New home in Mülheim

 Home sweet home!

I like living in a hostel. At the same time can't wait to move to my new place. Will be interesting to see how we'll get along with the guys over there. Not that I'm expecting any trouble. I can normally get along with people but who knows, we could actually enjoy each others' company instead of tolerating it.

I was still in Finland and we had no chance to meet each other before I'd actually move in. Just to establish that we exist, the apartment exists, and nobody is a monster we spent a bit of time together through a Whatsapp video call. The plan today is to drag my stuff in after work and have some dinner together at the place in Mülheim. 

Herzlich Willkommen in der Keupstraße ein Türkischer Mikrokosmos / Welcome to Keupstrasse, a Turkish microcosmos (Mülheim). 

Keupstraße is a famous street in the area. Even if it's been years, everybody remembers it from a bomb that went off here in 2004. The attack was motivated by right-wing extremists and carried out by Nationalsozialistischer Untergrund NSU / The National Socialist Underground.

Nowadays it's also well known for its Turkish food, sweets, desserts, and tea, betting and barber shops, restaurants, and a very famous music shop with over 30 000 records. The terms between Turkish and Kurdish people are still no better than at the time of the bombing, but that isn't visible to a visitor in the day-to-day life of the area. 

The people have a saying that goes along the lines: "We make biscuits and baklava here, not politics".

View from one bridge towards another bridge with maybe a hint of a third bridge in the background. 

Moving Day

I've been in the city just for a couple of days so I'm still excited every time I need to take a different tram line. I don't hate public transport yet, but I assume the time will come. I've heard so many complaints about it from others. 

Some music for the moving day: 

Es geht mir gut

Es geht mir eigentlich immer gut

Especially DB, Deutsche Bahn (local and long-distance trains), has a really bad reputation. Although people have not been very fond of KVB, the local public transport in Cologne either since there have been strikes since my arrival to the city. 

I've already started gathering extensions to my configuration, notice the shoes and an additional bag hanging outside the backpack. Yeah, and this idiot is still smiling. Won't be when it's time to finally pack everything up again.

I'm debating whether getting the monthly ticket makes sense or not. I was expecting it to be pricey but turns out the cost is closer to an arm and a leg. I guess it's been lucky to have to figure out other modes of transport right at the beginning of my stay. 

Clear instructions that people seem to mostly manage to follow.

The connections to my new area seem to be good. First impressions are also promising, the place is buzzing and I need to walk about two minutes from the station to the front door of my apartment building. 

Our tram station and marketplace are right outside our building. I realize the photo is not as 'buzzing' as advertised. I promise, mostly the area is very lively tho.

New housemates

I believe we had a good time. We ordered some Syrian food, and I bought a bottle of German Riesling on the way to the apartment. A good recipe for any night I'd say. 

We got to know each other a bit and had the basic conversations you need to do to get to the good stuff. The guys are making it so easy for me to start feeling cozy already. We purposefully avoided all the practical topics, like on which days the plastic trash gets picked up and so on. 

Some leftovers, enjoy

Alisa works in a nearby town's mayor's office with publicity and social media stuff. She's insanely intelligent and articulate. I really enjoy her style of humor and the way they banter with Jonas. Jonas is a psychologist and clearly good with people. It's easy to see why he might be well-liked by his clients. 

It's easy to see these three have been friends forever. They seem to know what the other is thinking. Clearly all the banter and bullshit comes from a place of caring. They've had all their conversations, even amongst themselves in English since the first time I stepped into the building. Really nice of them!

My place is better than yours!

We do have a ridiculous amount of space. Especially if you consider that we live in the center of Mülheim. It's not the most desired of areas but still not far from the city center. Maybe it helps that we're on the 'wrong' side of the river. Here the sides are not divided into right and left sides, but right and wrong. 

Here's the view through my window to my balcony. Notice the plants I'm now responsible for. We'll see how many are still alive at the end of my time here. 

What definitely helps is that these guys have been living in the same apartment for almost 5 years now and the rent hasn't increased at the same rate as everything else. So that's how we can afford to live nicely, for now at least. 

Our coffee maker is my hero.

Our sundeck is right outside the kitchen.

There are offices in the building right next to us. It's sort of lucky since it's mostly empty whenever I've got a chance to chill at home. My room here is roughly the same size as my whole first apartment in Kouvola. 

Something going on. A lot of stuff on the terrace is turned upside down. Don't know what is the meaning of this.

People have different projects going on out here. Maren grows edible stuff, like potatoes, tomatoes, and sunflowers (for the seeds, but they're also nice to look at). Jonas is more into flowers. They had one of these kids' rubber pools outside last summer, I'm hoping for good enough weather to bring it back before I leave. 

We have our own personal library in the living room. And a yoga studio. 

Bis später!