Last week, we went to Berlin to find an apartment. This being our second trip to the East, we were a little more relaxed with our surroundings. We took a bus tour of the centre of the city where we saw where Angela Merkel (www.angela-merkel.de) works, naked bums (literally, assholes) in a park, the pregnant oyster, and a lot of empty parking lots that used to be something beautiful. It was less depressing than the walking tour we took in January. Althought, I was hoping to see more garbage and stray puppies not 'this is the largest shopping mall in Europe' which we went to later and it smelled like rotten cheese. Actually, it smelled like my bathroom after an ex-girlfriend threw up Blue cheese steak and it got stuck in the drain pipes. Delicious.
We have secured an apartment in Spandau. Since Spandau is about 30 minutes by train from the city centre, I was worried there would be nothing there. It would be like getting off in Maple Ridge and the only feature there is some Horse clock. Fortuantely for us Spandau is just like another little city complete with Malls, Starbucks, and Internet Cafes. Our apartment is about 10 minutes from the bahnhof and just off a main street. It's a two bedroom and has a fitted kitchen! For some reason, apartments don't come with the standard stove, fridge, and cupboards. Instead, you have to buy that shit on your own dime and haul it from place to place. Cupboards!! So it's pretty much a dream when you find an apartment that comes with all that stuff. The bathroom does not accomadate fat people, they'll have to shimmy down the hallway to the toilet. Sorry. Both floors are hardwood (finally) and there's a nice little balcony that looks out into the street, not into the courtyard garbage bin like the others.
Overall, I'm very pleased with our find. Every apartment was probably the most beautiful apartment I've ever seen considering I'm from Vancouver and character apartments like this would never be in my price range.
