1 year, 5 different apartments. Only in Berlin, Germany.
By: Jessica Bong
Tags: Migration, Germany, Berlin, Relocation, Expat

More than a year has passed since the wide-eyed wonder gal moved to Berlin, Germany. Packed with a giant Lowe Alpine backpack, she arrived in the mid-summer August of Berlin, greeted with brightness and warmth, a welcomed surprise compared to what she had in mind the last time she was here.

Armed with an innate motivation to blend in with the locals, speak German and make a mark in this new chapter, there were only a few things capable of throwing her straight-lined vision and plans a giant curved ball.

German bureaucracy and apartment finding.

About a year ago I made the move from Singapore to the capital of Germany. Berlin is a dream to many. Cosmopolitan and sophisticated, yet kind on the wallet and generous with opportunities. Probably the best city for entrepreneurs, students and musicians, one can imagine that there are many others like myself settling in this city.

I moved into was a nice corner-block apartment located on the 3rd floor of a building in Prenzlauer Promenade, in the area of Pankow. It was sorted out by the language institute by paying an extra 500euros/month for rent + administrative costs.

places I’ve lived in // original map from inyourpocket.com

Pankow marked the start of my life in Berlin. It was where I experienced Berlin’s surprisingly warm summer, warmer than Singapore minus our humidity. A tip for moving to a new place is to begin a routine, and mine consisted of school and the CrossFit gym. Social events fitted in whatever blank spaces I had left.

In my first Berlin home I had 2 students as housemates and the landlady whom stayed with us. I must say, having German-speakers in the house really helped as first-time movers can expect many bureaucratic procedures such as the ‘Anmeldung’ registration, and not forgetting an oh-so-innocent ‘Runkfunkbeitrag’ letter.

My room was quite a change from living on the 12th floor back at home. The first floor was a pub and I stayed on the third, being the glass-half-full kinda gal I’d argue that the noise might have helped me learn German in my sleep. What was interesting for a first-time Berlin tenant was that doors have locks, but room keys are not a thing. It’s typical for apartments to not have a living room, and building levels starts with 0, not 1. Furthermore, two ways of burning quick holes in your pockets are by pirating movies and losing keys. The first one is illegal and the second one is a costly mistake, since all apartments share the same main-door key. Both careless mistakes will cost you an upwards of 500 euros, each. Welcome to Berlin.

at my first home filling up the Anmeldung

Due to issues with attaining an ‘Anmeldung’, I soon relocated from Pankow to the district of Kreuzberg. Kreuzberg grew to be my favorite spot due to great memories of staying in this area which was filled with youth. I’d say student apartments are usually a hit or miss. If you’re lucky, you could be allocated with good flatmates, accessibilities and a spacious room. If you had the misfortunate of getting tied up with untidy flatmates and out-of-whack neighbors, that’s probably signs to look for a new place.

For me, I shared our fifth floor apartment with 2 other girls from the same language school. Staying on the fifth floor without lift-access means we get a daily workout — again, glass half-full. However this time round, the apartment had a living room and even a balcony where I started planting strawberries and greens before winter commenced. During weekends we’d gather friends, create makeshift tables to play beer pong, have ‘taco nights’ and pretty much do what students do without supervision.

I stayed a total of around 5 months in Kreuzberg before terminating lease with the school contract, which were both tied together. As it was all very last-minute, the only place I could move to was Hermsdorf, a district far away from Berlin itself, and into the state of Brandenburg. While living in Hermsdorf I found my love for Berlin’s nature. After chancing upon the majestic serenity of Tegel forest, I started searching for other nature spots around all corners of Berlin to explore.

My stay in Hermsdorf coincided with COVID taking a turn of worst in Berlin. This would be around March 2020. Before long, work and school transited online and panic buying assumed. As we can imagine, populous parts of the city took the worst hits and hence I’d count myself lucky to be outside of the city during this period.

While living in Hermsdorf was enjoyable, I decided to move a little closer to the city for better accessibility. Charlottenburg was perfect. Away from the central district and close to the best nature spots of Berlin. These include the Schloss Charlottenburg, Grunewald forest and numerous Volksparks, all of which kept me safe and sane during social distancing measures from COVID.

By this time, Berlin was still under strict restrictions from the pandemic. I made the decision to switch from using public transports to transiting with a bicycle at this point in time. There were a few instances where drunkards or homeless men blessed me with unkind remarks on the U-Bahn. There was another instance where a Muslim friend and I took the tram and had a lady come at us swearing. I spoke with a German-born Asian, and understood that no matter how local you are, it’s the skin color and outer appearance ‘they’ see, and what Social Media had painted. That rests my case with COVID and racism.

Getting a bicycle would probably be one of the best decisions you can make in Berlin. The strict bicycle laws and infrastructure put in place makes Berlin a heaven for cyclists. The downside therein — bicycle theft. If you could enjoy all the perks without getting your bike stolen, then join me in declaring my love for cycling in this amazing city! If one would ask me my best experience in Berlin, I’d say exploring the city and it’s nature on bike.

After witnessing a decent snowfall, exploring countless nature spots in West Berlin, my stay in Charlottenburg had to come to an end. Fortunately, a friend of mind was leaving Berlin and I for one could not pass off the chance of taking over his lease at Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz.

In the heart of Mitte, living at Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz is as wild as Berlin gets. The left side of our apartment got full blast of noise from the high traffic, but the right side pretty much guaranteed a good night’s sleep. There was no living room but a large bathroom shared within 4 of us and a balcony overlooking a children play area and the neighbour’s backyard. The more interesting aspects of this place has to be its surroundings. The area is pretty much a tourist spot, within it Alexanderplatz, Mauer park and Beach Mitte a stone’s throw away. Cluttered with all kinds of nightlight, bars and restaurants, a night’s out usually meant just visiting one of the restaurants we’ve yet to try. As much as living here seemed to be a city-gal’s wet dream, at times it did feel abit much, having to pass through crowd-filled streets on a daily basis. Then again, it was a well-lived experience and I appreciate the perks of it all every single day.

Living in Berlin has been a dream come true. Although moving 5 times in a year is not something I’d wish for, without these inconveniences would not have been experiences and stories to share. Moving to a new place comes with it’s own set of potential problems and issues. Akin to any problem in life, my advice is one taken from Eckhart Tolle, author of ‘Power of Now’. Whenever you find yourself in a stressful situation, there are 3 ways to go about it.

Accept it,

Change it, or

Remove yourself from it.

This has been my compass and I hope yours too.