Make yourself at home in Berlin

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/200...break?page=all

Make yourself at home in Berlin

Staying with Berliners in a flatshare is a great way to experience the
city like a local, and you can choose from penthouses to party squats.
Tim Bryan reports

* Tim Bryan
* guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 18 August 2009 11.31 BST
* Article history

The Konzerthaus and The Deutcher Dom, Berlin, Germany

Enjoy the sights of Berlin for less by staying in a flatshare with
local residents. Photograph: Jon Hicks/Corbis

I'm in shock. I've just been invited to rent Eva's spare room in
Berlin after the briefest of phone chats. What's more, Eva won't even
be there - she's off on holiday - but she tells me I can get the keys
off her neighbour.

"I trust you," she says. "Oh, and you may need sheets - take them off
my bed, they're clean."

Renting rooms, for short periods, is largely unheard of in the UK,
outside the college campus circuit, and probably in most of Europe,
too. In Germany, it is possible. In Berlin it's encouraged. Berlin's
army of hard-up freelancers, artists and students rent rooms to
strangers on a daily or weekly basis to claw cash back while they're
away from home, via sites and agencies such as exberliner, easywg.de,
wg-gesucht.de, or studenten-wg.de.

I was in Berlin for a few weeks, and I wanted to live with real
Berliners, see the real Berlin and experience the kiez (manor) - I
didn't want a hotel room (too expensive, too impersonal), nor a hostel
(too young, too backpacker), or an apartment (too expensive for a
week, and quite lonely).

I could have signed up to a holiday exchange, and I could have joined
couchsurfing.com, but the offers of sofas runs into the thousands, I'm
not 24 (the average age, apparently), and I wanted some privacy, not a
couch in the lounge.

Eva wanted €150 (£129) a week, which is cheap even with agency
commission, (around the same as a single room in a hostel), but
expensive for Berlin. Then again, Eva's flat is a penthouse on
Kollwitzplatz, in Prenzlauer Berg, ground zero for gentrification,
according to Lonely Planet, with lots of cafe/bars, restaurants, a
farmer's market and good nightlife. There's a south-facing balcony,
and a light, spacious kitchen. The spare bedroom is an office - albeit
without curtains, like most spare rooms I saw while flat-hunting.

Most flatshare websites are in German, but all you need to know is a
few key words - wohnen means living; WG is shorthand for room to rent;
althaus means old house; Kaltmiete means to rent, no bills; mobliert
means furnished. Just grab a German dictionary, or visit babelfish,
the online translator. Then sign up, identify your area and press
search. OK, Babelfish is not foolproof, the translations can be
comical, but these are adverts, not sonnets.

It can be fun. I spotted a room in a 26-person commune, one in a
women's squat. I saw rooms ranging from €150 a month in trendy
Neukolln, near Kreuzberg, to €150 a week in upmarket Charlottenberg,
old west Berlin. Rooms with non-smoking professional women who don't
want party animals, to young ravers who don't want a nine-to-fiver
spoiling their buzz. The whole gamut, just as at home, but at a
fraction of the cost.

The next room I rented was in uber-hip Kreuzberg. Kristina was heading
to Oxford for a seminar and wanted to rent out her room on
Falkensteinstrasse, in the still grungy area of Schlesisches Tor,
which offers such cool amenities as Badeschiff outdoor barge pool and
music complex, and is nearby the warehouse clubs of Friedrichshain
just over the River Spree. Also on hand were kebab shops, currywurst
stands, retro furniture shops, the fabled ice-cream shop Eisdiele, and
Kristina's favourite kneipe (pub) Konrad Tönz.

Kristina has rented out her room three or four times. "I didn't have
any fears because there is nothing to steal in my room. Unless you
want to take the old TV, the only expensive thing is my laptop, which
I'll take with me. My flatmates stay in the apartment, so they can
call me if you've burned down the house. Plus, I trust you!" Trust
again. I'm humbled.

Her room is huge, in a Prussian townhouse, replete with the standard
high ceilings, ornate cornicing, wooden floors and the quaint old
glaze-tiled boiler in the corner - cost €80 a week. Bargain. The
bathroom was tiny, being carved out of a cupboard after the war, when
old homes were given makeovers. The WC sported what to me proved the
most controversial Anglo-German cultural difference: the old flat
ledge pan toilet. Weird.

"People want to save money and love to live in this kiez, so they rent
short-term. All of them have been between 20 and 30, except you. One
guy was from Germany, two from the US. They all were male."

Of all the adverts and requests sent back, each one was female. It
seems odd that females would want male strangers to stay in their
rooms, but in many cases, when I went to view rooms, the male
housemates felt uneasy at another male staying. The women did not
mind. No bad experiences then? "None," says Kristina.
More information

Flatshares
immobilienscout24.de, is a property company with large flatshare and
apartment rental sections.
wg-gesucht.de is largely recommended by students and young
professionals.
wg-company.de specialises in company lets and rooms for business
travellers.
See also: craigslist.de, (rooms), http://berlin.de.craigslist.org/hsw/,
studenten-wg.de.

Newspapers/magazines
zweite-hande.de is the biggest private advertising list, like Loot,
with scores of flats and hundreds of flatshares.
zitty.de and tip-berlin.de, both listings mags have ample adverts for
flatshares.
The newspapers, of which Berlin seemingly has scores, also list flats:
tagesspiegel.de, berlinerzeitung.de and berlinermorgenpost.de.

Agents
exberlinerflatrentals.com or +49 30 4737 2964. The agency takes 15%,
and although it won't usually bother with weekly rents, if its clients
accept, and tenants pay the minimum commission of €50, they will
oblige.
Wohnwitz, +49 30 861 9192; Freiraum, +49 30 618 2008; waytostay.com.

"H.E. President Alhaji Dr. Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh" a
écrit dans le message de
...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/200...break?page=all

Make yourself at home in Berlin

Staying with Berliners in a flatshare is a great way to experience the
city like a local, and you can choose from penthouses to party squats.
Tim Bryan reports

* Tim Bryan
* guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 18 August 2009 11.31 BST
* Article history

The Konzerthaus and The Deutcher Dom, Berlin, Germany

Enjoy the sights of Berlin for less by staying in a flatshare with
local residents. Photograph: Jon Hicks/Corbis

I'm in shock. I've just been invited to rent Eva's spare room in
Berlin after the briefest of phone chats. What's more, Eva won't even
be there - she's off on holiday - but she tells me I can get the keys
off her neighbour.

"I trust you," she says. "Oh, and you may need sheets - take them off
my bed, they're clean."

Renting rooms, for short periods, is largely unheard of in the UK,
outside the college campus circuit, and probably in most of Europe,
too. In Germany, it is possible. In Berlin it's encouraged. Berlin's
army of hard-up freelancers, artists and students rent rooms to
strangers on a daily or weekly basis to claw cash back while they're
away from home, via sites and agencies such as exberliner, easywg.de,
wg-gesucht.de, or studenten-wg.de.

I was in Berlin for a few weeks, and I wanted to live with real
Berliners, see the real Berlin and experience the kiez (manor) - I
didn't want a hotel room (too expensive, too impersonal), nor a hostel
(too young, too backpacker), or an apartment (too expensive for a
week, and quite lonely).

I could have signed up to a holiday exchange, and I could have joined
couchsurfing.com, but the offers of sofas runs into the thousands, I'm
not 24 (the average age, apparently), and I wanted some privacy, not a
couch in the lounge.

Eva wanted €150 (£129) a week, which is cheap even with agency
commission, (around the same as a single room in a hostel), but
expensive for Berlin. Then again, Eva's flat is a penthouse on
Kollwitzplatz, in Prenzlauer Berg, ground zero for gentrification,
according to Lonely Planet, with lots of cafe/bars, restaurants, a
farmer's market and good nightlife. There's a south-facing balcony,
and a light, spacious kitchen. The spare bedroom is an office - albeit
without curtains, like most spare rooms I saw while flat-hunting.

Most flatshare websites are in German, but all you need to know is a
few key words - wohnen means living; WG is shorthand for room to rent;
althaus means old house; Kaltmiete means to rent, no bills; mobliert
means furnished. Just grab a German dictionary, or visit babelfish,
the online translator. Then sign up, identify your area and press
search. OK, Babelfish is not foolproof, the translations can be
comical, but these are adverts, not sonnets.

It can be fun. I spotted a room in a 26-person commune, one in a
women's squat. I saw rooms ranging from €150 a month in trendy
Neukolln, near Kreuzberg, to €150 a week in upmarket Charlottenberg,
old west Berlin. Rooms with non-smoking professional women who don't
want party animals, to young ravers who don't want a nine-to-fiver
spoiling their buzz. The whole gamut, just as at home, but at a
fraction of the cost.

The next room I rented was in uber-hip Kreuzberg. Kristina was heading
to Oxford for a seminar and wanted to rent out her room on
Falkensteinstrasse, in the still grungy area of Schlesisches Tor,
which offers such cool amenities as Badeschiff outdoor barge pool and
music complex, and is nearby the warehouse clubs of Friedrichshain
just over the River Spree. Also on hand were kebab shops, currywurst
stands, retro furniture shops, the fabled ice-cream shop Eisdiele, and
Kristina's favourite kneipe (pub) Konrad Tönz.

Kristina has rented out her room three or four times. "I didn't have
any fears because there is nothing to steal in my room. Unless you
want to take the old TV, the only expensive thing is my laptop, which
I'll take with me. My flatmates stay in the apartment, so they can
call me if you've burned down the house. Plus, I trust you!" Trust
again. I'm humbled.

Her room is huge, in a Prussian townhouse, replete with the standard
high ceilings, ornate cornicing, wooden floors and the quaint old
glaze-tiled boiler in the corner - cost €80 a week. Bargain. The
bathroom was tiny, being carved out of a cupboard after the war, when
old homes were given makeovers. The WC sported what to me proved the
most controversial Anglo-German cultural difference: the old flat
ledge pan toilet. Weird.

"People want to save money and love to live in this kiez, so they rent
short-term. All of them have been between 20 and 30, except you. One
guy was from Germany, two from the US. They all were male."

Of all the adverts and requests sent back, each one was female. It
seems odd that females would want male strangers to stay in their
rooms, but in many cases, when I went to view rooms, the male
housemates felt uneasy at another male staying. The women did not
mind. No bad experiences then? "None," says Kristina.
More information

Flatshares
immobilienscout24.de, is a property company with large flatshare and
apartment rental sections.
wg-gesucht.de is largely recommended by students and young
professionals.
wg-company.de specialises in company lets and rooms for business
travellers.
See also: craigslist.de, (rooms), http://berlin.de.craigslist.org/hsw/,
studenten-wg.de.

Newspapers/magazines
zweite-hande.de is the biggest private advertising list, like Loot,
with scores of flats and hundreds of flatshares.
zitty.de and tip-berlin.de, both listings mags have ample adverts for
flatshares.
The newspapers, of which Berlin seemingly has scores, also list flats:
tagesspiegel.de, berlinerzeitung.de and berlinermorgenpost.de.

Agents
exberlinerflatrentals.com or +49 30 4737 2964. The agency takes 15%,
and although it won't usually bother with weekly rents, if its clients
accept, and tenants pay the minimum commission of €50, they will
oblige.
Wohnwitz, +49 30 861 9192; Freiraum, +49 30 618 2008; waytostay.com.

On Aug 19, 12:17*pm, "H.E. President Alhaji Dr. Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh"
wrote:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/200...many-flatshare...

Make yourself at home in Berlin

Staying with Berliners in a flatshare is a great way to experience the
city like a local, and you can choose from penthouses to party squats.
Tim Bryan reports

* * * Tim Bryan
* * * guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 18 August 2009 11.31 BST
* * * Article history

The Konzerthaus and The Deutcher Dom, Berlin, Germany

Enjoy the sights of Berlin for less by staying in a flatshare with
local residents. Photograph: Jon Hicks/Corbis

I'm in shock. I've just been invited to rent Eva's spare room in
Berlin after the briefest of phone chats. What's more, Eva won't even
be there - she's off on holiday - but she tells me I can get the keys
off her neighbour.

"I trust you," she says. "Oh, and you may need sheets - take them off
my bed, they're clean."

Renting rooms, for short periods, is largely unheard of in the UK,
outside the college campus circuit, and probably in most of Europe,
too. In Germany, it is possible. In Berlin it's encouraged. Berlin's
army of hard-up freelancers, artists and students rent rooms to
strangers on a daily or weekly basis to claw cash back while they're
away from home, via sites and agencies such as exberliner, easywg.de,
wg-gesucht.de, or studenten-wg.de.

I was in Berlin for a few weeks, and I wanted to live with real
Berliners, see the real Berlin and experience the kiez (manor) - I
didn't want a hotel room (too expensive, too impersonal), nor a hostel
(too young, too backpacker), or an apartment (too expensive for a
week, and quite lonely).

I could have signed up to a holiday exchange, and I could have joined
couchsurfing.com, but the offers of sofas runs into the thousands, I'm
not 24 (the average age, apparently), and I wanted some privacy, not a
couch in the lounge.

Eva wanted €150 (£129) a week, which is cheap even with agency
commission, (around the same as a single room in a hostel), but
expensive for Berlin. Then again, Eva's flat is a penthouse on
Kollwitzplatz, in Prenzlauer Berg, ground zero for gentrification,
according to Lonely Planet, with lots of cafe/bars, restaurants, a
farmer's market and good nightlife. There's a south-facing balcony,
and a light, spacious kitchen. The spare bedroom is an office - albeit
without curtains, like most spare rooms I saw while flat-hunting.

Most flatshare websites are in German, but all you need to know is a
few key words - wohnen means living; WG is shorthand for room to rent;
althaus means old house; Kaltmiete means to rent, no bills; mobliert
means furnished. Just grab a German dictionary, or visit babelfish,
the online translator. Then sign up, identify your area and press
search. OK, Babelfish is not foolproof, the translations can be
comical, but these are adverts, not sonnets.

It can be fun. I spotted a room in a 26-person commune, one in a
women's squat. I saw rooms ranging from €150 a month in trendy
Neukolln, near Kreuzberg, to €150 a week in upmarket Charlottenberg,
old west Berlin. Rooms with non-smoking professional women who don't
want party animals, to young ravers who don't want a nine-to-fiver
spoiling their buzz. The whole gamut, just as at home, but at a
fraction of the cost.

The next room I rented was in uber-hip Kreuzberg. Kristina was heading
to Oxford for a seminar and wanted to rent out her room on
Falkensteinstrasse, in the still grungy area of Schlesisches Tor,
which offers such cool amenities as Badeschiff outdoor barge pool and
music complex, and is nearby the warehouse clubs of Friedrichshain
just over the River Spree. Also on hand were kebab shops, currywurst
stands, retro furniture shops, the fabled ice-cream shop Eisdiele, and
Kristina's favourite kneipe (pub) Konrad Tönz.

Kristina has rented out her room three or four times. "I didn't have
any fears because there is nothing to steal in my room. Unless you
want to take the old TV, the only expensive thing is my laptop, which
I'll take with me. My flatmates stay in the apartment, so they can
call me if you've burned down the house. Plus, I trust you!" Trust
again. I'm humbled.

Her room is huge, in a Prussian townhouse, replete with the standard
high ceilings, ornate cornicing, wooden floors and the quaint old
glaze-tiled boiler in the corner - cost €80 a week. Bargain. The
bathroom was tiny, being carved out of a cupboard after the war, when
old homes were given makeovers. The WC sported what to me proved the
most controversial Anglo-German cultural difference: the old flat
ledge pan toilet. Weird.

"People want to save money and love to live in this kiez, so they rent
short-term. All of them have been between 20 and 30, except you. One
guy was from Germany, two from the US. They all were male."

Of all the adverts and requests sent back, each one was female. It
seems odd that females would want male strangers to stay in their
rooms, but in many cases, when I went to view rooms, the male
housemates felt uneasy at another male staying. The women did not
mind. No bad experiences then? "None," says Kristina.
More information

Flatshares
immobilienscout24.de, is a property company with large flatshare and
apartment rental sections.
wg-gesucht.de is largely recommended by students and young
professionals.
wg-company.de specialises in company lets and rooms for business
travellers.
See also: craigslist.de, (rooms),http://berlin.de.craigslist.org/hsw/,
studenten-wg.de.

Newspapers/magazines
zweite-hande.de is the biggest private advertising list, like Loot,
with scores of flats and hundreds of flatshares.
zitty.de and tip-berlin.de, both listings mags have ample adverts for
flatshares.
The newspapers, of which Berlin seemingly has scores, also list flats:
tagesspiegel.de, berlinerzeitung.de and berlinermorgenpost.de.

Agents
exberlinerflatrentals.com or +49 30 4737 2964. The agency takes 15%,
and although it won't usually bother with weekly rents, if its clients
accept, and tenants pay the minimum commission of €50, they will
oblige.
Wohnwitz, +49 30 861 9192; Freiraum, +49 30 618 2008; waytostay.com.

..

"H.E. President Alhaji Dr. Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh" a
écrit dans le message de
...
On Aug 19, 12:17 pm, "H.E. President Alhaji Dr. Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh"
wrote:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/200...many-flatshare...

Make yourself at home in Berlin

Staying with Berliners in a flatshare is a great way to experience the
city like a local, and you can choose from penthouses to party squats.
Tim Bryan reports

* Tim Bryan
* guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 18 August 2009 11.31 BST
* Article history

The Konzerthaus and The Deutcher Dom, Berlin, Germany

Enjoy the sights of Berlin for less by staying in a flatshare with
local residents. Photograph: Jon Hicks/Corbis

I'm in shock. I've just been invited to rent Eva's spare room in
Berlin after the briefest of phone chats. What's more, Eva won't even
be there - she's off on holiday - but she tells me I can get the keys
off her neighbour.

"I trust you," she says. "Oh, and you may need sheets - take them off
my bed, they're clean."

Renting rooms, for short periods, is largely unheard of in the UK,
outside the college campus circuit, and probably in most of Europe,
too. In Germany, it is possible. In Berlin it's encouraged. Berlin's
army of hard-up freelancers, artists and students rent rooms to
strangers on a daily or weekly basis to claw cash back while they're
away from home, via sites and agencies such as exberliner, easywg.de,
wg-gesucht.de, or studenten-wg.de.

I was in Berlin for a few weeks, and I wanted to live with real
Berliners, see the real Berlin and experience the kiez (manor) - I
didn't want a hotel room (too expensive, too impersonal), nor a hostel
(too young, too backpacker), or an apartment (too expensive for a
week, and quite lonely).

I could have signed up to a holiday exchange, and I could have joined
couchsurfing.com, but the offers of sofas runs into the thousands, I'm
not 24 (the average age, apparently), and I wanted some privacy, not a
couch in the lounge.

Eva wanted €150 (£129) a week, which is cheap even with agency
commission, (around the same as a single room in a hostel), but
expensive for Berlin. Then again, Eva's flat is a penthouse on
Kollwitzplatz, in Prenzlauer Berg, ground zero for gentrification,
according to Lonely Planet, with lots of cafe/bars, restaurants, a
farmer's market and good nightlife. There's a south-facing balcony,
and a light, spacious kitchen. The spare bedroom is an office - albeit
without curtains, like most spare rooms I saw while flat-hunting.

Most flatshare websites are in German, but all you need to know is a
few key words - wohnen means living; WG is shorthand for room to rent;
althaus means old house; Kaltmiete means to rent, no bills; mobliert
means furnished. Just grab a German dictionary, or visit babelfish,
the online translator. Then sign up, identify your area and press
search. OK, Babelfish is not foolproof, the translations can be
comical, but these are adverts, not sonnets.

It can be fun. I spotted a room in a 26-person commune, one in a
women's squat. I saw rooms ranging from €150 a month in trendy
Neukolln, near Kreuzberg, to €150 a week in upmarket Charlottenberg,
old west Berlin. Rooms with non-smoking professional women who don't
want party animals, to young ravers who don't want a nine-to-fiver
spoiling their buzz. The whole gamut, just as at home, but at a
fraction of the cost.

The next room I rented was in uber-hip Kreuzberg. Kristina was heading
to Oxford for a seminar and wanted to rent out her room on
Falkensteinstrasse, in the still grungy area of Schlesisches Tor,
which offers such cool amenities as Badeschiff outdoor barge pool and
music complex, and is nearby the warehouse clubs of Friedrichshain
just over the River Spree. Also on hand were kebab shops, currywurst
stands, retro furniture shops, the fabled ice-cream shop Eisdiele, and
Kristina's favourite kneipe (pub) Konrad Tönz.

Kristina has rented out her room three or four times. "I didn't have
any fears because there is nothing to steal in my room. Unless you
want to take the old TV, the only expensive thing is my laptop, which
I'll take with me. My flatmates stay in the apartment, so they can
call me if you've burned down the house. Plus, I trust you!" Trust
again. I'm humbled.

Her room is huge, in a Prussian townhouse, replete with the standard
high ceilings, ornate cornicing, wooden floors and the quaint old
glaze-tiled boiler in the corner - cost €80 a week. Bargain. The
bathroom was tiny, being carved out of a cupboard after the war, when
old homes were given makeovers. The WC sported what to me proved the
most controversial Anglo-German cultural difference: the old flat
ledge pan toilet. Weird.

"People want to save money and love to live in this kiez, so they rent
short-term. All of them have been between 20 and 30, except you. One
guy was from Germany, two from the US. They all were male."

Of all the adverts and requests sent back, each one was female. It
seems odd that females would want male strangers to stay in their
rooms, but in many cases, when I went to view rooms, the male
housemates felt uneasy at another male staying. The women did not
mind. No bad experiences then? "None," says Kristina.
More information

Flatshares
immobilienscout24.de, is a property company with large flatshare and
apartment rental sections.
wg-gesucht.de is largely recommended by students and young
professionals.
wg-company.de specialises in company lets and rooms for business
travellers.
See also: craigslist.de, (rooms),http://berlin.de.craigslist.org/hsw/,
studenten-wg.de.

Newspapers/magazines
zweite-hande.de is the biggest private advertising list, like Loot,
with scores of flats and hundreds of flatshares.
zitty.de and tip-berlin.de, both listings mags have ample adverts for
flatshares.
The newspapers, of which Berlin seemingly has scores, also list flats:
tagesspiegel.de, berlinerzeitung.de and berlinermorgenpost.de.

Agents
exberlinerflatrentals.com or +49 30 4737 2964. The agency takes 15%,
and although it won't usually bother with weekly rents, if its clients
accept, and tenants pay the minimum commission of €50, they will
oblige.
Wohnwitz, +49 30 861 9192; Freiraum, +49 30 618 2008; waytostay.com.

..

On Aug 21, 7:41*am, "Runge17" wrote:
"H.E. President Alhaji Dr. Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh" a
écrit dans le message ...http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/200...many-flatshare...

Make yourself at home in Berlin

Staying with Berliners in a flatshare is a great way to experience the
city like a local, and you can choose from penthouses to party squats.
Tim Bryan reports

* * * Tim Bryan
* * * guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 18 August 2009 11.31 BST
* * * Article history

The Konzerthaus and The Deutcher Dom, Berlin, Germany

Enjoy the sights of Berlin for less by staying in a flatshare with
local residents. Photograph: Jon Hicks/Corbis

I'm in shock. I've just been invited to rent Eva's spare room in
Berlin after the briefest of phone chats. What's more, Eva won't even
be there - she's off on holiday - but she tells me I can get the keys
off her neighbour.

"I trust you," she says. "Oh, and you may need sheets - take them off
my bed, they're clean."

Renting rooms, for short periods, is largely unheard of in the UK,
outside the college campus circuit, and probably in most of Europe,
too. In Germany, it is possible. In Berlin it's encouraged. Berlin's
army of hard-up freelancers, artists and students rent rooms to
strangers on a daily or weekly basis to claw cash back while they're
away from home, via sites and agencies such as exberliner, easywg.de,
wg-gesucht.de, or studenten-wg.de.

I was in Berlin for a few weeks, and I wanted to live with real
Berliners, see the real Berlin and experience the kiez (manor) - I
didn't want a hotel room (too expensive, too impersonal), nor a hostel
(too young, too backpacker), or an apartment (too expensive for a
week, and quite lonely).

I could have signed up to a holiday exchange, and I could have joined
couchsurfing.com, but the offers of sofas runs into the thousands, I'm
not 24 (the average age, apparently), and I wanted some privacy, not a
couch in the lounge.

Eva wanted €150 (£129) a week, which is cheap even with agency
commission, (around the same as a single room in a hostel), but
expensive for Berlin. Then again, Eva's flat is a penthouse on
Kollwitzplatz, in Prenzlauer Berg, ground zero for gentrification,
according to Lonely Planet, with lots of cafe/bars, restaurants, a
farmer's market and good nightlife. There's a south-facing balcony,
and a light, spacious kitchen. The spare bedroom is an office - albeit
without curtains, like most spare rooms I saw while flat-hunting.

Most flatshare websites are in German, but all you need to know is a
few key words - wohnen means living; WG is shorthand for room to rent;
althaus means old house; Kaltmiete means to rent, no bills; mobliert
means furnished. Just grab a German dictionary, or visit babelfish,
the online translator. Then sign up, identify your area and press
search. OK, Babelfish is not foolproof, the translations can be
comical, but these are adverts, not sonnets.

It can be fun. I spotted a room in a 26-person commune, one in a
women's squat. I saw rooms ranging from €150 a month in trendy
Neukolln, near Kreuzberg, to €150 a week in upmarket Charlottenberg,
old west Berlin. Rooms with non-smoking professional women who don't
want party animals, to young ravers who don't want a nine-to-fiver
spoiling their buzz. The whole gamut, just as at home, but at a
fraction of the cost.

The next room I rented was in uber-hip Kreuzberg. Kristina was heading
to Oxford for a seminar and wanted to rent out her room on
Falkensteinstrasse, in the still grungy area of Schlesisches Tor,
which offers such cool amenities as Badeschiff outdoor barge pool and
music complex, and is nearby the warehouse clubs of Friedrichshain
just over the River Spree. Also on hand were kebab shops, currywurst
stands, retro furniture shops, the fabled ice-cream shop Eisdiele, and
Kristina's favourite kneipe (pub) Konrad Tönz.

Kristina has rented out her room three or four times. "I didn't have
any fears because there is nothing to steal in my room. Unless you
want to take the old TV, the only expensive thing is my laptop, which
I'll take with me. My flatmates stay in the apartment, so they can
call me if you've burned down the house. Plus, I trust you!" Trust
again. I'm humbled.

Her room is huge, in a Prussian townhouse, replete with the standard
high ceilings, ornate cornicing, wooden floors and the quaint old
glaze-tiled boiler in the corner - cost €80 a week. Bargain. The
bathroom was tiny, being carved out of a cupboard after the war, when
old homes were given makeovers. The WC sported what to me proved the
most controversial Anglo-German cultural difference: the old flat
ledge pan toilet. Weird.

"People want to save money and love to live in this kiez, so they rent
short-term. All of them have been between 20 and 30, except you. One
guy was from Germany, two from the US. They all were male."

Of all the adverts and requests sent back, each one was female. It
seems odd that females would want male strangers to stay in their
rooms, but in many cases, when I went to view rooms, the male
housemates felt uneasy at another male staying. The women did not
mind. No bad experiences then? "None," says Kristina.
More information

Flatshares
immobilienscout24.de, is a property company with large flatshare and
apartment rental sections.
wg-gesucht.de is largely recommended by students and young
professionals.
wg-company.de specialises in company lets and rooms for business
travellers.
See also: craigslist.de, (rooms),http://berlin.de.craigslist.org/hsw/,
studenten-wg.de.

Newspapers/magazines
zweite-hande.de is the biggest private advertising list, like Loot,
with scores of flats and hundreds of flatshares.
zitty.de and tip-berlin.de, both listings mags have ample adverts for
flatshares.
The newspapers, of which Berlin seemingly has scores, also list flats:
tagesspiegel.de, berlinerzeitung.de and berlinermorgenpost.de.

Agents
exberlinerflatrentals.com or +49 30 4737 2964. The agency takes 15%,
and although it won't usually bother with weekly rents, if its clients
accept, and tenants pay the minimum commission of €50, they will
oblige.
Wohnwitz, +49 30 861 9192; Freiraum, +49 30 618 2008; waytostay.com.