Shall I move to Berlin, Munich, or elsewhere?

Hey

Moving to Germany next year for a few months (no longer than 6 months) but I'm uncertain as to what part of Germany to go to. A lot of people have recommended Berlin to me, saying it's beautiful etc and cheap to live there. Others said Munich, citing various reasons. I'd like to rent out an apartment for the few months there and then use it as a kind of hub while I'm there, and then travel to various places of interest around the country. I am also hoping to do some work while I'm there but that doesn't look very likely considering my stay in the country will probably be quite short and also the fact that I have basically no German.

Looking foward to hearing your replies,

Regards

You've not asked any questions. Your options appear to be Berlin or Munich and you appear to have various pros and cons for both. Pick one and go for it.

What about the work situation, would it be difficult to get some short term employment while I'm here?

Also, will accommodation be hard to find come January and February?

Sorry about the lack of questions in the first post.

here is a good website on the accommodation front

www.wg-gesucht.de

cant give you my opinions on anything else really, good luck.

Thanks for that Schotte. Is there an English version of the site by any chance?

No, but some of the adverts are in English or German & English depending on the person. It's pretty simple to use though - pick a city under "Angebot lesen" and then search for a room, studio or flat in the city of your choice (pick which one at the top of the page) and then sort by area, price, size, move in date etc... For just a few months pick "Zwischenmiet" which is a sublet and will be furnished and sometimes also include internet/phone (although Berlin has loads of internet/telecafes).

Also, try using LEO a dictionary: http://dict.leo.org/

If you plan to do a lot of travelling within Germany, then you might wish to consider somewhere more central. That said, and without intending any offence to our Prussian friends, I think you'll find more of interest within 2-3 hours of Munich than within the same radius from Berlin.

Excellent Alex. I'll go through that for a bit today and if I've any queries I'll throw them up here. Thanks.

Fuck off, Bitterfeld/Wolfen, Leuna and Buna are all within 2-3 hours of Berlin.

But in Berlin, prices are cheaper so you have more money to go travelling... plus it's closer to Scandinavia/the Baltic/Poland. It all depends on where you want to go.

Yep, as I said, I see it as a sort of hub.

Be preprepared for paying money to housing agencies to get you a flat. It surprised me when i came over but that's the way it is.

So don't get to happy about rents showing 300 per month then?

On WG gesucht definitely! In Berlin I know people with rent as low as 100euro a month for a room in a WG (flatshare). They're mostly from private people rather than companies so what's there is normally what you pay! The fees are only if you go through the larger companies from what I've heard.

I only have limited experience of Bochum and Dortmund way. Here it seems fairly normal to go through a flat agency which charges you money.

I think that maybe if you're looking for a longterm lease where you're the Hauptmieter then Berlin could be the same, but for rooms and sublets most people here use the magazines (e.g. Zitty) and websites like wg gesucht.

I also find if you use google.com to look up a german site it often gives the option to 'translate this site' and usually translates enough words to figure the site out.

also using Babelfish you can translate whole blocks of text, so you can copy and paste from ads and sites (it may come out sounding funny, but it gives you a decent gist of the ad for a flat that you're trying to decipher)

Apart from the strange German abbreviations but there should be a guide to those somewhere on Toytown.

That's what the search function is for.

General information: Apartment rental in Germany.

Lo and behold, one of the sections deals with Rental Advertisement Abbreviations.

Hope this helps.

Cheers guys, all this help is much appreicated. One concern on arriving in Germany is not being able to find accommodation quick enough. I don't really have the time to be waiting around unfortunately.

A lot of stuff in Berlin seems to be available immediately. If you have a feel for areas, you can probably organise something before you come over (I've done that before by asking for photos - fairly successfully too) or if you have a friend here, send them to look at places!

Hey, just take this place as an example : Link

Is there a link to a picture of the place on that site? I remember checking out a place on that site recently and they had a picture with it but I'm not sure how I got the picture to load uip.

Thanks.

Anyone?

No, no photos. Some have 'em and some don't, depending on the technical competence and laziness levels of the landlord, tenants or agent.

Cheers for that.

Also, since I'm coming from Ireland and probably staying just for a few months, will I need some sort of visa?

No ...

Cool, cheers.

Hi! Have you thought about teaching English as a Foreign language? If you haven't already got TEFL you can do the course here in Ireland before you go. I was nursing in Germany but also taught English at a language school on a very flexible basis. Great way of meeting other nationalities, as well as earning some dosh. Usually you can choose to work as many hours as you wish and can also find private teaching on a one-to-one basis. Hope this was some help.

Hello again.

Can anyone tell me if this site - http://www.wg-gesucht.de/1-zimmer-wohnunge...1.0.0.html?so=0 - has apartments with people already in them and they're looking for people to move in?

I've a feeling that these are all empty apartments but I may be wrong.

They are indeed ... because you chose to look for "1-Zimmer-Wohnung" (1-room-apartment) instead of "WG-Zimmer" (room in a shared flat)

Doh!

Thanks

Details and pics of the 7923 rooms on offer in Berlin ...

That's excellent miwild, really helpful in my search for some accommodation. I notice that 99% of the ads are in German, I've come across the odd English one, but I presume they'll have some english if I get in contact with them?

Approx. 92% of Germany´s population are actually German speaking Germans ... just click on "NACHRICHT SENDEN" (send a message) and try to communicate in English, which shouldn´t be much of a problem in a big city like Berlin imo

While I have run into plenty of English-speaking Germans here in Berlin, I unfortunately didn't run into any during my apartment search. We tried to send messages to realtors in English but none of them responded. When I asked a German friend to call them, they said that they got our messages but no one in the office spoke English so they didn't call us back! I eventually had to have a German friend help us through the whole process. Maybe you will be luckier but I have learned not to just assume that people will speak English. Good luck to you!

Shit, just remembered, I'm here 7 days and I've forgotten to register at the local town hall. I'm still in a hostel though...what should I do?

Partridge, I wouldn't worry. I don't think the 7 days is applied so strictly (in Munich anyways). And when I was in Heidelberg they initially refused to register me when I first went in, as I was staying in temporary accommodation (until I explained was going to be in said temporary accommodation for the first 3 months, and the clerk rang her boss to make sure it was ok). So I doubt they'll even accept you registering to a hostel.