Top 10 Best Hangouts in Berlin

After the Fall of the Wall things started rapidly developing for Berlin, artists flocked to the city in massive waves and the word gentrification was to be heard out of every window. Nowadays the capital of Germany can still boast a diverse crowd of people living there, a lot of street art, museums that will suit every taste and most importantly, it seems, bars and clubs that still deliver.

Bars in Berlin have characteristically low prices for alcohol, even in areas like Kreuzkölln and Friedrichshain you can find a 0.5l bottle of beer starting at 1.5EUR. Cocktails are available throughout the city starting at 3.8EUR during happy hour (4EUR is the most common price), however this is not to say that if you look hard enough, you won’t find offers for 10EUR and more. Despite the general notion that Berlin is a very affordable metropolitan capital, it can be expensive if you really, really want it to be.

Kreuzberg, Kreuzkölln and Prenzlauer Berg are traditionally considered to be Berlin’s best locations for nightlife, morning paper and numerous food stalls. Most of the hangouts listed below are located in these districts.

Kaffee Burger

Kaffee Burger is a good place to start your time in Berlin. It is currently considered a bit too mainstream by people who previously hung out here and it is not unusual that it is full of tourists and travelers alike and there most definitely will be a queue. However, don’t let this spook you as Kaffee Burger is a synonym to having fun. You might consider visiting the bi-weekly Russendisko party by book author Wladimir Kaminer. Frankly, it is equally Russian as it is Ukrainian and Balkan Beats-oriented, but be prepared for some fun nevertheless. One floor for smokers and one (packed from ceiling to the ground) floor for non-smokers.

Address: Torstraße 60

Schwuz

Berlin’s finest gay club. The German capital has been famous for its respect and admiration for the LGBT community for a while now and still most clubs only organize gay or lesbian nights once or several times per week, however Schwuz is a pure-water gay club that always has your head spinning and your body dancing to its tunes. Three dance floors and relaxed and yet energized atmosphere will make sure you won’t feel like leaving the dancefloor (of which there are three here) for a while.

Address: Mehringdamm 61

Day 69-77: Eternal memory or ..?

Eternal memory or who has advice on how to remember it all?

This blog will be a good reminder of what I was doing while living in Berlin and traveling, but how can I make my brain remember every single minute of this journey ? I’ve met some great people, I’ve done some cool stuff, experienced some awesome things, hung out in some mindblowing places, barhopped like crazy every once in a while and had a good time overall. And how can I guarantee that I remember every single interesting conversation that I had or every interesting thing that I saw? I sort of don’t want to let go of anything I’ve done so far.

Nan Goldin, whose exhibition I visited recently at the Berlinische Galerie says she was taking so many pictures of people and events because she was obsessed with remembering everything and not losing people (funnily enough, she also adds that these photos now remind her how

much she lost...). If I want to remember every precious moment of the good times in my life, I have to carry a notepad for writing things down, voice recorder for some pleasant conversations, camera for all the beautiful things, have a Google Calendar to track all the meet-ups and events (actually I do/have all that, except for the recorder), but if I devote so much time to tracking my experiences, there will be no actual experiences.

17 Faces of Berlin

Berlin has many faces.

Same as every one of us plays all these social roles. You know, mother, father, daughter, son, lover, teacher, students and so on. Exactly the same can be said about Berlin, only mostly in adjectives.

1) It can be funky.

Berlin Nightlife | Best Bars and Kneipen in Berlin

Bars in Berlin

Berlin is a city of individualists, wannabes, hipsters, people who think they are alternative (the most commonly used word in the neighborhood, I swear), Wahlberliners, artists and other special people.

The awesome thing is that all of these people will find something that suits their interests. Of course the most popular place of deployment for all these types is a bar. Now, a bar in Berlin is something special and stopping by for a bottle or a glass of beer is a must for any person who considers themselves a true Berliner even for a short while (the true species is supposedly extinct, but you catch the drift).

Berlin bar crawl, anyone?

It ain’t hard to go on a bar or a pub crawl in Berlin. All you need to do is to deliver yourself to one of the nightlife packed streets in the city which include but are not limited to:

Simon-Dach-Straße in Friedrichshain
Oranienstraße in Kreuzberg
Oranienburger Straße in Mitte
Weserstraße + Pannierstraße in Neukölln
Kastanienalle + Ebertswalder Straße in Prenzlauer Berg

Once there, you can freely go from bar to bar and establish your own favorite locations, but my recommendations would include

B-Lage

I am slightly biased as I am a Rixdorfer Süße myself, it’s a bar pretty much around the corner from where I am located, but do believe me when I say it is worth a visit. It is spacious and cozy at the same time, the light is just perfect for an evening out with your friends or with someone you have a special interest in. They are open daily from 7p.m. and offer a wide range or drinks and cocktails. They have a wide selection of drinks (and you'll like the prices) and are popular among a young local and not so local crowd.

SPECIAL: Every Wednesday they have vegetarian/vegan Volxküche (in German) which means you can get a huge plate of tasty food for however much you're willing to spend. And my however much I mean 1-4EUR. 2EUR being the net cost. Highly recommended!

Special: Every Sunday you are invited to join the broadcast of Tatort (…German CSI, hello!)

Address: Mareschstraße 1, Neukölln

Soupanova

A Thursday night hangout of Couchsurfers in Berlin. I make no secret of being a screaming fangirl of Couchsurfing and so it would only be logical to include this location to the list. Every week the bar sees from 20 to 80 people show up for the 8pm meet up. There is a separate room with more or less an open mic for anyone who wishes to perform or say what’s on their mind. Every once in a while a nice DJ will pop up or someone will bring equipment for a Silent Disco (something I personally have yet to experience).

It’s not all about the CS community though (although clearly many visitors have it on their to do list in Berlin), Soupanova has something or a party happening every night, so Thursday night is not the only time when you can have fun there.

Address: Stargarder Str. 24, Prenzlauer Berg

Day 45-54: Berlin: Prenzlauer Berg pictures and the world is small

Only in a big city like Berlin do you realize how small the world actually is.

For example, I met somebody who on August 2, 2009 was at the Palace Square in St. Petersburg when I was there for Madonna's concert (she was there for The Hermitage).

I met here somebody who knows somebody that I went on a weekend trip with as far as back in 2005.

I met somebody who I was supposed to meet in Prague, but now by pure chance met in Berlin.

All of these situations left me bewildered each time. It’s a nice feeling. And a nice way to impress somebody during a conversation that is about to get boring.

Some more things about Berlin that might be of interest:

If you want to get lost, go to Hauptbahnhof. Seriously. It’s so huge and so clumsily planned out, I thought, that in a short time it’s not possible to find your way around. I was there twice, both times I was a bit short on time, and twice I had the misfortune of getting completely disoriented. The second time I was about to go see a Berlinale movie and I was supposed to change means of transport at the station, but I never found where I was supposed to make it happen, so I had to walk/run as fast as I could.