Housessss

So, as promised, let me start with a few photos of my temporary place. It is in a gorgeous area, with all these beautiful houses, and I love it here! This is my building:

 

These are the two rooms (one is more sort of a live-in kitchen. Of course, there is also a huge bathroom (with bathtub) and all that....

 

 

And here is the view from the house, towards Kolwitzplatz. Quite lively, eh?

 

However, this is obviously only a temporary flat, so I am looking for something more definitive. During the weekend I saw 3 places: 2 horrible, one in a bad location. This was sort of the moment I started realising that I am quite spoilt with my current flat, and that I really should be looking for something near here.

I did see one other flat, kinda close, but it was still too far away (in between I cancelled a few that, with the additional info, were too far away as well). Then there was one flat, which on the website looked AMAZING. And it's in the parallel street from where I am now. But it was really quite disappointing. No view into the street, kinda cramped, just not great. This morning, I saw a nice flat quite closeby. But it doesnt fulfil all the Fedor-criteria (the Fedor-criteria being: affordable, with balcony, old-style building, 3 rooms, nice). In fact, it didnt have a balcony and the building was quite ugly from the street side. Inside, it was all renovated and all that, but it just wasnt quite the thing.

This evening, however, I may have encountered the perfect flat! Nice area, close to metro, 3 big rooms, kitchen present, French Balcony, affordable. BUT (there always is a but), a total of 55 people responded to the ad, so it really is a question whether we may have a chance. Tomorrow evening, I will see two more: a loft in a renovated factory and a 108 square meter place in the same street I am right now that was offered to us in a more direct manner (so no 54 people to compete with). I have a bunch of other appointments for next week still, but I am already starting to lose the overview.... There are lots of nice places! But it's too difficult to choose!!!!

Anyway, after seeing those places tomorrow, I will fly back to Italy for a few days: I am totally looking forward to that!!! Mostly to see Fedor, but also to see Milano, and finally, of course, to go the Licence Office and see whether my driver's licence is already done...........

Tschüß!
Olaf

PS I think it is time for me to admit that 4 years in Italy has been a waste for me linguistically. A week in Germany and I already feel a lot more comfortable having conversations with people, include phone conversations with strangers, IN GERMAN, than i ever did about talking IN ITALIAN on the phone even to people I know!