Historic flat in Haidhausen, Bed Room, originally uploaded by Colleen Gomez.

Grüß Gott!

Yesterday we spent the entire day, 6+ hours, in the rain, with a relocation agent who drove us around Munich to look at apartments.

While all of them were nice.. we wound up picking two that we liked best, one in Schwabing and one in Haidhausen. Two of the best districts in the city.

The one in Schwabing was modern, built about 15 years ago. It wasn’t anything spectacular but it was close to the English Garden and had a nice little terrace connecte to the dining room and living room. The bathroom was nice and modern, and “white” as they say. The floors were parquet ( I thought wood at first, but I am thinking it may have been laminate which I cannot stand) … it had a cool garage (pics on flickr) and lots of storage…but the BIG drawback was the size of the kitchen. It was literally as small as the bathroom in the hotel we are at now. And what made it even worse was that the exhaust fan was weak and the kitchen was not “open”, it had walls and even a door, no window !?! Two people, let alone one with a very huge Americanized ass (sorry honey), could never cook comfortably in it let alone make a 365 degree turn without having something go horribly wrong.

But, it had it’s positives. Like I mentioned, it was across the street from the most amazing park in Europe and the Isar. Also, it had a washer/dryer in the cellar, very common in Europe, as are basements, a dishwasher, and all of the other units were homeowners. That, to me, is always a good sign. But the kitchen, ouch. It couldn’t really work but we would make it work if we had to. At least temporarily until we could move to another place. I learned that leases here are unlimited and as long as you give three months notice, you can vacate whenever you want. Even before the first year.

Our other favorite is an Altbau building, which means that it is historic, build between 1870 and 1940.. they are VERY hard to come by and highly desired. Luckily there was one available and it happened to be in a hood just as good, if not better, than Shwabing. Also, this neighborhood is where our current housing is so we’ve gotten to know the area…

Anyway, when we first approached the building I saw the doors to the place and new it would be cool. They looked like old-fashioned stable doors. They were really wide…like wide enough for a car to pass through. Upon entering the building which was 4 stories, not including ground floor, I fell in love: high ceilings, stucco walls with tile and a winding hardwood staircase with rot-iron railing. It was rustic, quirky, dark, cold.. and I instantly knew I had to l live there.

Oh, one very weird thing was that the staircase sort of tilted inward..and the steps were narrower toward the railing which is where I instinctively wanted to hold on due to the odd angle/slant of the steps themselves. This could be dangerous after a few beers people..

So we got to the unit, which is on the 3.OG (OG = Obergeschoss “oh-bur-geh-shoss” , or floor), and went inside. The floors we BEAUTIFUL fishbone hardwood which had been restored at some point. Apparently there was a plumbing issue back in December so the “white” bathroom, with a gigantic tub, was brand new as was the separate toilet next to the kitchen which was 500% bigger, although NOT modern, than the other place we liked.

This place is also bigger, has super high curved ceilings, double windows, not just dual paned, a rot iron balcony big enough for two chairs, and a pantry almost as large as the kitchen. In addition, we would get a huge storage space in the cellar which was very mid-evil looking… cold, dark, arched doorways, a tad bit damp, and concrete. The perfect wine cellar (right?!)

This building also had a small shared yard and an area to store bicycles. And by the way, this city, has, by far, more bicycles than any other place I have ever been to. In fact, in addition to auto garages, there were bicycle garages that had special access so that you didn’t have to carry your bike, you could just “ride it in” like you would a car, for tenants/residents in pretty much every building, including the altbau.

Ok, so the things that sucked about the place were that heating costs would probably be higher because of the ceilings and because of the windows. Another bad thing is that we have to buy ALL new appliances: washer, dryer, dishwasher. There are hookups. Also, I think that whoever put in the kitchen was probably a previous tenant (50% of flats do not come fitted with kitchens in Munich) and so the landlord said that if the fridge, stove , or oven breaks..we are responsible to repair/replace.SUCK.

On the positive side of that, I get to choose my appliances and take this kitchen which is pretty bare bones and make it how I want. Also, there are a TON of “refurbished” appliance shops here and it is quite easy to find high end brands used on ebay or toytown.

So, yeah, we chose the historic building. Super excited but at the same time the thought of putting it all together, unlike the newer place in Schwabing which has everything all ready to go, exhausts me even more…but hey, I didn’t come to Munich to live in a suburb, or to live in some boring place. I want the full experience and getting your hands on on of these flats is really lucky.

OH, and another bonus,is that there is a sushi restaurant across the street and apparently it is one of the best in the city… according to a site which Americans, who are pretty spoiled when it comes to getting good sushi, actually voted.

So we should be hearing back today.

Anyfahrt, I was up at 3am worrying, it is now 6am and I expect it to be another long day. Husband goes into the office today which means I am on my own for the first time. My cell phone hasn’t arrived yet because I opted for a better phone which had better GPS and was on the UMTS (?) network, which means faster browsing, and it had to be ordered so I am hesitant to wander off too far. The streets here can really throw you for a loop. One wrong turn and you are one lost mother fucker and I am SO not confident when it comes to talking to people, I suck…

I am exhausted and they haven’t served the coffee yet downstairs.

frostfutter Kaninchen?

Tschüs!