Things to in Berlin when you're there

but maybe it has reopened in some other guise?

yeah re: the bikepaths, keep in mind that sometimes the bike paths go up onto the pavement, and can be designated only by differently-coloured bricks. i didn't know that and was standing on the pavement right in the bike path and was given INCREDIBLY dirty stares by bikers until i realised what i was doing. bikers' "rights" are taken pretty seriously there i guess!

mmm, i can't ride a bike though, so that's moot.

definitely want to go to the jewish museum, and berghain obv.

when i was emailing the dude at the bar we're staying at re: dates, he was like "ahhh, perfect, we're hosting a m_nus party on the sunday night". when i confirmed that we were leaving on monday night, he was like "no! no! the party is scheduled to go until tuesday!"

lex it's not moot if you're standing in the path and get run over! i am concerned for your safety here.

i have never paid attention to cars either! and it's worked so far

Oh goody.

I'll be in Berlin from August 27th to September 2nd, but I'll be staying with a local hippie friend, so she'll probably show me around. If any ILXor happens to be there then though, I'd be glad to meet.

What is Berghain?

In meine zug! Hast du meine flughafen gesehen?

i will be in berlin august 1st-14th! we are spending a night in kassel to check out documenta (not as special as the skulptur projekt obv because it only happens once every FIVE years)

KV_LOL - dein Zug ist nur ein Strassenbahn, aber mein Zug is das Trans Siberian Express.

usw.

Ich habe eine zug nach berlim zum cape town! Du hast eine hängebahn, eine kleine dingle dangle! JA JA JA

tresor reopened in may

Bauhaus museum is fun if you like colour wheels.

I love Berlin!

that's why i said "SUPER gay friendly"!!

This is true. The last time I was there we spotted "Europe's Premier Gay Labyrinth" which had Bi Tag on Friday nights and a He-man looking dude on the adverts.

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.

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

Berlin is hard. At least when I went there I had no idea what to do until I hooked up with a groovey local girl. It was violently cold too. And brutally cool. I loved it.

We were fairly lucky as we know people there but there are v good free mags letting you know what's happening that weekend. The metro is fairly simple and 24 hours. Check if anyone good is going through that weekend, the tickets will be fairly cheap compared to Ireland or the UK.

I enjoyed myself in Berlin even though I did not know what was going on. I am total uncool.

and you have a tiny zug.

we are DEFINITELY going to the kunsthaus thing!

The Stasi musuem is ded good. Treptower Park too. I like Mitte and Freidrichshain bestest and the eastern part of Kreuzberg.

Watergate is a lovely club, esp. if you're out on the terrace bit over the water.

I remember passing the Erotic Labyrinth on the way to the Bauhaus museum. Cafe am Neuer See is lovely - it's beside a boating lake in the Tiergarten, we went to another good place near to the Tiergarten S-Bahn station on the canal too (walking through, unbeknownst to us, what is a well known crusing area in pitch dark pouring rain to get from one to the other).

anything happening this coming weekend?

i'm off on wednesday, gf's gonna show me the basics, but is there anything we (or even I alone while she's working) should get up to there that we might not necessarily have thought of? i got ten days to basically dig the shit outta that city, on a very limited budget.

reichstag dome?

hmm yeah, naturally. she has something of a headstart on me what with having lived there for a year and a bit of her life, but there must be awesome social stuff she might not necessarily have encountered?

altho tbh we're gonna spend most of the time going to markets and eating cake

babelplatz
hansaveirtel - best architecture
turkish market
canal + beer if it's not too cold
potsdam
bauhaus museum

all cheap or free minus train fare

treptow market
boxhagener platz market
fuck in tiergarten bushes next to the gays

caffee burger sometimes has english-speaking poetry readings and shit like that
S-bahn circle line for 2 euros to get a sense of the city

dankeg du! wow, gotta try and fit all that in now! yr 9th suggestion is a worthy ambition :)

p.s. gf is buying me my train fares :D

nice
it's such a good walking city. set out to cross prenzlauer berg or kreuzberg in an afternoon and you'll come across a half-dozen cool things-galleries, lookout spots, quiet bars-that aren't in books

treptow market

this place is totally weird and a fire trap btw. have you ever wanted an east german phone booth? treptow's your market

dr. pong!

definitely not doing things from a book. if i have to go out alone without guide or language (beyond "can i have one of x please" i think that sort of walk would be ideal

and a Stasi phonebooth? ooh, tempting!

this is totally worth walking by or free on thursdays: mies van der rohe, berlin neue nationalgalerie
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/161/393480841_6b404cb91d.jpg

Can't be arsed to type them again, but I gave a few tips on what do in Berlin in this thread:

weekdays in Berlin

The former Stasi prison turned into a museum I mentioned there is totally worth the visit if you're interested in East German history. And so is the gay museum.

On Sunday you could visit the fleamarket on Boxhagener Platz in Friedrichshain, it's quite nice. (I'm not 100% sure if they still have it this late in the autumn though.) Friedrichshain is a nice place to hang out in general, with lots of small pubs and cafes and bohemian kind of people.

"Berghain", one of the coolest techno clubs in Berlin is also near Friedrichshain, but it's quite expensive I think. When we went there the entrance fee was 10 Euros.

Also, there's tons of squats and activist cafes in Berlin which often have stuff like cinema, gigs, theatre, etc for cheap. You can find more info about that scene in Stress Faktor.

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

Wikipedia tells me Tempelhof airport closes on Friday - I'd go there

Ooh, grab a bit of tarmac for myself! Or even as a gift to my beloved!!

Cheers ppl, keep 'em coming (if you feel like it)...

go to some art gallery and be a fruit cake. 'omg i'm in berlin and doing something artsy'

Just goosestep about the place.

the unbidden image of LJ in berghain has made for a o_0 start to my week. slightly horrifying

I'm jealous - I was there for a couple of days during the World Cup and thought it was a superb place to hang about in, but I've never managed to get back. It was all good, as far as I could tell, and cheap to boot. going to markets and eating cake is a pretty decent plan I think. You'll doubtless end up passing through Hauptbanhof station hundreds of times, but make sure you check it out anyway, it's really cool