Me: Of course, my dream is to live by myself eventually.
Kayla: Oh, my Aussie friend is looking for someone to take over her flat for a couple of months. Maybe you two should meet?
Me: Hell yeah.
And so, through my South African friend that I used to work with in Dublin who now also lives in Berlin, I got to meet Ailsa, the Aussie artist who’s going on an artists residency in the States for a couple of months. She’d had some problems with Airbnb people before, so she wanted to leave her flat in safe hands. (Ahem.) Enter me. Naturally, she loved me at first sight and we both agreed that I should have her apartment.
Of course, Hildeberta and Hildegard were heart-broken when I told them I’d be moving out. Who would leave long dark hairs all over the apartment when I was gone? But, on the plus side, they now get to clean every second week instead of every third week so I guess there’s that. Naturally, I will miss them a lot, but we’ll still see each other and I’ll have them over to my flat for a (hopefully not poisonous) dinner soon.
I moved into my new pad in Neukölln on Tuesday with the help of Fritz, who I hoped would be more alert behind the wheel than he is on trains. He came to my place at 10am (on the dot) and by 10.40, we had everything moved into my new flat. German-Irish efficiency. (Yes, it is a real thing…)
Words can’t describe how happy I am to be finally living on my own in Berlin – even if it is just for a short time. Of course, it’s more expensive than my old place, but I’ve decided to start living my life the way I want it to be (rather than how it actually is) and hope that everything else falls into place. Madness? Perhaps, but it feels wunderbar. And I get to play “If I were an egg, where would I be?” in a whole new LIDL.
I’ve already charmed the Lederhosen off the auld lads who are permanently installed outside the bar next door, and I’m planning on joining them several times a week – to practise my German. I’ve also met the little old Turkish lady who’s like the gatekeeper to the building and a good woman to have on side. She also doesn’t speak a word of English so our first meeting was quite entertaining.
Zeynep: Are you from Australia too?
Me: No, I’m from Ireland.
Zeynep: (brief pause) JOHNNY LOGAN!!!
Me: Erm, yeah…
(Ah, the good old days, when Ireland got more than “nul points” in the Eurovision.)
My first act upon moving in was to accidentally melt cheese all over the kitchen floor thanks to my new sandwich toaster. I’d gone to get dressed and put on my make-up after turning it on, and came back to find molten hot cheese covering the nice wooden floor and some wiring. I’d forgotten how fast those things toast, clearly.
I’ve also had to permanently close the door to the storage room, as I kept walking in there thinking it was the kitchen or the bathroom. But, thankfully, I’m less confused now, and becoming more successful at living. Last night, I had Nigel over for dinner and managed not to kill either of us. I cooked a sausage casserole that I was hoping would feed me for the week, but Nige polished off three-quarters of it in one sitting. Still, at least he didn’t wildpinkel on the balcony.
This morning, feeling rather continental, I decided to have my Schokobrötchen and tea on said balcony while sunning myself in my underwear. This afforded me the treat of seeing my Turkish neighbour doing his morning stretching routine on his balcony. Or at least he was doing it until he spotted the half-naked Irish woman eyeing him.
On the whole, after only two days, I’m enjoying living here so much that I think I might have the locks changed while Ailsa is in the States and not open the door when she comes back. Although, I’m not sure how German law enforcement would feel about that.
So, for anyone who hasn’t been keeping track of my journey in Berlin, this is how it looks so far…
Where to next? Who knows, but I should probably start looking tomorrow…
One of underrated song from Johnny Logan – Save Me
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Entertaining AND educational. I was wishing for that map!
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You’d definitely need it! 🙂
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You’ve made it. You’ve become one of us “living the Berlin lifestyle” although you’re not completely German Linda, as you’ve made friends with the neighbours far too quickly. You need at least a year before you get the nod of recognition! Having said that though, when I lived in Tiergarten (before moving to genteel Prenzlauerberg), our gay neighbour left a bottle of red wine outside my door as a welcome gift! Now that’s the way to do things LOL!
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I wish that would happen here! 🙂
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Alas, I will never understand this relationship white people have with the sun 😀
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It’s bordering on obsession with me 🙂 It’s funny – I was just thinking I hadn’t seen you around these parts in a while, and then you appeared! Nice to have you back! 🙂
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Yes, I was busy with wrapping up my degree. I had to defend my thesis in front of a bunch of profs 🙂
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Hope you did well!
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Let’s just say some ass was kicked and it was not mine 😛
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Excellent 🙂
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Congratulations! I actually googled the neighborhood – looks super-cute! The balcony reminds me of my fire escape in Manhattan, and I used to sunbathe there too 🙂
It looks like you’ve lived in more areas of Berlin already than most Berliners!
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I probably have! Most new arrivals move around quite a bit though – accommodation is NOT easy here! I even have a guest mattress if you do make it before July 😉
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Linda on her own in the big city! What trouble will you get into now, especially with those Germans at the bar next door…I mean, the BAR next door!! Congratulations on your strokes of good luck 🙂
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Ha ha! Thank you! And I think I’m going to add ‘bar next door’ to my list of ‘must-haves’ for the next place 🙂
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Bar next door, hot men…I’m wondering why it *wasn’t* already a requirement 😛
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I never said they were hot – you just read what you want to read 😉
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Haha, no silly, I didn’t say the guys NOW are hot…I said the NEXT ONES will be 🙂
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Ha ha ha! They probably couldn’t be any less hot than these ones so I’ll take your word for that 🙂
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It might be an American girl thing, but accents up the hotness factor by like 1.5.
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Very true – that’s why I do so well with my sexy Irish accent 😉
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Oooh baby, you know it!
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The handcuffs are only for when they try to escape 😉
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Linda likes it rough! Duly noted 😉
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Shh, my mam reads this 😉
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These lips are sealed!!!
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Too many jokes 😉
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Three cheers for a place of your own! Even if it’s just for a little while. Hildegard and Hildeberta are either breathing sighs of relief, or annoyed that after all their efforts to ‘break you in’, you have departed before their job was done. 😀
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I’d say it’s probably the latter 😉
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Jealous!!! I want to live by myself, waaaah! I love my roommate and all, but shit, it would be heavenly to have the whole place to myself. When she goes off for weekends away, I just feel so at peace. Nobody cares if I don’t wash my dishes or if I’m loud or if I’m naked… I hope you walk around naked all the time. Milk that.
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I’m naked right now. (Not really) 😉 And yes, it is an amazing feeling! I LOVE living by myself! Just hope I can find somewhere on my own after this – it would be horrible to have to go back to shared living now!
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My current roommate is chinese. We are both equally dirty, almost never clean plus she cooks for both of us. i reccomend her to everyone!
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She sounds like a keeper!
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Choice is obvious – the centre!
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Dunno – might start doing a loop again – maybe in the opposite direction 😉
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Sounds lovely – pity it’s only for a few months though! I’m curious what the inside of the place looks like, how many rooms etc? Enjoy the new place!
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Huge living room with balcony out double doors, large bedroom with double bed that gets the sun in the evenings and turns a lovely rose colour 🙂 Small-ish kitchen but it has everything you need, same with the bathroom. There’s also a spare room used as a storage room that’s like Monica Geller’s closet of doom 🙂 Wooden floors and big windows throughout 🙂 It’s great!
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Nice legs! How great to have a balcony and some privacy if only for a short time. Maybe you could become a professional housesitter … that would be an interesting way to get to know Berlin as well 🙂
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It would but I’m not sure I could handle moving every couple of months! It would be nice to have somewhere for a minimum of a year next – feel a bit more settled! And thanks for the compliment – I’m blushing 😉
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Girlie! You DO get around! But this new place with that fab balcony?!?!!? LOVE it!!! I love the balconies…enjoy!
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Me too! And it’s just in time for the nice weather too! Shame I have to move again in two months but c’est la Berlin vie! 😉
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awesome! that balcony alone is so worth the move even if it’s for a spell. don’t forget sunscreen or soon you’ll turn into glowing red Irish fury after too much sunbathing 😉 fingers crossed for that job.
P.S. that lock changing scheme is so tempting
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Red Irish Fury would be a great name for a band 🙂 I think I’ll go and buy bronzing oil… 😉
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add German into the mix and you’ll have red irish Fury with extra efficiency for the cake icing 😉
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Ha ha! I found out today that a danish is called a ‘raisin snail’ in German – how great is this language 🙂
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hm, now I wonder who’s the copy cat here, ’cause there’s definitely a bun with raisins called ‘sraigė’ or ‘snail’ in LT
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Hmm, maybe everyone but English speakers call them some sort of snail!
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They call ’em Snail Buns in Gloucestershire too! Get a couple to enjoy on the lovely balcony 🙂
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Great for my tan, bad for my waistline 😉
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…and there are also poppy seed snails and cinnamon snails and nut snails and… ooooh…. think I’m spiralling into a coma…
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Ha ha! Go and have a lie down stat! Or get thee to a bakery! 🙂
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I. Am. In. Bloody. Spain. Unlike good bakeries. Sighighighiiigh.
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They must have some good cakes!
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Yah… oh, look, da fliegen Schweinchen an meinem Fenster vorbei…!
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Ha ha ha! Another Schwein one 🙂
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That Johnny Logan song is lame. No wonder why I’ve never heard of him…haha. Umm..only joking if you are a fan.
Sounds like good times over there.
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It is! And no, I’m not a fan – I don’t think anyone in Ireland is! The Germans seem to have adopted him 😉
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Ha! Love it! Congrats on “your” new place!!!
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Thank you! I can see Ailsa reading this and getting the next flight back though 😉
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Love it! Good to see you livin’ the dream!
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Had to start some time 😉 Pity it’s so short though!
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Wow you are coming up in the world Linda – whew, your own place (even of it is temporary). That’s wonderful , especially the balcony. Congrats!
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Thank you! I’m about to get out there and enjoy it again 🙂
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Chuckling over the auld lads and thrilled at my new word of the day: wildpinkel!
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I know – I love it 🙂 I need to find out how many versions of ‘pinkel’ there are in German. So far I’ve got Stehpinkel (standpee), Sitzpinkel (sitpee) and Wildpinkel (outdoorspee) 😉
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Careful now! Cos there’s also a “Pinkelwurst” traditionally eaten with kale in northern Germany. 😉 The experts aren’t too sure where the name comes from…
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkel
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No, no, no!
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There’s got to be one for a pissing contest.
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Pinkelkampf? 😉
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Mein Pinkelkampf… sorry if it’s in bad taste, I couldn’t resist!
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Heh heh, that was why I chose Kampf out of all of the options Google presented – I set ’em up, you knock ’em down 😉
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Woohoo! The glorious-ness of your own place after roommates (even good ones) is a beautiful, beautiful thing. Enjoy that sunny balcony and we’ll expect some good stories of future neighbor tales!
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I’m enjoying being the naked neighbour for a change 🙂 There are no curtains on the bedroom window!
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To the IKEA!
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For the sake of two months, I won’t be doing any IKEA trips 😉 Though I did pick up a few bits and pieces at Pfennigland – my new favourite shop 🙂 2 wine glasses, an egg cup, a nice scented candle and a potato masher for €5 🙂
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That’s a damn good deal.
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I certainly thought so 🙂 Will kit out my entire flat from there when I get one 😉
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Ha! You need some drapes Linda. I have an acquaintance who is a police detective. He and I took a course together and he is a big, muscular black guy with a perpetual frown in his face. To top it all off he, of course, always carried a gun, even when off duty. But he is really a teddy bear underneath. Anyway, during the course, my marriage broke up and I moved into my own place for the first time in many decades. He sought me out in class one day during a break to offer his empathy. “You know when my marriage broke up, I realized that I could play my music as loud as I wanted and dance around the house naked.” I thanked him for his attempt to cheer me up. A few minutes later one of the other students came over and said in a low voice: ” I happen to overhear your conversation earlier. Don’t you find the image of him dancing around the house naked, except for his gun, a little disturbing?” Bwahahaha! Don’t disturb the neighbors Linda!
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Ha ha, this post made me want to go and buy a gun, not curtains! Dancing around naked with a gun would be unusual – even for Berlin!! Great story! 🙂
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Ok, def missed a post then! I blame you hahaha
Will have to catch up! You could have also gone with Rupert
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Too many Harry Potter searches – and I don’t want those people 😉
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That balcony is sweet! Worth the move, even if it is only for a few months.
Will Hildeberta and Hildegard let you back into the fold when your time in the new flat is over?
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I’m pretty set on living by myself but it depends on my work situation – STILL waiting to hear about this damn job! And our lease was going to be up on that place in a few months anyway so they’ll be looking for somewhere new as well – and they’re turning my room into a living room (cos they know they’ll never find anyone as awesome as me again) 😉
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Fingers crossed about the job! 🙂
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Thanks! I’m supposed to hear this week so I guess they’re leaving it til the last possible moment…
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That’s an awful lot if moving you’ve done there. Living alone sounds so wonderful. I hope this a a wonderful next few months, and when your friend gets back you find the perfect apartment to live alone in.
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Oh Britt, me too! And I’m trailing behind some of my friends in the moving stakes! Though I think I’ll be catching up after the next one! Seems to be a common theme among people who move to Berlin!
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Yuck! I absolutely detest moving, so much so that I’ll live somewhere that I hate before convincing myself to move. Herrball and I are finishing up our move at the moment, and all I can think about is how we’re just going to have to do it again in six months at the latest. I just want to trash everything I own and start over, but I’m way too poor for that.
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Ha, wouldn’t that be great! I sometimes feel that way about dishes and clothes – wish I could buy new ones instead of washing them 😉
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LOVEEEEEEEE it!\
But who is johnny logan? Who is Nigel? Did I miss a post?
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Johnny Logan won the Eurovision twice for Ireland 🙂 But you’re Canadian so I don’t expect you to know what! Nigel is my English friend – Nigel was the most English name I could think of 😉 He was in the last post too – puking 🙂
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