Our new apartment

So we are finally settling into our new apartment. I have to say that it has taken a couple of weeks, just to get used to the new area and the quirks of a new place but we are enjoying it now and think it will be a great little nest for the next six months. It's about 20 minutes walk from our old apartment. It’s still in Prenzlauer Berg but in the quieter part with a more of working-class East Berliner feel. You know us, keeping it real as always!

Our apartment block (pic above) has an interesting history. My tandem partner's partner (!) is an architect and told us it was designed by the German architect Bruno Taut, who was involved in building social housing in the 1920s and 30s that provided more space and light than built previously. And he succeeded! It is a certainly a lovely bright warm apartment which will do us nicely at least to the end of February 2009.

So now for the grand tour - this is our bedroom/my workroom. You can access the balcony from here, which has a little bench that Eric likes to sunbathe on.

This is the sitting room. You can't see it from this angle but on the other side of the room is another desk where Eric works from. There is, of course, a bathroom, which is nice but not nice enough to warrant a photo.

And lastly, but most importantly for us, is the kitchen. This was the clincher for us as it was a sit-in kitchen which we really wanted. It also has access to the balcony. Our lovely landlady is a medical student called Melanie who is on work placement in Sweden for six months and so we have the run of her place with all her furniture, including all kitchen stuff, towels etc. The best thing of all is the much lower rent, which is going to allow us to stay on here in Berlin a bit longer. So all in all, I think we got a great deal (she even threw in the cute blonde guy in the shorts for free) and look forward to being here through the Berlin winter.