Having decided to change residential Buda for business-like Pest, we have found an apartment in a brand new apartment house in IX-th district and started our preparations. The new apartment was twice bigger than the old one, and we had to buy furniture, more crockery and various household items. We also needed to find a decent internet and cable TV provider with reasonable prices.
Before rushing to Ikea we tried first Retz Bútor only to find out that it takes them about 50 days to fulfil the order, and Sconto Bútor, which furniture we found to be of rather poor quality. Thus, again we got most of the stuff we needed in Ikea. Our conclusion is that today Ikea is, probably, the best furniture store in Budapest as to the prices and choice of goods, especially for those who are trying to stay within the budget.
Anyway, we still needed some custom-made things, and went to Bakos to buy some shelves and rails. After choosing the wood, we just gave them the dimensions, and it took them only half an hour to cut it the way we wanted. In this very shop we bought nails, screws and dowels, and cut another pair of keys. The cables and some bulbs we got from Antenna szaküzlet on Ráday utca.
In fact, we understood that shopping was the easiest part of our moving to a new apartment, when we started calling the offices of Internet and cable TV providers. Ideally, we wanted to get 3 in 1 – Internet + TV + telephone, to make the whole communications package cheaper, but found out that our choice of providers was limited to 3 ones serving the IX-th district. We tried UPC first, and were told that they did not have yet a cable in this new house, the same problem arouse when we contacted EMKTV. What’s more, EMKTV can only make installations if the order is signed by the owner of a flat. The third provider, Fibernet, was surprisingly expensive and we left it out. Having no other choice, we signed a contract with well-known to us ADSL provider now called T-Online.
Being car-less, we moved our personal belongings with Főtaxi, which driver, though sullen, helped us, nevertheless, to load suitcases and bags in a car and thanked us profusely for tips of 200 forints.
Now we are drilling holes and arranging things in a new flat, while waiting for a call from T-Online about date and time of installation, watching Hungarian TV channels and hoping that one day UPC will lay a cable in our house.