Berlin Dining Club

Do you enjoy meeting up with other native English speakers and exploring some of the best (but not necessarily most expensive) restaurants in Berlin? If so then you should check out the Berlin Dining Club.

This club is a relaxed and friendly group for English speakers living in Berlin. The club is open to Americans, Brits, Irish, Aussies, New Zealanders, South Africans, and the rest. It doesn't matter if you've only recently landed in Berlin and you know absolutely no-one, or you've been here for 10 years and already have a huge circle of friends. Through the dining club you're sure to have a fun evening or three and meet some new folk. It's also open to all ages although most of the members belong to the younger generation (about 20 to 35 years). The dinner evenings are organised roughly once or twice a month and the general aim of each is to simply zip the night away with some good food and good company. To find out more visit the website BerlinDiningClub.com

(Note: The Berlin Dining Club website is no longer working. This site--the Berlin Guide--isn't affiliated with the Dining Club and has no current contact information for it or for James, so please don't ask. Sorry! -andrew)

Grocery Shopping

Gone are your days of one-stop-24-hour-shopping—but this is one of the joys of European life. At its most poetic, this means shopping at the market or at produce stands nearly every day, becoming familiar if not friendly with the merchants, and really shopping seasonally. On the other hand, it can mean lot of running around, so be patient while you get to know your neighborhood shopping options. Produce is really best bought at a vegetable stand rather than at a grocery store, and if you’re living in Mitte or Prenzlauer Berg, think about doing your shopping as you pass through Kreuzberg on your home from the library or the Berlin Program. It sounds a bit complicated but there is a huge difference between produce prices around the city.

Try out all the “discounters” in your neighborhood: Aldi, Plus, Netto, and Lidl can all save you money—on certain things. It takes some time to figure out that you can’t buy fresh milk at Aldi and that Plus doesn’t carry certain kinds of detergent. Regular grocery stores (Edeka, Reichelt, Extra) will cost 20-50 cents more on most things (watch out—a lot more on produce) but will save you time.

Don’t forget to shop for groceries on Friday or first thing Saturday morning, since stores will be closed Saturday afternoons and all day Sundays (except for large grocery stores in the main train stations, which will also be crowded during off-hours.)

Phone & Internet Basics

Ah, Telekom. They needed three tries to get my phone service started, which, as I heard from friends, was not at all unusual. Make sure you ask to have an itemized bill and pay attention to how much you are being charged. Most importantly, opt to pay it monthly rather than to have it automatically withdrawn from your account. If they do make a mistake, it’s easier for you to contest it before paying than it is to get back money that was incorrectly debited.

You have many options for long-distance savings—right now I am only spending 3 cents a minute to call home in Texas! (We use the 01081 prefix for all long-distance calls.) Unfortunately the ever-changing landscape of dial-arounds makes things a little complicated. To find out what is currently the best dial-around for your needs (i.e., based on where you’re calling to and when), use Heise.de. Choose “Telefontarife” and have a look at what’s cheapest the moment you click it, or use the search function to get a more thorough table of options.

Heise.de also provides the most comprehensive information about internet providers. I use a call-by-call dialup plan offered by MSN or Freenet. These are really your best option if you’re mostly just checking email once or twice during the day. If you surf a lot, you’ll want to sign up for something more serious: friends have recommended Arcor and a number of people I know use Telekom’s base-rate plan. Again, a site like Heise will help you figure out what you need based on how long you are online, and when.

Virtually every German has a cel-phone (always called a “handy”). In fact, Germans may be surprised if they can’t reach you by cel-phone. If you are sharing an apartment and want your own line, a cell phone may be a cheaper option than having another land line installed—that was my original reason for getting one. I have a pay-as-you-go phone, and it is fairly useful when I’m out of the house a lot or on a research trip. I don’t use it too much, so it doesn’t cost me much. But keep in mind that cell phones works differently in Germany than in North America: the person calling you carries the cost of the mobile connection! It is much more expensive for someone to reach you on a cell phone (up to 25 cents a minute) than on a regular line.

Not exactly Basics:
Do you? 1. Use a Mac with OSX? 2. Hate the T-Online application that you’re forced to launch every time you want to connect? See this guide for instructions on how to bypass it.

Banking

If you’re a student or planning to work in Berlin, you’ll need a bank account almost immediately after arriving, though to get one you need the Anmeldebestätigung from the Einwohnermeldeamt—proof from the city that you’re registered with them. As a student, you should be able to get a savings account with no fees associated with it—this account should include the use of an EC (“Electronic Cash”) card. The EC card works like a cash and check card in North America—and you can use it to pay in a lot of situations where you can’t use a credit card (at the grocery store, for example).

I use Dresdner Bank primarily because it is part of the “Cash Group,” which means I can withdraw money from the ATMs of five other banks without being charged a fee. (Using an ATM outside of that group costs at least €2.50, sometimes more.) Once you have established an account make sure that you know what your weekly ATM withdrawal limit is—not being able to get money at the end of the week can be a bad surprise.

Most banks also offer online services. This takes a week or so to establish, but once you’ve done so you can transfer money from the comfort of your home, which is wonderful because in Germany all bills are paid by electronic transfer. While the Dresdner Bank system is still fairly clunky, overall it has been a great convenience.

Apartment Hunting

You can still find deals, especially on empty apartments, all around the city, but your best bet for low-cost still seems to be Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain. Don’t underestimate Northern Neukölln—it’s near the best parts of Kreuzberg and can be especially inexpensive.

It’s best to be open about where you want to live, as long as you have easy access to public transport.

It can’t hurt to look for a place to live in Berlin before arrive here. All of the Berlin newspapers have online versions, including classifieds:

• Die Berliner Morgenpost, with supposedly the largest real estate listings in Berlin
• Der Tagesspiegel and Zitty

We had great luck with the all-classifieds newspaper Zweite Hand. I placed an ad online which then ran for several weeks on the web and for one or two print editions. In the end we got three responses, one of which was just right.

The least appealing option is to organize a room through a Mitwohnzentrale. While it’s convenient because they match you up with appropriate offers, it is always very expensive. Their fee will be at least 30% of a month’s rent; on leases longer than 10 months it’s 110%! So beware.

Once you think you’ve found a suitable place, make sure you’re calculating your costs right. If the ad says “warm” or “inkl.,” you have a final price—otherwise you’ll have to calculate utilities and various other fees on top of the rent.

Some useful keywords:

• "mobiliert" means furnished. Be aware that many German apartments come without things like light fixtures, cabinets, etc.
• "1MM Kaution" means 1 month deposit, which might be negotiable.
• "Warm" or ("WM") means the price includes utilities, "kalt" means the price is without utilities.
• "OH" means "Ofenheizung" or "oven heating" which you shoud avoid since it means dragging blocks of coal up from the cellar into your apartment all winter, and maintaining a fire in a huge old ceramic oven in your apartment. It does make places cheaper though.
• "9/02 bis 10/02" means "from September to October"
• "absofort" means "available immediately"
• "WG" means "wohngemeinshaft" which is like a shared co-op. Usually populated by young students.
• "WaMa" means "Washing machine" which would be a clothes washer. A "spulmaschin" is a dishwasher.

You might be asked to be an "untermieter" which means a legal sub-leaser. If it's a short stay, try to avoid this, since it can be complex to set up.

(Please note: this site, the Berlin Guide, is not intended to help you find an apartment. Posting comments here asking for help finding apartments are a waste of your time. A better forum to post requests for apartments is Expatica