my first week in berlin

Distrikt Coffee, Berlin

I have had a blog for some time now, often publishing photographs here, there and whenever I feel like it. But now, now I'm actually doing something exciting with my life so I thought this would be a nice platform for everyone to be updated on my life's happenings in this cool city that I'm currently living in.

I arrived in Berlin late last Sunday, and was greeted with 0 degree weather as soon as I walked off the plane. Yes it is cold, no I don't hate it. I like the idea of coats and boots and scarves and socks, there is something quite romantic about it. Anyways, I arrived on Sunday and started German class promptly at 8am the next morning. The first week was anything but a holiday. My classes run from 9-3pm everyday, so I spent most of my first week either in class or traipsing all around Berlin apartment hunting. Berlin is rent-controlled, which is good but also means that it doesn't let the market work efficiently, creating a very serious housing shortage. So in my first week I had emailed over 60 people, and visited 10 apartments only to be offered one. I've heard that I was lucky, which really goes to show how serious the crisis is. As stressful as it was, looking at apartments was a pretty good crash course into the geography of Berlin - the amount of times I caught the tram in the wrong direction (because the cars drive on the other side of the road here) has definitely exceeded the single digits already. I find it hard enough to remember what is left and right in Australia. Aside from apartment hunting, language class is super useful and even after a week I feel as though my German has improved ten-fold. I can still barely order a coffee, but I'm getting there.

Today was my first day off since I arrived, so I decided to go out to Distrikt Coffee for breakfast. Usually I'm a savoury girl, but I took a risk ordering the sweet option, which most definitely paid off. The coffee was top notch too, although the waitress' did think I was crazy for ordering 2x 3 shot lattes (my usual in Australia). Then, I went to my weak spot - Acne Studios and couldn't resist a jacket that was 40% off (pictures to come). At 12, I met up with some friends from language class and we headed to Friedrichstraße where I discovered a super cool Swedish label & other stories. I bought a cool black shirtdress, but resisted not buying the whole shop. As for now, I'm back home at my cosy apartment in Prenzlauer Berg about to head of for some shisha with friends, tschüß!