It was late afternoon in Berlin and I was browsing through a city guidebook. The shutters were pulled down and the only conversation occurring was drifting up from the street below. My two friends were fast asleep on the couch.
Behind me was the door to the sunny kitchen. There was a tiny fridge under the sink which amused me because I wasn’t used to seeing them that small, especially ones that couldn’t crush ice.
My friends and I were staying on the couch of a hyper-active and hyper-lingual Couchsurfer named Stefan. He was the kind of person who would watch the Gilmore Girls with the subtitles on. If you haven’t tried that before, it is an intense crash course in speed reading.
He was so go-go-go that he completely shocked when he returned home from work to find us still resting in his living room. We hadn’t slept the night before when we caught our flight out of London, but apparently that was no excuse.
“You haven’t seen anything!” Stefan exclaimed in horror. “Have you been the wall yet?”
“No.”
“Have you been the Jewish Memorial?”
“No.”
“Come on- let’s go!”
We eventually pulled ourselves together and the four of us walked across the street to a car share parking spot. It was my first time trying it out and I wasn’t entirely convinced it was a beneficial service. If a car share was about saving money, why didn’t we just catch the train? I was very appreciative Stefan went out of his way to give us a tour, but I couldn’t see the point to spending money on a share car.
I hadn’t revisited that early opinion until several years later when I wanted to visit Jervis Bay. I was mulling over when to book a rental car when I remembered there was a GoGet parking spot right across from my house. Suddenly a light bulb went off- who would want to travel to a rental agency when they could just hire a car outside their front door?
When I was filling out the application I thought of Berlin and that made me think of my siblings. I wish I’d had this membership when they were visiting me in Sydney. There are so many beautiful coastal drives that I would have liked them to see. If only I’d cottoned on to the idea earlier.
About: GoGet
