Staying at a hipster apartment in Kreuzberg, Berlin

Hipster apartment in Berlin. Photo / Supplied

Winston Aldworth checks into a hipster apartment in Kreuzberg, Berlin, booked through Airbnb.

The location: We're in Kreuzberg; this is hipster, cool Berlin at its hippest and coolest. The locals are pierced, kombucha-chugging vibesters, who rock around on bicycles, parking up against graffitied walls to buy organic fruit or drink lager in the sun. What a life.

I'm with John F Kennedy: "Ich bin ein Berliner."

There's some dispute about whether or not JFK got his pronunciation wrong, saying "I'm a doughnut".

Doughnuts or not, I'm an Airbnb novice, so was fascinated to try the booking site for accommodation in the German capital. You can find the place in which we stayed by searching "Design loft in Kreuzberg" on the website. It's on Manteuffelstrasse.

Price: Our stay, in the magical balmy days of late-September, right on the tail of Europe'swarmest, lushest summer came in at $475.74 per night. We also paid $148.67 for the pleasure of not having to clean the joint during our four-day stay. Last week, there were dates available for this apartment for $372 per night.

The price seemed pretty reasonable to me, given you can sleep six adults here comfortably (we had four).

The pad: It's a cool space, in a reclaimed building that definitely had the feeling of having been refurbished for the rental market — the kind of thing that means some local communities get pissed off with Airbnb. But, hey, it worked pretty well for us.

There are three bedrooms, a sizeable kitchen and two bathrooms. Annoyingly there was no washing machine — I reckon if I'm renting a place that purports to be a flat or someone's apartment, I want to be able to wash my undies after a few days. Handwashing daks in the sink is, as the Germans say: "Sehr Don Brash".

The beds: They were weird, rubbery air mattresses; not super-comfy, but I got my sleep.

What's in the neighbourhood: A friendly Turkish dude in the corner shop rented us bikes and sold us lager. Lots of lager. The organic co-op across the road supplied most of the groceries.

Up the road from us was Kimchi Princess, the best Korean restaurant I've ever eaten in, and there are plenty of other eateries around — loads of great Middle Eastern and Turkish alongside bankably massive schnitzel. If you're not a vego, it's compulsory to eat at least one schnitzel in Berlin.

Fellow guests: Being at Hipster Ground Zero, there was a yoga centre running on the ground floor, of course, and — I kid you not — a week-long series of lectures and debates about cryptocurrency running in some shared space on the top floor. The cryptocurrency crowd all looked like extras from Run Lola, Run and — with Teutonic reliability — they held a massive German techno rave on our last night, just when we actually needed to get some sleep.

Noise: The floors were super-squeaky, and then there was the whole massive German techno rave thing. They quietened down eventually.

The lowdown: Berlin in the summertime is very much a des-res stay — when you visit, you can't help imagining how great it would be to park up and live among these hip, easygoing Berliners. The winters, of course, are a different story; but regardless, this is a city with real character and personality. I love the place.

Given that des-res factor, an Airbnb makes great sense — you get to pretend you're a Berliner, buying organic doughnuts from the organic co-op and having them with coffee you've just made in your Berlin apartment, before heading out on to the streets of Berlin for a day of Berlining. This apartment was a great way to dip our toes into the Berlin lifestyle.