Berlin! Berlin!
One Monday lunchtime during October, Luefchen sent me a text suggesting a trip to Berlin the coming weekend. I uhmed and ahed a bit, but since she had already researched flights and accommodation, I replied with a "what the hell, let's do it!" and within ten minutes all was booked and we were buzzing with anticipation.
The weekend came and after just three hours of sleep, we headed to the airport in the wee hours of Saturday morning. Though we were shattered, it was worth catching the early flight for that sunrise!
It seems our trip was doomed from this point on, as we spent over an extra hour in the air since the airport was overcrowded and it wasn't certain whether we would be able to land in Berlin at all!
Thankfully we could. And at this point we were still happy about that.
We made our way to the hotel; first by bus, which just decided to drive past our stop, then by foot, where we just ended up walking in circles, since a lot of the area around the hotel is being renovated. What should've taken around twenty minutes, ended up taking over an hour. At least the area around the hotel was architecturally interesting.
After we had finally dumped our bags at the hotel very close to the cool-looking subway station 'Spittelmarkt'…
…we headed for breakfast, which thankfully was satisfactory.
Before hanging out in a park for a bit of a relax.
Where I discovered some pretty cool graffiti.
After drifting through the streets of the hip 'Prenzlauer Berg' area for a bit, we were ready to put our feet up in front of the fire - sort of…though it even made spitting noises! - before getting ready to throw ourselves into the famous Berlin nightlife.
Though hilarious, I'll spare you the photos of us getting ready. They shall remain our secret…Where we went to dinner however won't.
After some insider tips and personal research, Luefchen and I decided on 'DUDUs' which promised modern, Asian cuisine.
Since we had got a bit carried away with putting our feet up, getting ready, and had underestimated the distance to the restaurant, it was about quarter to ten by the time we finally made it to dinner.
The thing about Berlin, it's so huge! So even if you take the public transport, you end up walking at least another quarter of an hour. It's no wonder no one wears heels to go out in this place…And so we walked, almost breaking our ankles several times along the way. Thankfully we had one another to lean on. And finally we made it!
The tables are communal tables, so unless you come as a big group, you are either sat at the table with strangers if you're lucky, or you don't get a table at all, and are seated at the bar. Unfortunately this is where we ended up.
After having to awkwardly stand in the way for ten minutes, we were awkwardly sat in the way, right by the thoroughfare. Poor Luefchen was knocked every time someone passed. A slight distraction from being able to enjoy one's meal. By this stage we were too hungry to move on and decided to just get the meal over with as quickly as possible.
At least my crushed berry cocktail and tuna balls were tasty.
Once we'd gobbled that down, we were ready to drown our frustrations. Since we knew nowhere better to go in the area and didn't feel like walking through half the city again, we headed across the road to the 'Bonbon Bar', which is under the same ownership as DUDU.
Really, we felt like boycotting the bar for this reason. But this had also been recommended to me, so we headed inside and were pleasantly surprised by the quirky interior - particularly the ceiling.
The cocktails were good, music fine, the crowd very mixed. Highlight: the couch we had managed to snag and people-watch from. Lowlight: the fact that you are still allowed to smoke in bars in Berlin.
Pretty soon it became evident, that the mere three hours of sleep we had had the previous night hadn't nearly sufficed. So it was time to push through - we were in Berlin after all! So we headed to a club and danced until we could stand no more.
We slept in until fifteen minutes prior to check out, which resulted in a bit of a rush to get to breakkie - and we were ravenous!
The weather was a dream and we had researched a cafe in a nearby park which had a large terrace where we could soak up every inch of sunshine.
After the hiccups from the previous day, and with the weather on our side, we were ready to give Berlin a clean slate and eight more hours to convince us that it was as good as Munich. Because as much as people deny it, there is an unspoken rivalry between Berlin locals and Bavarians.
We couldn't believe our luck when we managed to score a seat on the packed terrace, things were looking up! Until the waitress informed us that breakfast "was out". Hmmm…sure it was 1pm by this stage, however the menu stated that breakfast was until 3pm and the normal menu included cheese plates and dishes with egg which were still being served, so how could the place have run out of breakfast?!
Once again, we forced to order something as we were about to fall off the chairs with hunger. So we went for the caramelised goat cheese on salad. A good 45 minutes later this arrived…
We were less than impressed. This would tickle our appetite, but never satisfy our hunger and so we vented our "hangriness" on the waiter who did very little to turn our experience into a positive one.
Feeling deflated, we swiftly moved on from this place also. At least we could still enjoy the sunshine.
Before wandering around the inner-city and taking a couple of "touristy"-shots.
Our flight back to Munich - which by this stage we were very much looking forward to - was around 7pm, so we still had a few hours to kill and time to find something to fill our stomachs.
In a city like Berlin, there are numerous rooftop spaces to be enjoyed, but one I had heard about particularly often was the 'Klunkerkranich'. A kind of all round "chill out" space atop a department store. There is always something on here, be it a market, DJs or live-gigs.
Of course it was back across on the other side of the city, but I was determined to witness the sunset of this glorious day on that roof, so we missioned on.
Our stomachs were growling, and Luefchen had been raving about a particular kind of vegetable "Döner Kebab" which was apparently a speciality in Berlin. On the way to the 'Klunkerkranich' we asked at every Döner-Kiosk we passed - there were a few - whether they had this particular kind of vegetable Döner. None did and our stomachs continued to rumble.
Thankfully there was an elevator to take us up to the rooftop, I don't think we would've had the energy for stairs. Although it would have been worth walking up…
It's quite a magical spot, and reminded me of the "Kid's Club" that I used to go to when I was little, where we could build houses from palettes and anything else we managed to salvage.
Although our dwellings never had this kind of view.
There is also a "proper" building which houses the bar and…food!
Or rather, pizza and cakes - basically the only kind of food you need! Apparently they make a fine pizza, unfortunately there was a half-hour wait on the pizzas, but we had to leave within half an hour in order to catch our flight. So pizza was out, and cake would have to be breakfast, lunch and dinner, along with a sundowner beer.
The crowd here was again a good mix age wise, but predominantly the typical "Berlin" crowd. Throughout the entire time we were in Berlin, we got the feeling we weren't cool enough, like somehow everyone else belonged to some secret society that we would never be a part of anyway, so we weren't even worth talking to. And we really tried! People were very snappy, if they said hello at all and nobody went out of their way service-wise.
We definitely didn't feel welcome. Thankfully we had to head to the airport to return to Munich - my love. Luefchen was very happy about that too!
Because for her taste, there were just too many of these around in Berlin…
One more round of pictures for the memories!
And as the sun was setting and the beat was gaining momentum, we exited the gates of heaven…almost.
On our return to the hotel to collect our bags, we came up one of the subway stations, and there before us - we almost didn't trust our eyes…a vegetable Döner!
This Berlin speciality I was quite fond of. Upon my return to Munich, I discovered that there was a vegetable Döner place right around the corner from my place. So although the view from the train to the airport of the pinkish glow of dusk was a beautiful final impression of Berlin, I was pleased to know that I wouldn't have to return to Berlin for a while just to get an awesome vegetable Döner…
Yours truly,
Fräulein SoulFood x
The weekend came and after just three hours of sleep, we headed to the airport in the wee hours of Saturday morning. Though we were shattered, it was worth catching the early flight for that sunrise!
It seems our trip was doomed from this point on, as we spent over an extra hour in the air since the airport was overcrowded and it wasn't certain whether we would be able to land in Berlin at all!
Thankfully we could. And at this point we were still happy about that.
We made our way to the hotel; first by bus, which just decided to drive past our stop, then by foot, where we just ended up walking in circles, since a lot of the area around the hotel is being renovated. What should've taken around twenty minutes, ended up taking over an hour. At least the area around the hotel was architecturally interesting.
After we had finally dumped our bags at the hotel very close to the cool-looking subway station 'Spittelmarkt'…
…we headed for breakfast, which thankfully was satisfactory.
Before hanging out in a park for a bit of a relax.
Where I discovered some pretty cool graffiti.
After drifting through the streets of the hip 'Prenzlauer Berg' area for a bit, we were ready to put our feet up in front of the fire - sort of…though it even made spitting noises! - before getting ready to throw ourselves into the famous Berlin nightlife.
Though hilarious, I'll spare you the photos of us getting ready. They shall remain our secret…Where we went to dinner however won't.
After some insider tips and personal research, Luefchen and I decided on 'DUDUs' which promised modern, Asian cuisine.
Since we had got a bit carried away with putting our feet up, getting ready, and had underestimated the distance to the restaurant, it was about quarter to ten by the time we finally made it to dinner.
The thing about Berlin, it's so huge! So even if you take the public transport, you end up walking at least another quarter of an hour. It's no wonder no one wears heels to go out in this place…And so we walked, almost breaking our ankles several times along the way. Thankfully we had one another to lean on. And finally we made it!
The tables are communal tables, so unless you come as a big group, you are either sat at the table with strangers if you're lucky, or you don't get a table at all, and are seated at the bar. Unfortunately this is where we ended up.
After having to awkwardly stand in the way for ten minutes, we were awkwardly sat in the way, right by the thoroughfare. Poor Luefchen was knocked every time someone passed. A slight distraction from being able to enjoy one's meal. By this stage we were too hungry to move on and decided to just get the meal over with as quickly as possible.
At least my crushed berry cocktail and tuna balls were tasty.
Once we'd gobbled that down, we were ready to drown our frustrations. Since we knew nowhere better to go in the area and didn't feel like walking through half the city again, we headed across the road to the 'Bonbon Bar', which is under the same ownership as DUDU.
Really, we felt like boycotting the bar for this reason. But this had also been recommended to me, so we headed inside and were pleasantly surprised by the quirky interior - particularly the ceiling.
The cocktails were good, music fine, the crowd very mixed. Highlight: the couch we had managed to snag and people-watch from. Lowlight: the fact that you are still allowed to smoke in bars in Berlin.
Pretty soon it became evident, that the mere three hours of sleep we had had the previous night hadn't nearly sufficed. So it was time to push through - we were in Berlin after all! So we headed to a club and danced until we could stand no more.
We slept in until fifteen minutes prior to check out, which resulted in a bit of a rush to get to breakkie - and we were ravenous!
The weather was a dream and we had researched a cafe in a nearby park which had a large terrace where we could soak up every inch of sunshine.
After the hiccups from the previous day, and with the weather on our side, we were ready to give Berlin a clean slate and eight more hours to convince us that it was as good as Munich. Because as much as people deny it, there is an unspoken rivalry between Berlin locals and Bavarians.
We couldn't believe our luck when we managed to score a seat on the packed terrace, things were looking up! Until the waitress informed us that breakfast "was out". Hmmm…sure it was 1pm by this stage, however the menu stated that breakfast was until 3pm and the normal menu included cheese plates and dishes with egg which were still being served, so how could the place have run out of breakfast?!
Once again, we forced to order something as we were about to fall off the chairs with hunger. So we went for the caramelised goat cheese on salad. A good 45 minutes later this arrived…
We were less than impressed. This would tickle our appetite, but never satisfy our hunger and so we vented our "hangriness" on the waiter who did very little to turn our experience into a positive one.
Feeling deflated, we swiftly moved on from this place also. At least we could still enjoy the sunshine.
Before wandering around the inner-city and taking a couple of "touristy"-shots.
Our flight back to Munich - which by this stage we were very much looking forward to - was around 7pm, so we still had a few hours to kill and time to find something to fill our stomachs.
In a city like Berlin, there are numerous rooftop spaces to be enjoyed, but one I had heard about particularly often was the 'Klunkerkranich'. A kind of all round "chill out" space atop a department store. There is always something on here, be it a market, DJs or live-gigs.
Of course it was back across on the other side of the city, but I was determined to witness the sunset of this glorious day on that roof, so we missioned on.
Our stomachs were growling, and Luefchen had been raving about a particular kind of vegetable "Döner Kebab" which was apparently a speciality in Berlin. On the way to the 'Klunkerkranich' we asked at every Döner-Kiosk we passed - there were a few - whether they had this particular kind of vegetable Döner. None did and our stomachs continued to rumble.
Thankfully there was an elevator to take us up to the rooftop, I don't think we would've had the energy for stairs. Although it would have been worth walking up…
It's quite a magical spot, and reminded me of the "Kid's Club" that I used to go to when I was little, where we could build houses from palettes and anything else we managed to salvage.
 |
| The lemonade bar. |
Although our dwellings never had this kind of view.
There is also a "proper" building which houses the bar and…food!
Or rather, pizza and cakes - basically the only kind of food you need! Apparently they make a fine pizza, unfortunately there was a half-hour wait on the pizzas, but we had to leave within half an hour in order to catch our flight. So pizza was out, and cake would have to be breakfast, lunch and dinner, along with a sundowner beer.
The crowd here was again a good mix age wise, but predominantly the typical "Berlin" crowd. Throughout the entire time we were in Berlin, we got the feeling we weren't cool enough, like somehow everyone else belonged to some secret society that we would never be a part of anyway, so we weren't even worth talking to. And we really tried! People were very snappy, if they said hello at all and nobody went out of their way service-wise.
Because for her taste, there were just too many of these around in Berlin…
One more round of pictures for the memories!
And as the sun was setting and the beat was gaining momentum, we exited the gates of heaven…almost.
On our return to the hotel to collect our bags, we came up one of the subway stations, and there before us - we almost didn't trust our eyes…a vegetable Döner!
This Berlin speciality I was quite fond of. Upon my return to Munich, I discovered that there was a vegetable Döner place right around the corner from my place. So although the view from the train to the airport of the pinkish glow of dusk was a beautiful final impression of Berlin, I was pleased to know that I wouldn't have to return to Berlin for a while just to get an awesome vegetable Döner…
Yours truly,
Fräulein SoulFood x
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