BERLIN, GERMANY
Last Friday the 13th was a remarkable day for us. After spending some time with my brother-in-law and his family, and getting settled priliminarily into the German systems, we headed to our final (or first?) destination, Berlin. Our studio accommodations were finally ready for us to check in, and we were finally ready to begin getting settled in. Needless to say, the days since that Friday have been crazy and busy and amazing and relaxing and nerve-wracking and exhilirating, but more on that later.
In short, we got the following accomplished from that Friday until today:
– Set-up our new mobile carrier’s app, log-in and payment system
– Login in and set-up Internet/Wi-Fi on all our devices (..and we’ve got a lot!)
– Register for Berlin’s daily bike rental, download the app, and try it out!
– Follow-up with our lost-in-the-mail Bahn Cards
– Set-up and ‘label’ our mailbox
– Go to the local supermarkets 18374 times to stock up on groceries and household supplies
– Unpack all our luggages and bags!
– Attended the annual Carnival of Cultures
– Set-up our studio office with respective calendars, Goals Board and electronics
– Tackle all our email inboxes
– Finally get a haircut and a hot shave!
– Catch up on all the KC content (we published a lot, go check it out!)
– Walked 56 minutes to Alexanderplatz
– Went shopping at Primark…twice
– Explored Berlin Mitte, Hackesher Markt, Prenzeluer Berg
– Ate lots of Turkish food!
– Coordinated all the new furniture that arrived in our studio
– Sourced the perfect blooms and plants for our space
– Visited 3748 bakeries and already found our favourite
the good having dreamt of being a creative freelancer for what seems like years, and then actually to be in that position and that space in the real world already brings with it a feeling of accomplishment. To not wake up everyday to an alarm clock, to head into a job that you’re not passionate about – that feeling is pretty amazing. Its liberating to 1) have breakfast with my wife everyday and 2) during those breakfasts, plan our days together. For that, I feel like the luckiest person in the world.
the hard all of the above means that every two weeks, there is no paycheque being deposited into my account. So naturally, this can cause a panic every few hours. But in those moments, its the realization that everything and anything is possible, and my time can (finally) be utilized for exactly whatever it is I want to do. And being a creative, driven, entrepreneurial-minded dude with a beautiful wife, an iPhone 6, a MacBook Air, and a DSLR camera in one of Europe’s most thriving and energetic city definitely has its benefits. Right?
So a lot of ‘firsts’ this last week, but also some lasts. The last time we will be in this space of no ‘work’, the last time we will be in Berlin for the first time.
We spent yesterday afternoon walking through the most expensive region of Berlin: Prenzlauer Berg, similar in prestige and pomp to Hyde Park in London or the Upper East Side in New York. Full of organic food stores and very trendy people, here I spotted a few of my favourite cars (shocking): a black Mercedes G Wagon and this Lambo. Beautiful area, but Monika and I already have our favourite / aspirational area figured out. And we can’t wait to make that a reality! Stay tuned.
