When we lived in Athens, we had upstairs neighbors who were constantly moving their furniture – what sounded like heavy pieces of furniture. It happened around the same time every evening, and it eventually became a joke in our household. We would speculate on the need for daily movement, and decided, ultimately, that they were hiding bodies in the wall behind a huge wardrobe. One kill a day would be pretty prolific even for a Ted Bundy. Sometimes we would be watching television and the sounds would get so loud and so ridiculous (often with massive amounts of squeaking) we couldn’t help but burst into laughter. If only our cats knew there was a gigantic mouse living above us. I can’t help but imagine what the sound of those kitties mad dashing over the floors sounds like to neighbors below. Maybe stories have been invented about us.
Since then we have had pretty quiet neighbors in our various residences, with seemingly light footed people. When we first moved in here we had a rather tumultuous couple living upstairs, but they have since moved out, and the apartment was sold a few months ago. Of course, I expected that when the apartment was bought a certain amount of work would be done. That seems to be the status quo on new apartment purchases in Greece: buy an apartment, tear all the walls down, and redo it your own way. This process of course involves lots of unpleasant noise, however, it is usually only during certain hours. Our new neighbors did not seem to care to uphold by the siesta rule, or the working late at night rule, and the work went on whenever they damn well pleased. Good for them.
When they were finally finished, we heard the typical moving in noises – lots of furniture and heavy things being moved around, hammers, etc. Since then, they seem to have a need to move one giant piece of furniture throughout the day, back and forth, scratching and screeching and shaking the whole building. These people put new meaning into the whole idea of moving shit around. And they just don’t ever seem to stop.
I’m sure we’ll get used to it eventually, and find the humor in it just as we did in Athens. But I still want to know what exactly is going on up there, lest someday it is my body they are trying to stow away.
1 comment:
It's funny you should mention this. In the four apartments I've inhabited these past 10 years, they've all been pretty quiet (the concrete slab?). OK, one had a couple upstairs that always had sex at 5 a.m. on Sunday, which was curious because it was a senior citizen couple and their 20-something daughter (them or her and her boyfriend?), and my last apartment always had furniture moving above me late in the evening.
The apartment belonged to the woman who collected my kinokrista, so I had a chance to look at potential culprits, but all she had was a fabric sofa on wheels, a lightweight kitchen table with skinny metal chairs and a huge china cabinet with a TV, alcohol and stereo with no indication of crowding. Since only the china cabinet seemed qualified to make such pounding, dragging noises, my next questions were how she did it alone and why. I never figured it out and moved here where we're now on the top floor moving dead bodies of our own ;)
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