More Learning

One of the ways I’m trying to save money on this trip is to leverage out of town visits/visitors and medium-term apartment rentals combined with my all-you-can-ride rail pass. 

OUT OF TOWN VISITORS: My cousin is coming to Berlin for a few days and the idea of someone whom I love spending $300 a night on a hotel drives me insane. So I decided to do one of my week-long visits while he’s in town and then meet up with him just before he flys home. 

This means instead of my place being empty for a week, one of my top-ten cousins is going to be in there. Which is a good thing.

MEDIUM TERM APARTMENT RENTALS: When my bro was here in February the going rate for an Air-BnB was $5,000 CDN per month. Almost identical to staying in a hotel. It was the same when I checked for May-June-July. I scored seven weeks for $2,800 CDN with a possible extension for one more week. By going with a service that does not process payments (takes a cut) you can get a much better rate. https://www.wg-gesucht.de/en/ is what I used. 

RAIL PASS: I already mentioned this in my previous post so it’s best to give an update. I’m going to be doing maybe 8 “segments” on this holiday within a holiday. Each of those would typically be around 50 euros. So we’re up around $600 for all the trains I’ll be taking over the next 8 or 9 days.

OUT-OF-TOWN VISITS: So this week I’m going to be visiting some friends that are all over the place. Paris. Marseille. Switzerland (Italian sector), Switzerland (French sector). These kind people have offered their couches and inflatable mattresses for me to sleep on. Out-of-town accommodations can be expensive, so a sofa to crash on can greatly lighten the financial burden. My preference for thank-you gifts is a meal at a nice restaurant. A nice break from the cooking and cleaning and some quality time to catch up.