Berlin

[FirstAidKit]

So I'm leaving for the airport in like 4 hours and I've done basically no planning - I'm staying for a week, I'm travelling with a friend, we are staying at a friend of hers who sadly is not going to be able to party all that much due to exams (but has given us a key so we are free too!).

Anything the esteemed forum members would suggest I don't miss?

[Mark]

I love Berlin, one of my favorite cities in the world. I hope you like electronic music.

Touristy stuff:
- Brandenburg Gate
- Reichstag (buy tickets the day before)
- The wall... I suggest going to the section in Freidrichshain near Warschauer. It's the part of the wall with all of the graffiti art and murals. It's amazing.
- Alexanderplatz
- Holocaust Memorial. It doesn't look like much from the outside, but once you get in it and start walking around, it's pretty damn powerful.
- There are some nice museums if you're into that kind of thing.
- Concentration camp outside of town... if you want to ruin your day.

Nightlife:
- Berghaim. Go at 3 or 4 AM on Friday, wait patiently in the two hour line, and hope you get in, because it's worth it. When you get to the bouncers try to look and act as un-English as possible and preferably be by yourself and not with a group. If you don't' get in, try again Saturday. Again, be alone and be as un-English as possible. There's no club like it on earth.
- Watergate and Cookies are nice, but they're the two most status-oriented clubs in Berlin. Very expensive and plan on waiting to get in. Cookies is good on Sundays.
- If you want the typical tourist pubs, Hackesher Markt. The club Matrix is also good 7 nights a week and is a big tourist spot.
- Speaking of tourists, there are pub crawls every night through hostels which are huge (30-40+ people) and there will be like four guys for every girl. So if you're in the mood to get drunk and hook up, that's your best bet. German guys tend to be shy.
- If you're into kinky shit, check out Kit Kat on Thursdays.
- Trezor for drum and bass music.
- Weekend is at the top of the Alexanderplatz spire and is great, especially when you watch the sun come up from the dance floor. Sunday is gay night (made that mistake last time I was there).

Hope to make it back there later this fall. I've been to Berlin three times and still feel like I haven't gotten everything out of it.

[FirstAidKit]

I've been twice before but for maybe 2-3 nights each time - totally loved it both times, with the same friend I'm going with now. We did quite a lot of the holocaust stuff last time - really not feeling like doing it again. I love electronic music though I'm not really into the minimal techno that Berlin is so famous for - my friend is less so. After looking up Berghaim I will probably give it a miss on this trip. Maybe come back with friends who are more likely to enjoy it, its not like I live far anyway.

[Tim]

If you could take some photos and put them up on a thread here that'd be awesome. Berlin is one of those big cities I know very little about but sounds cool. And the nightlife sounds ridiculous.

[Moody]

As a guy who lives in Berlin, I can tell you: Check out the Brunnen70 nightclub. Art meets underground-playground for adults. And Morlox is also a great place. You can chill outside and have some psychedelic dancing moments inside. And what Mark said about Berghain is true. You think you are in some of these fucked up clubs you see in some movies. People dancing in dark industrial halls and make out places everywhere you walk around.

[Zelazny]

I'd like to second mark on club Matrix. Had a great night there. Just don't look too drunk or they won't let you in.

The hostels on the eastern side of town are pretty cheap and are filled with interesting characters while I'd suggest you take one of the tours that start at the brandenburger Tor, lots of fun stories, cheap and just a nice way to spend a day when not clubbing. There's a lot of history in that city. And definately visit the holocaust memorial.

The pubcrawls are a blast, I've never been so hammered in my life, just make sure you also get to know locals, because they tend to know where the really good parties are.

[Chaos]

(06-19-2012 09:33 PM)Mark Wrote:  - Berghaim. Go at 3 or 4 AM on Friday, wait patiently in the two hour line, and hope you get in, because it's worth it. When you get to the bouncers try to look and act as un-English as possible and preferably be by yourself and not with a group. If you don't' get in, try again Saturday. Again, be alone and be as un-English as possible. There's no club like it on earth.

There's no club on earth that justifies waiting 2 hours and having to act "un-you" to enter. None.

[Mark]

You obviously aren't English and you obviously haven't been to Berghaim.

Even though they turn away 50% of the people who line up, Berghaim's door policy is actually pretty amazing. There's not another like it in the world. Instead of screening for hot girls, or rich guys, or "cool" people, Berghaim screens for people who are going to make the club more enjoyable. So drunk, loud English stag party? Not getting in. Group of catty girls in short skirts and on their cell phones the whole time? Turned away. Sleazy guys staring at every girl and chatting them up in line? Turned away.

It's the only place I've ever been where a group of super hot girls in tiny dresses were turned away (with much complaining and protest, mind you), and then a geeky gay Asian kid by himself standing behind them was immediately let in. The door policy at Berghaim is basically: "Are you here for the right reasons?" And if they even suspect that you are not, you don't get in. Obviously part of this is a major bias AGAINST English and American tourists, but anyone who's spent enough time around English and American tourists can't really blame them. If you google around, there's an article about a famous English DJ who went there after a gig with his entourage and got turned down at the door. The DJ flipped out for a solid 10 minutes, screaming, "DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM!?!?! DO YOU REALIZE WHO YOU'RE TURNING DOWN?!?!" Didn't matter... in fact, it just proved to the bouncers they made the right decision.

But once you get in (if you get in), you reap the rewards of the door policy. The place has one of the most open-minded, cool, crazy and fun-loving crowds in the world. Amazing sound system. Amazing DJ's. No decorations. Just music. The place is nuts. Pretty much anything non-violent goes there... sex, drugs, booze, dancing, gay, straight, groups, whatever... Eventually at around 10AM or so you get so tired you can't handle anymore, so you stumble outside into the daylight to see... yes, there's still a line to get in... and yes, they're still turning half of the people away.

[FirstAidKit]

Holy shit, I want to move to Berlin. Everything is so cheap and everyone is mental. Love it. LOVE IT.

[Oli]

Yeah... just this morning I saw a skinhead get his cellphone pickpocketed in the U-bahn by some middle eastern dude after joking around with him for a good ten minutes. How someone can go from making a stranger's day to ruining it in a matter of seconds. Berlin. Not to mention helping to exacerbate the sad mutual ill will and stereotyping of misguided segments of two groups of people.

[Traindom]

Poor DJ. I guess a good way to get into the club is to not want to get into it.

[Creatine Dreams]

I thought this thread was about the 80's group...

[FirstAidKit]

Okay guys, it's been a long time coming but hey I have a life and shit.

Here are! the Berlin photos! or at least the first batch. These aren't photos of everything we did, or all the photos, as my friend took them and I'm not uploading them all.

(and some stuff about what I did)

First set! There's a few pics so I've put them in a tumblr link.
Aw yeah.

Photos:
1: me with tiny jellyfish, for scale
2: me with giant fish, for scale
3: Amusing Crocodile
4: biggest kid in the petting zoo
5: cool lady doing Tai chi in the park
6: My dear companion
7: Cool graffiti outside Tacheles
8: Chunk of the Berlin wall
9: Reichstag - be warned! you can't just go up to the cool dome, you have to make a reservation so they can check you aren't a terrorist.
10: A section of the Holocaust memorial. Not pictured: Gay pride parade happening to the left, and people popping champagne bottles on it

We were staying in Merhringdamm with a friend, it was nice and easy to get to places.

1st day! Rained buckets. We'd got the earliest flight and thus hadn't slept so we basically sleep all day and get some currywurst. They make a big deal out of currywurst, and it does taste nice but seriously - it is a big hot dog with spicy sauce and chips.

2nd day! We go to the zoo and aquarium. Berlin zoo is really something else, I think it's the biggest one I've seen maybe? Plus I'm a big kid about these things. We stayed here most of the day. The zoo and aquarium was 15euro for both.

We timed the trip pretty well - this weekend (June 21st to 24th) was a music festival in the city. There were loads of outdoor stages set up in different neighbourhoods and pretty much every bar, it goes on every year if you are interested in catching it. We end up in a weird metal bar where two irish guys hear us speaking english, so we drink with them. One recommends going to a medical curiousities museum and a berlin underworld tour. We note the advice! Also, apparently the bartender had given us the wrong beer, and apologises with free shots. We hadn't noticed.

Also: no smoking ban in bars.

Day 3! We take the Irish man's advice and do a Berlin Underworld tour. There are a few different versions but they basically take you under the city to some of the secret bunkers from the war - takes about 3 hours and cost 10 euro. They give some bits of history from the cold war if you are interested in that.

This evening was the Germany - Greece match which was basically unavoidable. Every single bar and restaurant had screens set up outside to watch it - we went up towards the Prenzlauerberg area for dinner and some drinking. Everyone is really lax about drinking on the street here, all the corner shops have tables and chairs outside and all the beer is cheap and delicious. Germany win, everyone is happy.

Day 4! Today, we bike.

I would recommend a bike tour as the best touristy thing to do in Berlin, hands down. It costs 15euro which includes bike hire, and in a group of about 10 you cycle through all the big spots - Reichstag, Holocaust Memorial, Museum Island, New Synagogue. The whole tour takes about 4 hours and for about 15 minutes we were just racing through the Tiergarten (a giant, gorgeous park). You get a condensed history including bits of Prussia, Weimar Germany, Obviously the holocaust and how the Berlin Wall came down. Definitely do this, tours run every single day, twice a day. Berlin is a great city to cycle around, it's totally flat and the roads are wide.

This evening we met up with a couchsurfer we'd been in touch with in Kreuzberg, and some of his friends. It also turns out it's gay pride (Christopher street day) so the area is full of parades and bands and music. We then ended up going to a weird club in a house with extremely good music though I can't remember the name of it - it just looked like a house from the outside.

Okay this post is getting LONG. I'll do Part II later if people want to read it.

[Tim]

Cool!

The city seems pretty accessible, not too big. What's it like compared to getting around London? On maps it seems much smaller and more accessible.

I'm pretty excited to go there, hopefully next year.

[Mark]

Berlin is smaller than London but that doesn't say much. It's still pretty big and confusing to get around. They have above ground metros and underground metros and the streets can be confusing.

Not an easy place to navigate like NYC.

[Alvar]

Will be going to Berlin solo in one month, decided that none of my friends would be joining me. 4 nights on my own kind of make me nervous, which is probably a very good thing.
Where is a good area to stay - close enough to night life and to the centre? I am still deciding if I take a private room from airbnb or if I go to an hostel and share a room with 20yos...

[Oli]

I just moved away from Berlin after living there for two years, so I can give you a few tips.

First off, here's a good pic of the metro lines. You'll need this:
http://mobil.wsky.de/Berlin%20S+U-Bahn.jpg
So you don't confuse yourself or waste time I suggest you ignore the buses and just walk around until you find a big U- or S- sign (U-bahn being the underground and S- being the "fast-train"). You won't need one unless you're in the middle of nowhere or it's past two in the morning on a weekday. (in which case use the app: Öffi - ÖPNV Auskunft)

Where you'll want to stay obviously depends on what you want to see, but I'll try to help you out.

The typical tourist attractions such as the Siegessäule/Tiergarten, Potsdamer Platz, Brandenburg Gate, Museumsinsel and Alexanderplatz are almost pretty much on one straight 5km long path, so you could hack that off in one day if you're hasty. After that you'll need another day or so to explore Mitte.

Most of the important clubs are close to Warschauer Strasse, Alexanderplatz and Ostbahnhof. By Prinzenstrasse station, in Kreuzberg, there is a beautiful shoreside to chill at. Nearby, for cheap predrinks, check out the cocktail bar Que Pasa by Görlitzer Bahnhof.

I lived at the border of Schöneberg and Kreuzberg close to Yorckstrasse, Bülowstrasse, and Kurfürstenstrasse U- and S-Bahn stations. It is possibly the best location in Berlin to get around easily. There are a couple of hotels around there that are probably pretty cheap. But it's not the nicest area, unless you're into fiending streetwalkers.

Anything south and west of Kreuzberg (Steglitz, Schöneberg, Grunewald, Zehlendorf, Friedenau, Charlottenburg, Wilmersdorf, Lichterfelde, Lankwitz, Dahlem, Mariendorf) is pretty much just relaxed West-Berlin residential territory. There is an awesome shopping district, though, called the Kurfürstendamm on the street of the same name. Just get out at a station close to Zoologischer Garten or Wittenbergplatz. There's also a decent little café district by Nollendorfplatz on Motzstrasse and Gelditschstrasse that also have a couple of cocktail bars. Kreuzberg has its own style and is probably the most popular place to live right now. It has a couple of nice spots. Moabit and Neu Kölln are pretty ghetto and very international (lots of Turks). Prenzlauer Berg, Friedrichshain, and Lichtenberg are where the artists do their thing and abide. And Mitte is downtown.

Have fun.

EDIT: There's a lounge with an incredible view by Anhalter Bahnhof called Solar Bar. Also, to know which events or going on in the city check out http://www.tip-berlin.de/event_search/ex...tions%3A38 and put -nur Party in "Rubrik"