Wohnung Suche

My Wohnung Suche (apartment search) is now over.

Today I move into my new place, a WG, which stands for Wohngemeinschaft....which basically means flat-share.

I am sharing with 5 others (so its quite a large place!), and will be getting lots of practice speaking German (even though they can speak english). The way it basically works, is that people leave Berlin for a portion of time (most usually a semester, to study elsewhere), and rent their room out to someone (like me) for that portion of time, so they're not put out for the rent. I think the person whose room i'm living in is on holidays, hence only two months availability (which works well for me).

If you wanted to google map it, punch the following into the search bar:

Paul-Robeson-Straße 30, 10439 Berlin, Germany

(yes, that is my awesome new bike)

the movies

so last night Dan, Walter & I went down to the famous Sony Centre at Potsdamer Platz. We saw District 9. I've already seen this, but cause i rate the movie, i was happy to see it again.

The reason we went to the Sony Centre as opposed to something a little closer, is that the Sony Centre plays movies in their original form - which means they're not dubbed, as most english movies are here.

Two strange observations:

1) After about 15 minutes of ads, the lights come back on, and people walk around with trays with snacks & stuff, going "ice-creams, ja?", for morons who are too deconstructed to purchase their stuff prior to the movie, and enjoy wasting everyone elses time

2) When the movie has finished, the lights stay off (presumably until all the credits are done rolling), so you have to navigate yourself out of the cinema in the dark (unless of course you enjoy reading credits).

Tour Die Mauer

The best way to get around Berlin is definitely on bike. Myself and one of Dans work mates Walter went on a good 25km tour around some parts where the Wall were. Starting in East Berlin, which is where we are now, in a suburb called Prenzlauer Berg, and making our way down through Friedrichshain...crossing the River Spree & where the wall was into Kreuzberg.

Walter is a great tour guide....i think i'll head back to a free museum we saw, which is quite near where Dan & Ella live.

I've also now figured out why Mauer park is called Mauer park....

see full album here

Pineapple Express

is a shit movie. Don't watch it.

The Office however....watch that.

Initial explorations & impressions

For this first week, I have been crashing at my friends Dan & Ella's place. They have been very accommodating, & i'm quite grateful.

On the first day Ella took us on a little walk, primarily to go visit Dan at his place of work. The photo on the left is NOT where he works. It is a squat, that is also used as an artists space. What I found interesting (besides the weird characters habitating in its surrounds), was what Ella pointed out, is that the building is very indicative of East Berlin (where we are). Because there wasn't as much money in the Eastern economy, fewer of the delapidated buildings have been rebuilt. In my opinion, they should leave them like this, because it gives the place character & story.
I also had a currywurst for lunch. Simon was obsessed with this in 2006.

I went with two of Dans work mates to a Football match between Hertha Berlin & Freiberg at Olympia Stadion. Its only early stages of the competition, and given Hertha's 0:4 loss, was supposedly a boring match. I however enjoyed the trip to the Stadion, exploring the Stadion itself, which was built by the Nazis...you can see in the pic its very 1930's design. The "empty" stadion of approx. 40k people was also a sight to see, compared to the pittance we get at NRL matches in Aus.



I borrowed Dan's bike and went on a bit of a run down to some of Berlins famous landmarks. I'll let the pictures below do the talking.
Riding around Berlin is amazing...the whole city is flat, and 90% of roads have a bike lane. If no bike lane, the cars are über friendly and aware of bikes.

welcome

welcome, to my Deutsche Geschichte (German Story).

a way for me to pass the time with my new mactoy, & release my inner nerd (as lee would have you believe).

also a way for me to share some sights & adventures that i encounter.

i'll try to keep these brief & interesting (more pictures = less typing).

ja!

airport byes