturday for a very long day of looking at apartments. We were pretty sure we wanted something close to downtown, so I would not have a long commute to work. Unfortunately, most of the estate agents were fully booked, so we could not make many viewing appointments. Our plan was that if we didn't find somewhere we liked, I would come up some other time this week.

Our first stop was a castle in Sheffield. It was about 15 minutes from the city center area, but unfortunately, you had to walk through some not very nice areas close to the station to get there. There is also a tram, but we were looking for a place we could walk to. However, the apartments are all totally brand new and really nice. The original castle structure is there, but the inside has been renovated into small apartments. The community is gated, and there were nice gardens in the area. The big downside though, was that there were no shops or restaurants of any kind nearby. So, you pretty much have to take the tram to get anywhere, do shopping, etc. It was very peaceful and had great views of the city though.

The other place we looked at was very close (2 small blocks away) to the central shopping district in Sheffield. The flat is in a converted lawyer's office. It is really spacious and much more convenient to work (5-10 minutes walk). We both liked it more than the other one, because it was better decorated and had more space. A local newspaper office is one block away, and Victoria is hoping to get some work experience there. The landlord was nice, and very talkative. I gather he owns mostly commercial properties in the area, and is only starting to branch out into residential properties.

We liked it so much we decided to take it, so we now have an apartment in Sheffield. There are only two drawbacks to this apartment. We don't have a private washing machine (it's shared by five flats, and is coin-operated), and the bedroom needs more storage space, especially a wardrobe. The bed also didn't look that big. Hopefully we can buy something not too expensive to fix some of the problems, though the washing machine will still be a problem.

This next weekend we will be going to Copenhagen Friday-Monday, and then I will start work Tuesday morning in Sheffield.