Brisbane to Berlin

Go. Travel. As far as you can. For as long as you can. Run. Cycle Fly. Bus. Take the train. Drive. But just go. Live in Berlin for a month or 2, 3, 4, even 6. But just go. As soon as you can…but ssshhh it’s a secret and I’ll tell you why. Part of me doesn’t want to broadcast this far and wide for fear of ruining what is, but I’d like you to know how easy it is to live the dream.

First big secret is how affordable it is. In 2012 I spent a summer in Berlin, paying between 350-400 Euros per month for a nice, spacious bedroom in apartments located in Mitte and Prenzlauerberg. Both sought after areas within stumbling distance of cafes, shops, bars and trains. The summer is a great time to sublet by the month when locals might take holidays or ex pats return home.

Berlin came to feel like home, living ‘local’ over ‘tourist’. I ebbed & flowed with the city, met some locals and some ex pats, explored neighbourhoods, hunted down cafes, bar hopped, ate gelati, tipped my wine / beer scale in favour of beer, found language exchange partners and embraced the electric atmosphere of the world cup.

In the creative hub of Germany where a diversity of nations flock to travel, escape, create, work or study you can’t help but get swept up in it. A month in I, too threw caution to the wind and started a project I'd always dreamed of.

Let’s not forget the backdrop you live against. If you venture to one of Berlin's famous clubs you're certain to walk past possibly the most visited piece of the wall still standing. So too in ‘Mauerpark’ where you could kill a few hours wandering the markets. Straße des 17 Juni, among others street names are also a constant reminder of the history of the city.

A popular way to get around is by bike and unlike Australia, it’s not compulsory to wear a helmet. I started out wearing one, but soon felt comfortable riding without it, though as I found out you can never be too careful around tram tracks. Just as I was feeling confident dotting and darting over them, one short trip home after a sprinkle of rain was my undoing. My wheel slid on the wet tracks, got stuck, I catapulted off into the back wheel of a parked car with flashes of hospitals, my travel insurance cover, the stairs to my apartment... but two old men kindly helped me to my feet, no sirens just head shakes and muttering to eachother about the importance of a helmets. The inability to run for a month was a minor setback, luckily the Berlin marathon had already been and gone.