Hacker News Reader

I think you've got it wrong.

I live in a 1750 square foot penthouse apartment (two floors, 14' ceilings, hardwood throughout), with easy access to two different subway lines (U8 and the S41/42 ring). I can be anywhere in the inhabited part of the city in under 25 minutes.

I pay $1400/month. That's $9/sqft/year, or $0.80/sqft/month. Did I mention that's including heat?

Berlin is a world-class city. There are several authorized Apple service centers (and they're building an Apple Store right now), Canon service centers, and big box retailers. There are great restaurants and hotels and conference centers and such because it's the federal capital, and all the embassies and consulates are here, this country being the largest economy in the EU.

I defy you to find me another city in the first world where one can live so cheaply, with access to the benefits of a truly world-class city such as Berlin has. It's simply not possible (and indeed, in the trendiest parts of town, rents have gone up 100% in the last 5-7 years).

It won't last, but we've got at least 3-7 years left before it turns into another stuffy expensive boring German city.

"3-7 years left"

Check the date on this: http://catandgirl.com/?p=1129

I've got a couple grand and weeks for traveling. When and what's good?

Yeah, it's been here for the last 8 or 9 years, ever since New York got all cleaned up and destroyed its techno scene.

Examples include Hawtin, Adam X, Function, Plaslaiko, Visionquest, etc - the list goes on.

It truly is an amazing city... and yes, it does move around.

Are you an American citizen?

Can you do this if you are?

If I say... just wanted to move to Berlin; how would I do it? How do you get paid? How do the taxes work?

The US is the only country (that I know of) that requires its citizens to pay taxes earned abroad, even if living abroad full-time.

That's one thing to keep in mind - you'll likely be paying the additional taxes.

They give tax deductions both for a) paying foreign taxes and b) being physically absent from the country.

Read about the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion here: http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/international/article/0,...

Everywhere else doesn't even make you file and a bill has already been introduced to take away these exemptions (they offensively claim they can "save" money by removing these exemptions).

Also, I believe that there's some setup so that the credit is one-way, or you have to pay the larger of the two. In any case, it usually ends up being that you pay no less in taxes to the US, and then you may get taxed for the foreign country on top of that.

Berlin’s central location makes it easy to travel around Europe

Yup, that would be Frankfurt. A new Berlin airport is being built but the last time I read about it it was quite delayed.

>It's a pretty city, in some parts, but "Europe's greenest city" is just bullshit. And maybe technically there are more canals than in Venice and Amsterdam, but in reality you'll find that you have to walk quite a bit to get from one canal to the next, where in Venice and Amsterdam they are a defining part of the city.

I grew up in Berlin, when the wall was still up (it came down when I was in the 4th grade, and we left the summer after I finished 5th grade). We flew out of the city to spend major holidays with family back in the states, but in the eleven years I lived there, I left the city via ground transportation exactly three times (all for class trips). Despite hardly ever leaving the city, I regularly went on camping trips with the scouts where it felt like I was in the middle of the wilderness. I also regularly went on walks through sections of the Grünewald (forest/parkland) near my home, and could get so far in that city noise would completely disappear. People would get lost in the Grünewald in the winter and wander around for days before either finally stumbling out onto a street, dying of exposure, or being killed by wild boars. I don't know any other city on Earth that contains such large tracts of wildlands inside the city.

As for the canals, they're completely different. They are best enjoyed via river boat cruises, not on walks.

>I like kebabs as much as the next guy and it's probably true that you can get the best ones in Berlin, but let's be honest, it's drunk food and often made from questionable ingredients.

I was way too young to be drinking when I lived in Berlin, but they were still my favorite food. I've been back since, and have consumed them both drunk and sober as an adult, and still think that Berliner Dönners are one of the best foods on Earth. I've been all over the world, and I've never had a Dönner Kebab that stacks up to the ones in Berlin. I've eaten Dönner Kebabs and equivalents (Shwarma, Gyros, etc.) all over the middle east and mediteranean (Turkey, Greece, Israel, Bahrain, Dubai, etc.), places where you would expect the Kebabs to be better, but they're not as good as in Berlin. The only thing that came close were some Shwarma I bought from a Lebanese cafe in Cyprus.

There are some things I don't like about Berlin. The biggest is that the public transportation is dirty, and in some places unsafe at certain hours. When I grew up there, the public transportation was clean and safe (as a grade-schooler, I was allowed to range all over the city with my friends, riding the buses and subways with no adult supervision). When I went back to visit for the first time a few years later, I was shocked at how dirty and poorly-kept they had become.

100% agreement on the dönner kebabs. The critical mass of Germanized Turks going back a few generations seems to be the key ingredient.

I spent a year in Berlin then came back to the US. Good luck finding a street style dönner in the US.