Just Like In Pulp Fiction, It’s The Little Differences

Remember in Pulp Fiction when Vincent says “it’s the little differences. I mean, they got the same…over there that we got here, but it’s just…it’s just there it’s a little different.”

Now that you have seen our pad (both the before and after), I can talk a bit more about it. There are a few differences between apartments here and apartments in the US.

• No apartment numbers. We don’t have an apartment number, just the street address. When you walk into a building, you will see a mass of letter boxes with everyone in the building’s names written on them.  When people come to our apartment, we tell them the floor and they have to look at the name plates on the doors.

 

Note the handles on both doors

• No doorknobs. Almost all doors have handles, not knobs. This makes it easier to open the door while carrying things with your elbow (or other preferred body part).

• No smoke detectors.

• Almost all doors only lock with a key (some will lock if you slam them hard enough without one). That being said, I am now guaranteed to lock myself out at some point.

The doors open in. In newer buildings they also lever up from the bottom to provide a bit of air without an open door.

• No screens. We really haven’t needed them. St. Patrick got rid of Ireland’s snakes, which saint got rid of Switzerland’s mosquitos? That should definitely merit sainthood.

• Windows have doors that open and handy roller blinds on the outside.

• Houses and apartment buildings have bomb shelters! Most people use them as storage spaces). It a space-strapped country they provide much needed extra storage.*

*If you build a new residential building, you are required by law to include a bomb shelter!