It’s the 5th august and I’m still in Berlin, this awesome city, the past 4 weeks have flown over so fast and I’m happy to have met so many awesome people from around the world on my language course. We were all studying at the Goethe institute for 4 weeks and what a fun time was had. Based on some of the things we did heres some recommendations on what to to in Berlin.
Hello!
Visit the Grunewald forest – Drachenberg – Teufelsberg
This is a large forest area just outside of Berlin, and really easy to get to on the train. If you take the S7 train to Wannsee you need to get off at Grunewald and from there you have several options. First it’s a really nice area just to have a walk around during the day, there are lots of tracks and if you cache Google maps on your phone you wont get lost.
About a 30minute walk from Grunewald there is Drachenberg, a huge plateau area where people go to walk and gives brilliant 360 degree views across Berlin.
Finally there is Teufelsberg, I visited this abandoned cold war listening station in 2012 when you were able to find a hole in the fence and investigate but not the place is sewn up and people offer commercial guided tours. My housemate Ben went on the guided tour recently and he said it was interesting.
http://berliner-teufelsberg.com/web/
Treptower park & Soviet Memorial
Treptower park is generally just a nice area but make a trip to the Soviet memorial which is quite impressive, one of a few memorials to Russia in Berlin. Further into, east there is an abandoned fairground which I am yet to visit, there used to be places where you could jump over the fence and have a look in but it think that its all secure now and you have to pay someone cash to get in. I may have a look this week
Hire a boat
Go to this address which will take you to a petrol station
Aral Tankstelle Yvonne Hoffmann
Vor dem Schlesischen Tor 2
10997 BerlinGermany
By the side of the fuel station there is a path where you can go down to and there are some bars and food places, when you get to the end there is an area which you have to pay to get in, tell the person on the door that you want to hire a boat and they will tell you to walk right trough to the end, go through another door and follow the path until you come to a small jetty where you should hopefully find a nice gentleman willing to here you a manual or electric boat for a very reasonable price for an hour.
Go to Badeschiff
This is a great area and has an out door pool which floats on the spree and many deck chairs to pass the day lying in the sun. There’s many food places and bars around this area, If you want a deckchair get there early as it becomes quite busy after 12:00/13:00, good way to spend the day.
Badeschiff
Hang out in Warschauerstraße
This is a pretty mad area, there’s always something happening day and night, places to eat during the day or go rock climbing then platy of clubs on an evening to visit. During the day there is Emma Pea, a fantastic little vegetarian restaurant based in a tiny disused rail station building. Even if you’re not a vegetarian the food is ace and the people are nice!
As it gets later, Bar zum schmutzigen Hobby (My dirty hobby) just around the corner is a fun place. Completely camp and from what I’ve been told owned by a famous drag queen. Its completely silly, non pretentions. Then when it gets later around 02:00 its generally a good time to go to suicide circus, this si a great club with and indoor and outdoor area, sometimes the music isn’t for everyone so check the website to see who is DJ’ing.
Avoid Checkpoint Charlie
I’ve never been but everyone I’ve spoke to who has was disappointed, to quote people ive spoke to “it’s a replica of an old building in the street akin to a shed”
Check out wansee beach
Around 30 minutes outside berlin easily accessible by the s-bahn, take the S7 to Nikolassee and then from there is a bus, which will take you the 500m to the beach entrance. I think we paid €3.50 entrance and when we got through the gates I wasn’t expecting an actual beach. It was a great way to spend the day and my first time swimming in a lake.
http://www.visitberlin.de/en/spot/strandbad-wannsee
Play beach volleyball
Beach volleyball is big in Berlin and never realized how much until Yaman organized us to play Beach volleyball one day at the courts in Mitte. I was pretty atrocious and my serves didn’t make it very the net very often but it was great fun and many thanks to Yaman for the coaching ?
http://www.beachberlin.de/beachmitte.html
Do a loop on the circle line
This is a great way to get a very basic bearing of Berlin and to see how the place changes as you travel a complete loop around Berlin from east to west. Catch either the S41 or S42 one goes clockwise and the other goes, well you can work it out. It takes around 50minutes but means if there is something you see which finds interesting you can take a note and go visit it later.
http://www.fahrinfo-berlin.de/Fahrinfo/bin/
Visit Tempelhoff airfield, have a picnic play Frisbee or just relax.
Tempelhof, Berlins old airport is now an amazing open space right n the middle of the city, perfect for running walking cycling or just hanging out. Theres is enough space to have 100’s of people there and still have loads of space. A few of us went there for a picknic one day and it was a perfect way just to eat drink play Frisbee and chill out.
http://www.tempelhoferfreiheit.de
Have a walk down Richardstraße
Doro, our language teacher recommended this when I asked here for places to visit, which weren’t touristy. Based in Neukölln this is what I can only really describe as an incredibly picturesque English village in the middle of Berlin with some little houses and picket fences
Richardstraße
Alternative ZOO
In Volkspark Hasenheide on the Hasenheid road side. There is a petting zoo with camels donkeys and cow. Its such a funnly little “zoo” abd worth popping by if your in the park. Its quite strange to see a highland cow in the middle of Berlin
http://www.visitberlin.de/en/spot/playground-in-the-volkspark-hasenheide
Visit the old Olympic stadium
This is another short journey outside of berlin, maybe 20 minted on the U2 to the station Olympia Stadion. Its a good way to spend an afternoon seeing all the old architecture.
This is non no way what you should do if you visit Berlin, but a few ideas. Theres so much to see around the city that a few days could be easily taken up just walking round looking at stuff, (if thats your thing). If your going to go out clubbing go out at 02:00 in the morning, and try and avoid the tourist traps.
That is all for now but not without a face….
MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
