Greetings from a stranger's apartment in Berlin
Some thoughts on housesitting, the German capital, a painful to watch film and - do we all have to be content creators nowadays?
Greetings from Berlin! Yes, this Substack is coming to you from a disarmingly pretty apartment in the German capital where I am looking after a Romanian rescue pup - she's snoozing on the sofa beside me as I type these words - while her owner goes on holiday.
It all came about when I wrote this story about how a growing number of people are housesitting full time to avoid paying sky high London rents. I spoke to two couples who shared a home together in Leyton and who all decided, when their lease was up, to roam the UK staying in strangers' homes looking after their pets while they went on holiday instead of sign up for another year in a substandard house that cost them around a grand each a month. But it was the teacher who housesat in London for five whole years, moving every week to ten days, and estimated that the nomadic lifestyle had saved her 60k in total, that really left me gobsmacked.
Everyone I interviewed was so positive about housesitting and had such few negative experiences to report that late one night I decided to sign up to the website they had all used, called Trusted Housesitters1.
Here's how it worked. I set up a profile, wrote a bit about myself, added some pictures (plenty with dogs), verified who I was through the app with my driving licence, asked a friend to give me a reference (just that I was a nice, responsible person who wouldn't trash your home while you were sunning yourself in the Caribbean), and paid the membership fee of £99. Everyone I spoke to approved of this fee - they said it showed that you were serious and that the prospective homeowners were also serious about getting someone to look after their house while they were on holiday.
I scrolled through the housesits and found one in Berlin. The apartment looked absolutely charming, the dog looked very manageable. I applied, the lovely homeowner and I did a FaceTime and it was a done deal - I was off to Berlin! (I have to say I was very impressed with the site - I joined on February 20 and had my first housesit confirmed six days later).
I'm still working out what I think of this city - brutal, grubby and cool are the adjectives that leap to mind right now - but I wanted to jot down a few of my takeaways from my first housesitting experience...
It's surprising how quickly you feel at home
This may be because I adore this apartment and, honestly, it is exactly how I would love to decorate my own place one day and the homeowner was so incredibly welcoming, leaving me a slab of posh chocolate and writing me a Google doc with her recommendations for the local area, but yes - I feel super at ease and comfortable. I was worried I might feel a little like I was walking around on eggshells in someone else's home but that is not the case at all.
We're all the same
As I said, I adore how this home is decorated. Imagine every cool Berlin interior you've seen on Instagram and that's it. She has all the bits and pieces I have bookmarked - there's the Tylko sideboard, the Le Creuset salt and pepper mills, the ficus tree, the cute Alice Palmer-esque lampshade on the tiny lamp sitting on the bookcase...we even use the same face cream. While oohing and ahhing over her apartment, I was struck by the thought that we all think we’re unique but maybe we're all (gasp) the same. I, a British girl who lives in south east London, apparently have the exact same taste as a Swedish girl who lives in east Berlin. Weirdly, I find that both flattering and, actually, comforting.
Looking after a dog does restrain you but it makes solo travel less lonesome
I walk sweet Bambi in the morning, at lunch and at night, and these requirements do mean I can't buzz around Berlin like I would if I were staying in an Air BnB or a hotel. But, I think it's about embracing a different kind of holiday. I've enjoyed looking after a pooch - I like having to get out of bed in the morning to walk her around the block (in my pink striped pyjamas, leopard print coat and bedhead). I can see that having a dog does restrain you but it also gives you a routine and the practice of caring for another creature and I wonder whether that could be good for me. When I get my sadness and find it difficult to get out of bed, having to get out the door so my dog can wee could actually be a really good thing. Also, I love the companionship. Bambi is particularly affectionate and sleeps in bed with me, curled up by my hip. I love that closeness. I can find city breaks as a solo traveller a little lonely and that has definitely been lessened by my canine companion.
Looking after other people's pets can be stressful
Ok, so today I went to Tempelhof, a disused airfield that takes up a stretch of Berlin. It's an eerie place - can you imagine another capital city with a vast airfield complete with abandoned airport where people fly kites and picnic? It's weirdly beautiful and also, somehow, unnerving. Anyhow, I let Bambi off the lead (her owner had said it was fine as long as I had treats) which was a big mistake. We somehow wandered into the barbecue section. The smell of cooking meat sent Bambi wild, she ran around, lost all interest in me, my ball, my treats and was determined to not let me catch her. I lost my mind as it turns out dogs aren't allowed off the lead in Tempelhof, and a little girl with a fear of dogs started running, Bambi chased her thinking it was a game, the little girl screamed, Bambi barked, the little girl burst into tears, the mother was understandably annoyed at me that my dog (my German isn't up to getting across the concept of housesitting and it being someone else's dog) was running around making her daughter cry. Long story short, it took three park rangers to help me corner Bambi by one of their cars so I could eventually put her back on the lead and march her home.
Watching a dog that you are looking after cause mayhem and having no idea how to get her back on a lead and back home was a level of stress I have not experienced in quite a while.
So those are my thoughts so far. As for Berlin, it is as cool as I expected it to be. The people here are stylishly scruffy. Within 48 hours I had bought a leather jacket from a vintage shop in a pathetic attempt to look like a Berliner. The public transport is brilliant. The city is dirtier than I expected with trash and so much broken glass (!) on the pavements. I am in Neukölln which reminds me of the Lower East Side in New York... I don't think there's a London equivalent. Perhaps Brixton? Today I went to see the remains of the Berlin Wall and skulked around Friedrichshain which I think is The East Village of Berlin. It's full of vintage shops and cute coffee places and ceramics shops and I could do some serious damage on my credit card there. It's also home to Berghain which I am determined to go to but absolutely convinced I would not get into. I haven't been to west Berlin yet but I am going there today. So yes, I feel like I haven't got my head around this sprawling city with such a fascinating history yet but I am very much liking what I've seen so far and, as far as housesitting goes, well, I'm a fan.
Recommendations
The Zone Of Interest
I loathed this film when I saw it last week but maybe I loathed it because I was frightened of it? The film focusses on Rudolf Höss, the commandant of Auschwitz, and his wife Hedwig and their family. They live in a house beautifully done up and turned into some kind of country estate right next to the death camp he runs. Hedwig wants to grow vines to cover the wall that borders on the concentration camp. You never see over the wall but the terrifying chimneys of Aushwitz belching out God knows what smoke tower in the background and you hear enough to build an idea of the absolute horrors going on behind that wall while the Höss family play house, splash around in their fountain and Hedy picks out treats from items confiscated from Jewish people sent to their death.
The film is uncomfortable to watch for many reasons but primarily because Höss and Hedwig are so fucking normal. Hedwig is consumed by her petty, materialistic plans and it doesn't seem to occur to her (although it's clear she does know) that people are being slaughtered just footsteps from her front door. I found it harder to understand Höss. He's presented as a career man who is just fascinated by the logistics of how to kill as many people as possible in the most efficient way as possible. He obviously loves his children. He goes around locking up the doors at night as though his family could be at risk. He gets annoyed by SAS officers plucking the lilac that grows on his house - yet has no problem planning out in exacting detail the murder of over a million people. So I don't know - do I buy that? That he was a normal man who did evil things and that normal people do evil things all the time? I don't want to believe that. I think it takes a peculiar kind of evil to mastermind a mass slaughter like he did. Hedy is evil because she closes her eyes and stops off her ears but how could Höss organise and co-ordinate killing on that scale if he was normal? I don't know. I just can't believe it. It's too terrifying to believe someone normal could do something so ruinous.
Instagram fatigue and the rise of 'Resentment Reels'
I am obsessed with the journalist
. She covers technology for the Washington Post and is just a stellar journalist - she is there with the scoops time and time again and she nails internet culture. She is doing a lot of journalism on Youtube (perhaps because nobody wants to read words anymore sob) and this video about how everyone is being forced to become a content creator in this economy is incredible.She articulated so much of how I feel about Instagram and the pressure to have an 'online presence' nowadays, to build your 'own audience'. She argues it's not enough nowadays to be an artist, or have a secondhand clothing shop, or be a plastic surgeon or a journalist or a florist or whatever - you have to promote yourself and your services online and, because of Instagram's algorithm, that means you have to make videos which is time consuming and often without reward.
I feel this very deeply. I want to write. I want to be a journalist. I don't really want to make reels. But I feel like I need to for my career. In case you haven't noticed, journalism is cratering. I have no doubt that having a presence on social media is going to become essential for most journalists - in fact, it already is. I have 'make reel' on my monthly to do list. I even thought I should make a reel about being in Berlin and housesitting. But guys, I don't want to! I want to be here and experience it and not be thinking about things to film and pouting at my phone and editing some video which, by the way, no one is paying me to do. Yet, I feel the pressure. If you relate, I'd check out the video - she's articulate and knowledgeable and such a sharp reporter.
I think that's it from me! Thank you, as always, for reading my Substack. I’ll see you next time xxx
Not sponsored, but God I wish it was.
Firstly, thanks for sharing your adventure! And second, for the links about creating content and instagram fatigue (I have bookmarked everything for later)