Home (Our Move to Germany) (Patreon)

Hey Friends,

This is a personal update. We only just got internet today, but we want to offer answers to many of the questions we've received and give you some insight into our journey.

[We got to spend a lot of time with family this year.]

Why Germany?Some time ago, we discussed dreams to one day move out of the US.  We made a list of places we wanted to look at, and we even arranged a few weeks to travel to a few of them... Then COVID happened and travel was not advised.As time passed, our city got less safe and we realized that we generally felt out of place in the places we'd lived. In March of 2020 we both became full time podcasters and our dream (quite literally thought to be unobtainable) seemed theoretically practical. Over the next year we researched everything we could, went on virtual tours, and made a ranking system in Microsoft Excel of things important to us. We value safety, walkability, the ability to explore, cooler weather, smaller towns, and arbitrarily said that we had to have a mountain view (it's our 'dream home' after all). All of this helped to narrow things down. We assigned points in dozens of categories and researched everything: from how dog friendly each country was to local natural disasters.We also spoke with locals, expats, and friends around the world, which gave us a greater perspective of things you can't easily learn. For instance, we were surprised and saddened that gender inequality (cultural sexism) removed quite a few European countries that we always assumed no longer had such a problem. We also looked at houses and apartments in these countries, chatting about how we felt about things like "living near a possibly active volcano" or "if 2 hours from an airport is too far for our family."It took us months to narrow it down to three countries, with our number one pick being Germany, specifically the state of Bavaria. This is an important distinction because it's a very unique region akin to how New England or Texas are unique within the US. We immediately made contact with an immigration specialist, a tax person, and did our own research on these topics while loading German Duolingo courses. We also started looking at specific towns (avoiding Munich because we're not fond of big cities). We watched Youtube tours of every place we could find, drone footage, interviews with locals, read comments from expats or residents, crime reports, and even looked up places to eat and shop. We are generally fairly thorough in our planning efforts and did not want to see any place with rose-colored glasses.

[Travis Drinking tea with mountains in the background]

The Visit - Picking a TownWe voluntarily became houseless around the end of 2020, moving in with family for "the duration of COVID, or until we find a home" however long that would be. Months passed with no end in sight. In July, after over a year of research, the German borders opened up and we were able to book a trip! Thanks to discussions with a few friends and a German Patron, (I lost your contact info - please message me, I owe you a beer!) we narrowed down our list of towns to our top eight picks, which we planned to visit over fourteen days.We had an amazing and very lucky trip. We narrowly avoided a historic flood that hit the country, endured strange weather, and were able to visit every location. Our visit was followed by another homemade Excel Spreadsheet + Point System of empirical facts (with a small 0-5 point field called "How Much We Like It").By the end of our journey, one location, which happened to also be our favorite, had the most points in virtually every category. Because the town we picked is so small, we are not sharing the name, and are endeavoring to keep this information private.

[Beautiful Views, but you can also see how flooded things were.]Finding a HomeWe spent the last few days of our trip with a German realtor (Immobilien), who, simply put, made the next part of this story possible. We met them early in our journey, kind of by accident, to get an idea of what homes were like in the area. Unfortunately, apartments are fairly rare in our town, and we were unsure how to proceed, even with the cool opportunity presented to us. Then, on our second-to-last day in Germany, out of nowhere, a friend of a friend of our realtor (Immobilien commonly rent apartments in Germany) knew that an apartment would be coming available in 24 hours. We were awestruck at how lucky we were, as the "warm rent" (different and slightly more expensive than "cold rent") was less expensive than Travis' old apartment in Florida! We signed for the apartment and began the LONG list of paperwork required for the potential move. This is also the point at which we felt comfortable enough to tell people that we were moving to Germany.

[The most precious cargo - Eezo]

Operation 4k Mile DayWith an apartment rented, we returned to the US having already booked a return flight to Germany in two weeks time. We had strong fears of the COVID Delta variant preventing travel to Europe once again, so we acted quickly. We used virtually every day to pack, prep, mail things to ourselves, get Eezo's paperwork in order, get our own paperwork in order, and plan out every moment of the journey. We had to make a special booking for the train and plane to accommodate Eezo, and needed to book an automatic car for the final leg of the journey. We also arranged back-to-back meetings for the first few days to establish ourselves, as each thing we needed required another thing, as you'll see below...

We enjoyed our last weekend with family. Then the day of the journey came...

Kaitlin's father drove us 2 hours to the train station with 4 check-in bags, 3 personal items (one of which was an accordion), 2 backpacks with laptops, and 1 Eezo.

The train ride lasted ~4 hours and got us to Boston, where we met our friends (one of whom you know as the voice of Arn Feen Stonin). They helped us get to the airport, where we had the longest check-in process we've ever had: They asked for our paperwork on Eezo. We provided it. It's a LOT of paperwork to bring a dog to the EU, and even more if they're traveling with you on the plane as a service dog. (Small aside: Eezo spent most of 2020 training to become a service dog, finally gaining his official status in 2021! It was a lot of work, but Eezo is very intelligent and has the right temperament for the job.)

As a result, Eezo was given a pillow, blanket, and head pats by the airline attendants during the 3,800 mile flight to Munich. He patiently sat still and effectively did nothing for 15 hours BEFORE we even arrived in Germany! The rental car company was out of smaller automatic cars and they upgraded us to a van for free, which you'll see later became invaluable, and after clearing Eezo through customs (again), we had a ~2 hour drive to... "home."

Making a Haus a Home (Not a Haus, a Wohnung, but we want the pun)

We arrived at 3pm with our worldly possessions (sans a package we shipped to ourselves containing some clothing, our desktop computer, and our Webby award), and set to work purchasing things we could use to clean our apartment. We literally lacked everything imaginable, so we picked up kitchen essentials and then realized that we lacked a refrigerator and furniture of any kind. We tried to rent a bed in advance, but it wouldn't arrive until the following day, so our only furniture purchase before everything in town closed (at 5pm) was a dog bed. The above image is pretty much a copy/paste of emptiness for every room except the bathroom. You are also supposed to install your own lights and fridge in Germany, but thankfully a few lights were provided for us. The lights in our living room (aka the room without Eezo's bed) also did a cool Dead Space or general horror/rave party flicker, so we kept them off.  We were in a good mood and went out with Eezo for a 9pm walk around town, and stopped for a celebratory drink.As we went to bed on the floor that night we felt really lucky. We had each other and Eezo. We have the amazing job of entertaining you, which makes our new life possible. We have an apartment in Bavaria!!! We also knew that we could make any space we occupy better with time, and at that moment it felt like the start of a video game or RPG, where you have yet to obtain any of the upgrades, but the space itself has "good bones."

The Chain of Events:The following morning at 7:30am, after traveling for 20+ hours the previous day and cleaning our apartment until midnight:

We met the landlord to get a "proof that you moved in" letter.

This allowed us to register ourselves as locals with the town officials, so we could get a "proof that you're a local" paper.

This allowed us to open a bank account, which gave us an IBAN number.

Which was required to open an internet and electric account.

Which was required to have internet, and thus work.

Which was required so we can sleep at night... Also the bed arrived!

Unfortunately, getting internet service took an extra 24 hours for the router to arrive, so we spent the rest of the day on an adventure to a store that many consider a test of any relationship...

[FF VII image included as a parallel to the herculean task at hand]

We entered Ikea, and departed 4 hours later with the things we would need to fill our apartment... It only needed to be assembled.

We worked on assembly until after midnight... 

[One day an award will go on this shelf - for now, Krampus lives here]

That brings us to today! When our internet arrived, we posted Avrum, and are in a state of having to accomplish a lot creatively while still trying to put furniture necessary for our work/life together. We are still a few days away from being able to truly appreciate where we are, but we wanted to share the amazing journey that got us here while the events are still fresh in our minds. We also hope it makes sense why we've been a bit slow to respond to emails and post everything at the right times. We'll be at normal soon! And it will be a new normal.  :)

All the best,-Travis, Kaitlin, & Eezo