Home straight (Despite bureaucracy's efforts)

But it ticks most of the boxes - it's cheap, reasonably central, three rooms and kitchen, balcony, quiet street, and most importantly of all - we can actually have it!
The amount of crap you've to go through to get an apartment here - this country really takes the biscuit. In fact this country takes all the fucking biscuits when it comes to filling in forms. There are enough forms to be filled in to make you want to leave the country if you didn't have to fill in a million forms to do so.

Then there's the Freizügigkeitsbescheinigung, a piece of paper stating my right to freedom of movement already guaranteed by an EU passport.
To get it you need your Anmeldebestätigung (proof of registration), passport or ID, "invitation letter from the host institute", proof of health insurance, biometric passport photo, a completed Aufenthaltsanzeige für Staatsangehörige der EU und EWR-Staaten form and "proof of activity". What in the name of sufferin' Jaysus?!
You have to bring all these forms in your wheelbarrow to the local Bürgeramt where you will queue for three days before they tell you, "Actually, there's another form you need..."

It's on Hallandstraße (in Pankow, just north of Schönhauser Allee), named after the Swedish province, tree-lined and cobbled (the street, not the province). There's a nice garden out the back. There's a suspicious abundance of German flags hanging from a near neighbour's apartment (come on, the World Cup was ages ago), but the main drawback is the lack of Fernsehturm view. Jenny agreed to get a big poster of it and stick it on the wall so we can at least feel like we're looking at it.
And it's on the U2, so we'll get to meet Bono whenever he's driving. I don't know where he gets the time to do all he does...

Clarification: Apparently it's not a bit shit. It has potential.
Congratulations on finding and getting the apartment.
ReplyDeleteTomorrow I make my Umzug -- I'm moving into Schöneberg, near the Rathaus Schöneberg. I have two nights without curtains, so either my new neighbors will get a show or I'll be sleeping in pajamas when home alone for the first time since... uh...
Nice one. Delighted for ye.
ReplyDeleteHurrayyyy!
ReplyDeleteThat's all.
Hope the neighbours enjoyed the pajama/pyjama show Adam! Hope the new place has quieter drug dealers...
ReplyDeleteThanks DM and Johann. That's all.