Apartments

I may of found something that I hate even more than driving, apartment hunting (plus, when did I turn into an American and start using the word apartment anyway?). I've spent the last couple of weeks (and some time before that back in blighty) trawling the internets looking at around 150 or 200 places, whittling these down into around 15 or 20 decent ones and then trying to organise appointments to view them.

Now, before I get into the irritations of such a venture, a little on why I'm struggling to find a place. Finding AN apartment is fairly easy, it can be done in around 2 or 3 days IF you're not that arsed about the location or the condition of said apartment. You can get a decent enough place located somewhere around Prenzlauer Berg thats pretty cheap without any commission charges, it'd be perfectly liveable in and quite nice I'm sure. The reason its taking so long and being such a hassle (and yes, I do have only myself to blame so I shouldn't really complain, but I do so enjoy complaining) is that I'm looking for something thats a little special, located in a specific area with a specific set of criteria - ie. Frasierian living. There are places like this in Berlin but they are few and far between or ridiculously overpriced so its going to take a little time to find just the right one. Now, I've mulled over the merits of just settling for an okish place where I'd save a bit of money, but thats not why I moved here. I'm not doing the settling thing anymore, I'm getting what I want.

So, back to the fortnight of hunting. Its been a combination of a few things. One, people just don't respond to me asking for an appointment (how do these people manage to rent). Two, I get an appointment, go and see the place and its nothing even remotely like the place in the advert. Or three, its a nice enough place in a shitty area or a nice enough area and a shitty place. One place I saw was half of an office that wasn't even properly built yet (even though they were offering in a moving date of a week). All in all its about the same experience I had last year looking for a room.

The end result being that I've got a few more places to see on Monday (although I'm not holding my breath, I'm expecting more places filled with chintzy 80's furniture) but most likely I'll be extending my stay in the current temporary apartment while I look. Not the end of the world, it is overpriced for what it is but its not all that bad really :

Views from the Balcony

The Apartment