Beautiful Berlin

My name is Dunja and I was asked to share my Erasmus exchange experience with you.

I went to Berlin from March 2015 to August 2015. I think I do not need to explain my choice in the city for my student exchange. It’s Berlin! Anyone who has ever visited Berlin knows that this is the city of many attractions, rich cultural heritage and amazing art scene. We visited Berlin in my second year of studying at Turistica as a student trip. I loved it imminently and decided to apply for my student exchange there. Plus, I wanted to learn/improve my German.

I went on my exchange alone, so before I arrived I thought that I would have to be careful as a woman in a 4 million populated city (two times the number of our whole country’s population!). I soon found out that the city was very welcoming and safe. When I first arrived the weather was still kind of cold so it was all a bit gray, but as the weather started getting warmer, so did the city. I was soon discovering the endless possibilities this beautiful city has to offer. From huge flee markets, to open karaoke on the streets, beer in the park, delicious food from a variety of different cultures, the diversity of people, traveling on the subway, hidden graffiti streets and huge night clubs.

The University Best Sabel Hochschule was located in the center near Alexanderplatz. It was a small school with few students. Everyone was very nice – students and staff. There were no complications whatsoever and if I had some kind of problem, I could easily talk it out with someone from the staff. Everyone was very helpful. The courses were also very interesting although some of them were hard to follow because of the use of complex German. After the end of the semester the school moved location so at the end some people were a bit confused.

After about 3 months of living in Berlin I adopted some local Berlin habits myself: Cheap beer in the park with friends after school, exploring the Berlin nightlife on the weekends and Sunday flee market and karaoke at Mauerpark.

I didn’t get any discounts for student meals (like we have in Slovenia), but the food was not very expensive if you knew where to get it. Of course, there is a lot of fast food around but there are also student food places nearly on every subway that offer healthy snacks. Also buying in Lidl and cooking at home was a very good and cheap idea, as the prices in Lidl are the same as our prices (some products are even cheaper).

About the accommodation… I had a hard time finding a flat. Especially from Slovenia because everyone wants to meet you first before they rent you a room/flat. There are a few cool sites where you search for a room (wg-gesucht.de) I also had a bad experience with someone trying to scam me for money, but I guess that is normal in a big city with millions of people searching for rooms. I finally found a room in a wg (shared flat) by Facebook, from a girl that I know that knows this other girl, who knows someone else…. You know how it goes.

The nightlife in Berlin is AMAZING! I have never EVER experienced something like this before. You can go out any day of the week and listen to any type of music you prefer, there are thousands of different clubs, bars, cafés, dance halls,…  I went to a few unbelievable parties that you can only experience in Berlin.

The people are also very kind, open minded and free. The only problem is you have to speak German. At least a little bit. Some people don’t speak any English at all in important places you have to be at, like registration units, banks and the post office.

The costs depends on which part of the city you are in, and what kind of lifestyle you are living. Of course, if you can throw your money around it is easy to spend thousands and thousands of euros in this city. But if you are a student like me, there are a lot of cheap places to get everything.

Beer: 2,50 – 3,50 eur (in bars); 0,80 EUR in local spätis (convienience stores). Prices in the supermarkets are about the same as ours. Meal at cute restaurant: 7 EUR, entry fee for clubs: 7 – 25 EUR. I bought a kilogram of cloths for 3 EUR (imagine that! A kilo of cloths!). What I am saying is… it is easy to live cheap if you are a student and don’t have a lot of money.

The transport in Berlin is great. You can get from anywhere to anywhere and you only have to wait for a maximum of 10 minutes for your S-bahn, U-bahn, tram or bus to arrive.  I got a semester ticket for all Berlin transport at the first day of university, I paid about 180 EUR for the semester ticket – it was valid for 6 months). Otherwise I noticed a lot of people use bikes to get around.

I would like to recommend the Erasmus exchange to EVERYONE! It’s a magical, beautiful experience that you have to take! I think every student should do this. It gives you a wider perspective, a traveling experience. There is so much knowledge one can take from living in a different city for a few months. It also benefits your future of language knowledge, getting a job and getting to know another city very well.

You are welcome to contact me on Facebook for any questions.

Dunja Dujc