First Day of Apartment Hunting…and a bit of Pho

Today was a bit of a marathon. Cell phones and apartment hunting were on today’s list of things to do, and while we learned a good amount about both subjects, we actually accomplished very little.

We started off hoping to get a cell phone or two. Life these days, of course, is nearly impossible without, so after collecting the brochures from all the major providers yesterday-we thought we’d decided what to do.  Time being of the essence we wanted to stop by a store and purchase them and therefore be able to take our new phone with us immediately. Just as the salesman almost had us in his web of smooth talk, however, we realized the same phones from the same company were much cheaper if purchased online. 

 ”Ummm…we…are going…ummm…to have lunch…yea…lunch to think about which phone,” we told the slick bastard, and quickly departed.  

Traveling then down to NeuKoeln (New Cologne) we arrived a good two hours before our appointment to see an apartment. After looking online for a few days now, we had set up our first couple appointments.

 The first place looked great online, but we quickly decided it wasn’t what we wanted and promptly cancelled an hour before. Let’s just say, a bit rough for our tastes.  

Off to the next appointment...

Neighborhoods in Berlin are different from block to block and while this one, on Berlin’s southeast side, is said to be “up and coming,” the coming on this block was not up and still a good few years (perhaps a decade) away.  

Dressed up as we were for our appointment…the nice gentlemen drinking their schnapps on the sidewalk seemed to say “Fuck, there goes the neighborhood.” (Actually what they said was not as nice as all that.)

We had some lunch in the neighborhood and went off to our next appointment. Riding the S-Bahn (Fast train) around to Berlin’s East we felt more at home not far from where we lived 2002-2004. 

The north side of Friedrichshain, we found, has not changed much since we left, yet it was still a bit too quiet.While the apartment was pretty nice inside…

Sunny…fourth floor…classic, circa-1900 building…

french doors in almost every room…a large bathroom and kitchen (though the kitchen had some wierd plastic, cork-immitation flooring)…and even a balcony…

The long and skinny balcony

…it just wasn’t right. The landlord, for one, didn’t seem to like people, didn’t want to talk at all, and wanted all applications sent to his lawyer to review first. Weird.

  So we left, sat in our tram toward home and discussed the pros and cons.

The M south to Warshauer Bridge

  It wasn’t until we got back into Kreuzberg that we realized that our “it was ok, I guess” feeling really dawned us as a sign that we should forget about the place. Kreuzberg is full of life…creative, crazy, full of cafes, restaurants, bars, graffiti and everything else you can imagine…North Friedrichshain is not. We lived their once already. And yes…it was ok.  

This time we will make no compromise.  

And just to solidify our reasoning, we went out for some Vietnamese food.  North Friedrichshain did not have Pho. Reason enough for us.  

Pho, curry and Ca phe sua

 And after such a dinner there was no more discussion. The pho was that good.

Tomorrow is another day…we have another appointment…and dammit we will finally order our cell phones. (And maybe eat some more pho, if the choice is up to me.)