Things to in Berlin when you're there

You have have to go the Pergamon musuem which houses amoung a lot of other things, the gates of babylon, which is just unbelievably cool.

Another vote for the Pergamon...truly awe-inspiring.

In Berlin, I would recommend a trip to an art gallery called Kunst-Werke, 69 Auguststrasse in Mitte. Also ProQM, a bookshop on Neue Schoenhauser Strasse. There's a nice backyard cafe a few doors down and a great Thai restaurant. You should also walk around Prenzlauer Berg. The best record shop is Dense, at about 28 Danziger Strasse. Good club is Ausland, on the Lychener Strasse, Prenzlauer berg. Check also Bastard on Kastanien Allee (Eberswalder Strasse subway). If you need to connect to the internet and have a laptop with a wifi card, go to Starbucks at the Hackesche Hof in Mitte (Rosenthaler Strasse), where you can sit all day and surf on DSL for free. The Hackesche Hof and the courtyard next door are also culture spots with good cinemas, galleries etc. Good Sunday markets at Boxhagener Platz and Treptower Park. There's a good trendy faux-Chinese drinking club on Tor Strasse called White Trash Fast Food. (Ask at the door for a day membership, technically it's private, but they'll let you in.)

does anyone know if PEACHES still lives in Berlin?

Thanks for the recommendations all, but what about caveats?

Will Peaches play with Momus? I think it's about time they got together.

I think it's unlikely after this.

But she has a mullet.

I never went to the flea markets. But I went up the Fernsehturm. You must go up the Fernsehturm! It's like something from a song by Stereolab.

triple r, alex under, dominik eulberg

this is all of the bars that aren't old man pubs, hein?

I think I went here!

people dance to minimal techno on a restrained soundsystem by a river

check the line up for watergate in feb - it makes me weep
trentemoller
perlon incl. cassy
m.a.n.d.y
metope and basteroid

i guess the other thing is pretty obvious - panoramabar/berghain.

i didnt see anything except for clubs and the postcard exhibition in ostbahnhof, so cannot advise further

watergate could be open till about 6/7. eulberg was slated to play till 7 on sat night. berghains yr best bet for going to bed then goign there, which is what i did

i'll be in berlin for the first time EVAH in less than 48 hours. arriving on the 10th and leaving on the 18th. as this is my first time there (or, um, in europe in general), does anyone know of anything cool happening between those dates? i'm already planning on going to kompaktorama at berghain/panoramabar (these are one and the same, yeah?) if it means anything, the apartment i'm staying at is apparently about 40 feet from where the wall stood (according to my friend).

i'm so excited i can barely concentrate on the two papers i have to write before then! rnnnnnnk.

matt john and martinez are playing watergate on 10th, cassy is playing there on wed 15th

check out www.ostgut.de. that should do it. and pick up a copy of die tageszeitung and rip out the 'tazplan' for daily arts listings.

full a good agenda from the Berhain/Panoramaber (Ostgut)

cheers!

I'm not sure what to do clubbing wise. While I'll hapilly go out all hours, and would love to wake up, grab breakfast and then go clubbing, Madeline is less keen.

Are there any good, friendly, bars to catch good DJs between say 8pm-4am??? I'm not picky on the day.

Also, we're staying in Prenzlaur Berg this time - which we didn't really get out to much last time. Does anybody have any tips for good independent coffee shops, cafe's, pubs and restaurants?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

shitting it. feel like I'm gonna die of nerves & uselessness.

god knows why, I've been before. UGhh!

IIRC correctly it was a bit over 20 Euros for a week, and I think you can buy it for a shorter period of time too.

The ticket inspectors busted me once...

when i lived in hamburg, i had a friend who decided never to pay for a single train journey for the year we were there. he got busted three times and it still ended up massively cheaper than our student travel card things. (somewhat contrary to the spirit of things, mind, but hey, we were all skint)

so, €20 for a week? well that's dead cheap. i shall investigate at schoenefeld airport when we get there...

http://www.bvg.de/index.php/en/Bvg/Detail/folder/764/rewindaction/Index/id/2903/name/7-Day+Pass

Here's some more info on it. It's a bit more expensive if you buy the full ABC-zone ticket, but basically the AB-zone ticket should be enough for you, because there's hardly any need for a tourist to travel to the C zone.

Please things to in Berlin when I'm there.

Preferably things besides the obvious tourist sites which I can figure out on my own. Would like - good places to eat, bars, shops, art galleries, places to hear bands, oddities, out-of-the-way spots, etc.

Breakfast @ Barcomi's. And make sure you try their cheesecake, too.
Quick & tasty meal @ Mr Vuong.
Best thing you can do: rent a bike. Cycling through the city is terrific and a quick way to go wherever you want.

[q]I really liked Oranienburger Str. for cute cafes and restaurants and lots of art galleries. There was this massive artists' commune place there that was interesting but I can't remember what it was called.

― ENBB, Tuesday, July 17, 2007 1:27 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I found it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunst_Haus_Tacheles

― ENBB, Tuesday, July 17, 2007 1:29 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark[q]

What I said there still holds true. I also second everything that Jergins has recommended on this thread.

If you have the time do yourself a favor and go to Potsdam. It's not too far by train and beautiful. I was so glad that we did.

oops

also saw on the other thread that you found a hotel - looks good!

i think i would go to berghain and get ruined for as many days as possible.

Yeah, it's a chain, but it looks like a decent chain at least. I'm going to have people I know in Berlin at the time so I don't really need the hostel to meet people.

Berghain/Panorama Bar was kind of the whole point of Berlin for me.

― jed_, Monday, 27 October 2008 08:41 (8 months ago) Bookmark

more more more

Sleepless in Berlin, so I thought I´d give some of my own opinions so far

1) The area that I´m staying in, Potsdamer Platz, is extremely convenient to the museums, Tiergarten, as well as to neighborhoods like Mite and Kreuzberg, but it´s also rather sterile and boring. The city is easy enough to get around that I´d recommend somewhere else.

2) Berlin is amazing for biking -- rent a bike or get your hands on one somehow.

3) The Gemaldegalerie is definitely worthwhile.

4) The new government quarter is very beautiful and interesting architecturally -- worth seeing by bike or bus even if you don´t bother with the reichstag dome.

5) KW - Kunstwerke artspace in Mitte is very good - probably takes under an hour. It´s off the street and there´s a great cafe in the courtyard in front of KW. There are also other good galleries in the neighborhood that can be seen on the same trip.

6) I didn´t think all that much of Prenzlauerberg -- perhaps it´s past its prime? I mean it was a very lovely neighborhood to sit in a cafe, but so were Mitte and Kreuzberg, which I think I prefer.

7) If you like capital PA Performing Arts, there´s a music/dance/theater space called Radial System V in Friedrichshain that does a lot of contemporary stuff at a reasonable price. It´s also a really nice converted industrial space right on the river and the cafe outside has a good view across the Spree.

8) Perhaps the most interesting thing so far -- there´s a former secret Stasi prison way out in the East where they give guided tours, sometimes with a former prisoner as your guide. The tour is very good and there's no kitsch element to any of it. Also it´s only accessible by the tram, and the ride gives you a good chance to see socialist architecture and some very different feeling parts of east berlin.

More later.

The Stasi museum, is that not accessible on the U-Bahn? i'm thinking of the former Stasi HQ out beyond Karl Marx Allee.

I've been to the former Stasi prison too, it was indeed an interesting experience, though pretty awful too, learning about the various torture methods they applied there. It's not the same as the the Stasi HQ I think, you can't get there by U-Bahn, you have to ride for a while on a tram and then walk some to get there, but it's definitely worth the trip. I think they have English-language tours on Saturdays.

If you want to hang out with hippies and punks and rastas and bohemians, Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg are the places to go to. In Friedrichshain there's also club Berghain, which has been mentioned many times in this thread. It's definitely worth going if you like techno.

when my brother was living in berlin and I stayed with him we took part in a grand p'berg-v-k'berg falafel-off. i cannot remember who won (possibly king of falafel in kreuzberg?) but it was a+ falafel good eating times.

Also, if you're interested in gay history or social history in general, the gay museum (Schwules Museum) is definitely worth a visit. It's quite small, but there's a lot of interesting stuff there. Last time I was there I spent over 3 hours just absorbing all the information.

If you're a veggie or like vegetarian food, I'd recommend the Sunday brunch in Cafe Morgenrot on Boxhagener Strasse. There's lots of hippies/punks there too, though, so if that's not your thing, maybe skip it then.

Oh yeah, and on Fridays (i.e. today) there's the Turkish street market on Maybachufer, next to the river. You can find it where Maybachufer and Kottbusser Damm meet, right next to the bridge that crosses the river. That's definitely worth a visit!

Indeed, we went to the turkish market today on rec of a friend. The neighborhood around it, neukolln, is also not bad -- just starting to become trendz with artists moving in. We also ate in a really nice spot in Mitte -- I don't remember the name, something generic like Cafe Europa, but they have their outdoor seating on a little island in the middle of the street and it has a very nice vibe, and the food and beer were very good.

Oh, the cafe was on Gipsystrasse, iirc. Another spot I really like in Mitte is called something like Clarisches Ballhaus. It´s on Augustrasse. A decaying pre-war dancehall that has been turned into a cafe with a large garden seating area. I think they have dance and music nights although I didn´t attend any.

Many people recommend a daytrip to Potsdam to see the palaces. A few things about that -- 1) go early because it tends to be clogged with tourists. 2) Please please save yourself the trouble and take the regional rail instead of the s-bahn, so much faster and easier. 3) Everyone says Sans Souci is the palace to see, but I found it boring and ugly and the audiotour was useless, so skip it unless you´re really into high-baroque style or interior design in general. It was also overpriced at 12 Euros for something that takes maybe 20 minutes. Meanwhile the gardens are lovely and there´s one fasciniating room in the Neue Schloss, decorated floor to ceiling with seashells and minerals from all over the world. Have not seen anything like it.

The Alte National Galerie is worth a trip. Didn´t have much time there, but highly recommend the Caspar Friedrich paintings, and there´s also a very interesting 19th C german painter whose name I can´t remember, but who was techinically brilliant and did possibly the first painting of workers in an industrial setting.

Flea market in P-burg is fun, and I thought the Turkish food at Hasir was good.

Bauhaus archiv is temporarily closed, but the building can still be seen and is worth a visit.

Meanwhile the Bauhaus material is all at the Martin Gropius Bau, which was also good.

I would definitely in hindsight say just get the tourist pass for the transport (it´s kind of confusing and stressful otherwise, although we got away with quite a few free rides and might ultimately have saved a bit of money over the pass. Also, I guess this is just basic tourist advice anywhere that I failed to follow, but it seems like a good idea to stay somewhere near the area you think you´ll be going out in so you don´t have long train rides at the end of a long day and night.

I'm going the last weekend of the film festival. Has anyone been for that? Any tips on how to get the most out of it? I am not with film people or press and will not have any kind of special access, so I'm just going to public screenings.

Tickets for Killer Inside Me and Howl so far.

loving the ideas in this thread.

goin to berlin for a few days. Was thinking about staying here for a day or two because it looks bonkers. But I don't know how far Wilmersdorf is from the action. I know its more of a residential are, but would this be like staying in the middle of nowhere or are subways and bike rides easy enough to get you to fun/touristy bullshit with swiftness and ease?

I didn't spend time in that neighborhood, but it doesn't look like the middle of nowhere at all. Subways are extraordinarily easy and biking wouldn't be bad at all if you're healthy. You could probably bike to a lot of the museums and tourist in 10-15 minutes from there and maybe 20-30 minutes to the eastern neighborhoods. I could be off - I'm not a serious biker. But bike lanes on main routes offset from the road so it feels very easy and safe to bike there.

It's not miles out but it's kind of removed from where a lot of the fun stuff is - there are probably better places to be and I liked the east side of Berlin a lot more than the west, which felt a bit dull in comparison.

I'd recommend staying in the bit of Prenzlauerberg that is nearest to Mitte - it'll be awesome in the summer with all the big street cafes and bars, and you can walk to most of the touristy bits with ease.

Yeah, we're doing Prenzlauerberg for the bulk of the trip but then there's an extra two days where we need to stay somewhere else!

So basically, where should we stay for those extra two days?

France

i hear there's a place in france where the naked ladies dance, is that true

Also, I remember playing a place in Amsterdam in 2007 and remember seeing your tag in the dressing room, iirc. Don't know why I never mentioned that.

ha! the most kvlt tag I did is in munich and doesn't reference me but grinnell hardcore ("harder than some")

Yeah actually I regretted most not staying in a more attractive/happening neighborhood, so maybe you should do so. Why not just stay the extra couple of days in P-berg? It's fairly central and you can get everywhere from there.

stay somewhere by the canal in kreuzberg

The thing with Berlin is, it's a heavily decentralized city, where you should stay depends on what sort of things you want to do. The actual "central" area, around Alexanderplats and Unter den Linden, has some touristy things but otherwise there's not much to do there. Among the cooler, more multicultural areas with clubs, pubs, record stores, flea markets, etc, are Kreuzberg, Friedrichshain, and Prenzlauer Berg. So if you want that sort of action, Wilmersdorf is a bit far for there, and the U7 subway that stops near the hotel doesn't get you straight to the those areas either, you have to change subways at least once. But of course if you have time to ride the trains it's not that big of a hassle, you should get to most places worth a visit in 20-60 minutes.

When are you going to Berlin, Whiney? I'm traveling in Germany next month, most likely I'll be in Berlin from 15th to 18th of August.

In Berlin in just under two weeks! Fingers crossed they'll let us colonial types into Panoramabar/Watergate/etc for the Smalltown Supersound/Kompakt nights.

If you're going to Berghain/Panoramabar, be prepared to walk for a bit. It's technically in Friedrichshain, but it's in the middle of an old industrial area that's not near any public transport or anything. When we went there a few years ago, at some point we thought we're lost, as there was just this empty industrial lot with no lights or anything, but then we saw cars driving into the same direction we were heading, so we knew something was there.

Also, at the door they did a body search for everyone, which is quite rare in Germany, I think. Dunno if they'd had some problems with guns or knives or something... AFAIK Berlin is generally pretty safe for a city of that size.

Or maybe they do a body search in the bigger clubs, I dunno. That's the only time I've been to a club of that size in Berlin.

Claire Danes: Actress Discusses Berlin Techno Music Scene on 'Ellen'
Danes discusses her experience in a large multi-room club called Berghain, saying "it is amazing, it is the best place on earth."

wish i met claire daines in berghain, preferably while off my trolley on e and having a recuperating ice cream with ron trent playing and her also having an ice cream. entirely non-sexual wish.