24 Hrs in Berlin
7AM: It's our second day in Berlin and a busy start at that! This morning we began our day with an incredible scrambled eggs and tomato dish from a small cafe right across from the apartment. It's a little hole in the wall place that is decorated like a dainty doll house inside. There is tiny furniture with vintage floral patterns and odd objects for tables that enliven this quaint little breakfast spot. I highly recommend this place for a cheap bite if you're in the area.
The perfect lighting for the perfect bite to eat!
Put this in your Berlin bookmarks.
Nice selection of breakfast pastries inside.
Obligatory #ootd by this colorful backdrop.
12PM: After we eat and explore the area for a bit then it's off to the Mauerpark Fleamarket which is quite the popular place to go on a Sunday afternoon. The market is filled with hip Berliners, unique vintage finds and plenty of hidden gems to be discovered. We walk around the market for a few hours looking at all the different vendors, grabbing fresh pressed juices and making some purchases. I opted for a rose gold Cassio looking watch for €10 which has now become my favorite takeaway from the trip.
Rummaging through the maddness for hidden gems.
The perfect chill out spot after a few purchases.
#Cafegoals
Afternoon pick me up.
3PM: After perusing the flea market grounds for a while we head outside into a lush green park which is full of kids and boozy picnic goers. Off in the distance, hundreds of people have gathered for a free metal concert in the park, a stark contrast to the laid back event we just left. About 20 minutes later we find ourselves at a nearby cafe, smoking cigarettes and having a coffee. We're with one of our mate's friend who now lives in Berlin. She gives us some insight as to what its like to live in the city. Still a little jet-lagged from the journey over, all I can remember from our conversation is that cafes in Europe never give out tap water. You must always ask for it specifically or you will be charged for the bottled still water restaurants usually serve you. Accustomed to never having payed for a glass of water in the states, we take her advice and apply it to the rest of our journey.
5PM: I get in touch with my friend Christina on Instagram, who is also now living in Berlin and agree to meet up with her for dinner and drinks. A few U-Bahn stops later she takes me to one of the most breathtaking parks I've ever seen. Temperlhofer Feld was an old airport now turned public park. It's full of young and old making the most of their Sunday, wether it be rollerblading, skateboarding, bicycling or just having a beer in the park, there's no doubt that this is the hangout spot on your day off. Its an enormous space and the perfect spot for a social meetup. The park is filled with hundreds of beautiful flowers, funky make shift seating and art work hidden throughout the bushes. We take a seat on one of the oddly engineered benches and share what our year has been like since we last saw one another.
Having a laugh in the feilds with Christina.
We can be cute and serious too.
7PM: After a few beers in the park, Christina decides to entertain my inner foodie by taking me me to a near by restaurant, Mama Kalo for dinner. The smell of dough and beer immediately greets us at the door and we find a table on the patio to sit at. I order the Flammkuchen which is similar to a pizza, with its paper thin crust, light layer of cream, tomatoes, cheese, rosemary and other various toppings. It's quite delicious and filling! Christina tells me about one of her favorite Berlin clubs, IPSE and we have our next destination in sight.
Delcious doughy Flammkuchen for dinner. Pair with a beer for good measure.
11PM: Later in the night I meet up with the rest of my travel group back at the apartment. It starts pouring rain but its a Saturday night in the city and we can't miss a chance to go out on the town. We eagerly flag down a taxi and make our way over to the club. IPSE is a short cab ride away and we pay a small cover fee to get in. The venue is perfect for Summer since it is both an indoors and outdoors space. It's misting outside now and theres a river running next to us in what looks like a forest with a crystal chandelier hanging in the middle of it all. A small booth is outside with a DJ playing house and techno music. The atmosphere feels like a scene from a Midnight Summer's Dream and I knew immediately that this would be my favorite place we visited on the trip. The inside area was very reminiscent to Tresor's with its dark interior and thick smoke but much smaller in comparison. The club is a mixed bag full of locals and foreigners traveling abroad, I met a lot of cool and interesting people that night. A very memorable one at that! Definitely make a note of visiting this club if you can, I know I'll be coming back one day.
Forest chandeliers should always be a thing. Photo @IPSE on Facebook
Relax by the river with a beer in hand. Photo by @theclubmap.com
4AM: As a last attempt to make it out to one more night club in Berlin, we grabbed a taxi and headed to the infamous Berghain, rated one of the top nightclubs in the world and one of the hardest to get into. Sven Marquardt and his squad of bouncers have an enigmatic entry policy that club goers have been trying to crack for years which makes this club so sought after. We arrived at the gates very early in the morning but were told that it was too late to be given access to inside the club. Still a must do on my bucket list, I'll be back for you someday Berghain, you mark my words!
5AM: Unsatisfied with how the night ended, we drop two of our mates back at the apartment and then it was two. My friends and I walked around the deserted neighborhood and slowly watched the sun come up. Its a beautiful feeling when you get to see the sun rise in another part of the world.
7AM: Guess its time for bed. We leave for Amsterdam in a few hours so some sleep is needed, I suppose. I head to the master bedroom and shut my eyes for a bit, replaying the entire day in my head and falling asleep with the biggest grin on my face. 24 hrs in Berlin, you've treated me so well!
Berlin or Bust
My second time visiting this gritty urban city, filled with history, unique nightlife and lots of beer to be consumed, Berlin never leaves me bored. My friends and I stayed in the heart of Berlin, Mitte, where we found ourselves comfortably situated in a very spacious and modern Airbnb which you can also book here. The apartment was perfectly located near transportation with parks and lots of trendy restaurants in the neighborhood. We had finally arrived at our first destination on the trip.
After settling into the apartment, we decided to walk around the neighborhood to grab ourselves some food and drinks. We chose a trendy eatery right down the street to start off our stay in the city. Unfortunatley our trendy choice in eateries turned out to be a let down. This is what a modern take on German cuisine looks like: currywurst smothered in beet juice ketchup and a side of uniquely pickled sauerkraut with sweet potato fries. Conclusion: The only way currywurst should be consumed is five beers later at the nearest street vendor closer to 3AM. No trendy add ons necessary.
More like Curry Woooooorrrrsssttt! Hard pass.
A few hours later we found ourselves in one of the liveliest parts of the city Oranienstraße, where we bar hopped around the neighborhood while uncovering Berlin's intense nostalgia for the 80's that lingered throughout every bar we visited. A few drinks later we decided to try our luck at German nightclubbing to see what all the hype was about. After an hour and half long wait outside the doors of Tresor, and watching dozens of club-goers get rejected upon entering, we anxiously awaited the same fate. With our cool demeanor, gritty looks and no f***ks given attitude at the door our disguise seemed to work and we successfully gained entry.
Let the neon lights guide you to the dance floor. Photo via @malette14
The Tresor cellar is were we first arrived. A long dark underground hallway lead us to the dance floor which was shrouded in near darkness and Tresor's signature smokey haze. The atmosphere was comparable to that of a horror movie. You couldn't see anything past a few feet in front of you because the smoke was so thick. The shadows of everyone frantically moving around you is what propelled your next move. Its a surreal moment when you realize your dancing in an old bank vault, totally unrecognizable to everyone and watching the DJ spin behind a barred hole in the wall for a stage set.
In need of a breather from the the smoky basement, which can easily feel like a sauna within minutes, we walked up to second level which offered a much more spacious area with seating and second dance floor. Drinks were reasonably priced and I was given a bar token when I picked up my drink. If you give the glass along with the token back to the bar staff you get 50c back. Not a bad deal for an easy cleanup job.
The inner tourist in me was dying to take pictures of the place but in the end I decided to keep the memory for myself. No pictures could do justice for this in person experience. It's well known to the locals that most of the big Berlin clubs are opposed any type of footage being taken with in the walls of their establishment. Capturing these moments would ruin the notoriety of what actually happens behind closed doors. Shoot at your own risk and, if caught, kicked out immediately.
A Berliner's favorite fast food, the Döner Kebap! You can't sit with us if you don't enjoy these.
My group and I stayed up till the late hours of the morning dancing to the sounds of house and the industrial techno music Berlin is most well known for. On our way home we ended up at a Kebap shop near our metro stop where we enjoyed the perfect bites of street meat at 3AM we had been craving. A successful first night out in the city at an extraordinary venue with good food has my two thumbs up.