Berlin: Day 1

So far, I am loving Berlin! I have been here for exactly 24 hours, but so far I can tell that this month is going to be a lot of fun and too short. I got to "my" home, which is a really nice apartment in the Charlottenburg part of Berlin. I have a room that's about 2.5 times the size of my and Rochelle's room in Dublin (with German TV), my own washroom and use of the kitchen and living room. My host's name is Marina, and she seems really friendly and is adamant that we will only speak German - while it's tough, I appreciate it!

Today I woke up with a can-do attitude :) I took the S-Bahn to the Goethe-Institut (where I'm going to be studying 20 hours a week for the next month). I knew it was an up-and-coming area of Berlin (or so I read), but I was shocked by all the different types of shops and the masses of restaurants/cafés in the area - I'll never run out of stores to explore! What I was most excited about was a Bikram Yoga studio literally next door to the institute, which I will have to try. 

Instead of heading back home, I decided to explore around the area. With the help of my map, I found my way to Alexanderplatz and the Fernsehturm. I bought a sim card for my phone (with international calls to landlines costing only ¢1 per minute!) and pretty much just walked for 2 hours. I didn't realize that where I was headed would take me two hours to get to - I'm so used to Dublin where you can walk from one end of the city centre to the other in half an hour. 

Things I Like About Berlin (so far):

• Tonnes of green space (I got lost in the Tiergarten for about 15 minutes today; I found it so bizarre that I was still in the city centre) 
• Everyone's pretty tall (I fit in!) 
• Awesome transportation system
• So much history everywhere! I'm going to do the free walking tour on Saturday, so I'll understand what I'm looking at, but right now everything is just huge, old and decorative to me.
• You can find pretty much anything you need (perks of a big city)

If you want to get in touch with me, my German number is +49 1578 0319970, give me a call!

In other news, I realised that today marks the 1 year anniversary of me moving to Dublin! Maybe I should make this tradition, moving to a different city every year... I learnt a lot and definitely grew up during my year there - if it wasn't for that experience, I would never be in Berlin now. I miss Dublin already, but I'm eager to start my new adventure in beautiful Berlin :)