Any advice for living in Berlin?

[sadu]

Hi Everyone,

I'm moving to Berlin in a couple of weeks - we have spent the past 2 months in Ireland which is working out way too expensive, so time to move on.

I'll likely be staying there about 3 months, which seems to be the maximum you can do without a work permit.

I was wondering if anyone had already done a mini-retirement there and could share some advice?

I have already committed to an apartment, which is €750 per month (this is for 3 adults + 2 kids) which seems ok. We will be bringing our car across from Ireland on the ferry which is surprisingly cheap - while we won't need this for getting around Berlin, we will want it for other excursions around Europe that we are planning.

Anyone recommend a good VoIP provider - will be pretty low usage, I mainly want it so people can phone me rather than me calling out.

If anyone is currently in Berlin, I'd definitely be keen to catch up for a beer / coffee and share our experiences so far.

I know some of this was covered by Tim in the book (he seems to be a fan of Berlin), but I left that back in New Zealand as the bag was already pretty full.

Danke.

[octavian]

hey! Would be great to meet someone who really did it. And as I am myself a fan of Berlin, would be great to meet next time when I'm there. Guess it will happen at the end of august, beginning of September. My place in Berlin is somewhere close to Nollendrfplatz. Looking for a meet!

Octavian, Bucharest, Romania

[sadu]

Thanks for the reply - definitely keen to meet up if I'm still here at the end of August, but because I'm here on a holiday visa I'd need to get a job to be able to stay on longer than mid-august.

I have been in Berlin less than 24 hours, and it's unbelievable. I love everything about the place. I can see now why Tim went on and on about Berlin in his book.

For a start, everything is much cheaper than I thought. Having just left Ireland, anything can be considered cheap, but the prices here do seem genuinely reasonable. Our street is bright and busy, and close to everything. The bottle store at the end of the street is huge, and the prices cheap even by New Zealand standards. We have a bakery and dairy downstairs, restaurants and bars everywhere, and a really good park for the kids. Berlin is huge, but it's almost as if we have no reason to go any further than our immediate area, except to visit friends.

The language barrier offers some interesting challenges - I had less than 3 weeks to get ready to come here, so I basically speak no German. However, communicating is generally fun, and you can get anything you want by using gestures and throwing around the few words I do know.

I definitely think Berlin is going to work out better than Ireland.