Tired of writing. Too much drawing to do. Only doing surveys for a while. See you sometime!
Tired of writing. Too much drawing to do. Only doing surveys for a while. See you sometime!
Member since:19.08.2001
Reviews:47
Members who trust:24
I really enjoyed our 4-night stay in the first week of September. I went with my boyfriend and we stayed in the Ibis-Mitte hotel in Prenzlauerberg, East Berlin. The location was perfect. In the couple of excursions to West Berlin, we realised East was definitely the best: much more diversity in the people, and better attitude on the street.
I particularly like their provision for cyclists. A bit like York, in that half the pavement is given up as a cycle lane. The cyclists use this and the road, and are given right of way by both people and cars. Generally the cars were very considerate to all - on several occasions a car would slow to allow me to cross the road ahead of it (very unusual when you're used to the bolshiness of London). There are a lot of places to lock your bike up too. The cyclists are so well catered for that they do tend to bomb along, so don't dither in their lane, or you'll be mown down!!
We tried to cram as much into our four days as we could. Being in a predominantly Turkish area, our first lunch was a delicious falafel in pitta, served up with friendliness - a nice start to our holiday. We then dumped our bags in the nearby hotel - also great. It serves mainly
business users so it was practical, no frills - a good power shower, TV (everything dubbed into German of course), comfy bed (not too soft, which I like) and telephone. Not to forget the absolutely MEGA breakfast buffet, open from 6.30-11 and with so much choice that us veggies were in 7th heaven. If you were on a tight budget, you could cram yourself full for the day ahead.
Later we visited the Checkpoint Charlie museum, which was overcrowded and chaotic. There were loads of heart-rending stories written up on the walls, which were hard to read with the swelling crowd pushing past. Lots of photos too, showing how people crammed themselves into suitcases to escape to the West side (sort of ironic given that it's now way cooler in the East). A few artworks by the famous and not-famous give some respite from the horror-stories, in a way, although a lot of them were also very moving (the picture of a father holding up his child to see its mother on the other side of the wall was particularly effective).
We also went to the Erotika museum, which was nearly empty by contrast. This is located near Zoo station, an area of the West which used to be prostitute-central and has a slightly seedy air but is no more threatening or unnerving than Kings Cross in London. There were some amusing exhibits of titillating pictures and objets-d'art through the ages and around the world, but by the 3rd floor, I was a bit tired and it all seemed a bit samey. The pickled animal's bits that were deemed to be aphrodisiacs made me feel quite squeamish (tiger willy, for example). Yuk!
The other museum we went to was the Kathe Kollwitz gallery which has several floors of her prints, paintings and sculptures. She has some very powerful work which expresses her socialist views about war and poverty (she lost husband and children to wars). Her woodcut-syle lithographs are my favourites. Unfortunately, the descriptions of each picture are in German only so I missed out a bit, with my lack of ability with the language.
I was lucky that my boyfriend speaks a little German, because it really is important to know some. Of course the Germans are mainly fluent in English (learning it compulsorily at school), but you get a much better response if you at least try to communicate in German to start with. We ate out in restaurants of mixed ethnicity (being vegetarian, eating traditional German fare was not really an option!). They were all run by people from the countries they were representing (Turkish, Indian and Thai) so none of them had German as their first language, nor were they necessarily fluent in English. Because they were all so friendly and helpful, we got great service, and given what we wanted, with the help of mixed languages including sign language! It really helps to brush up on the basics of German before you visit, or at least have a phrase book to hand.
We also enjoyed the parkland in Berlin. The parks are quite vast with loads of trees, so you can get some respite from all the concrete. There is loads of building work going on in this city of great change. I didn't notice any pollution through noise or dust, though. The roads are quite wide (with tram lines down the middle, in the east) and this seems to prevent noise and jamming. And the Jewish cemetary we visited was very well maintained and peaceful.
There are loads of cinemas - although we didn't get time to visit - catering for all tastes, mainstream and cult. And the listings mags (Tip and Zitty are meant to be the best - available mainly in station shops) show lots of gigs and club nights as well as 'parties' which are more informal gatherings like the sort of warehouse parties in London that you only get to hear about by word of mouth or sometimes flyers.
The S-bahn and U-bahn train services are great. Reasonably priced, very efficient, no sense of threat. It's easy to take bicycles on board with no attitude. It is also worth mentioning here also that you can hire bikes cheaply from a small unit at the Zoo Station end of Volksgarten
I also must gush a little about the choice and price of chocolate. Vast amount of options and very very cheap, compared to London. Ritter-Sport with Smarties (yes! can you believe it?!) for only 40p makes it tempting to move out there!
And I loved the fact that there is so much graffiti everywhere. Not the scribbly tags you might be used to, but huge, colourful pieces. Because of the amount of regeneration, it's easy to climb a scaffolding and get a piece halfway up a wall, so that when the scaffolding comes down again, it looks amazing and impossible. Also there's graffiti on rooftops, shop-fronts, everywhere. I guess this is a side-effect of the city being politicised due to the segregation enforced by the wall.
Oh, and they are cool about recycling too - all the public litter bins are in bunches of three so you can separate at source! Very well done!
I feel I could go on a lot more about Berlin but I've already written loads and I'm probably wearing you out! 4 days is not enough when you don't know the best time and places to go, but I imagine is just perfect if you intend to visit a lot, regularly, which I do. If only I had family there, I would take every opportunity to go visit.
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Cant wait to go now. I was toying with hiring a bike, and seeing the city on wheels, but now I definitely will!!!
MALU 20.09.2002 18:20
An interesting read for a German member living in Germany! Cheers, Malu
Jurassic 06.10.2001 13:25
As a native german, who live some time in Berlin and stays now in Cambridge UK, I really enjoyed to read your opinion about the Big-B-City. Its quite interessting to get a outside-view of it's own home. It definitly is a great city to life in, but if you stay longer there you get also some not so positive expierence about the city.
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Advantages: friendly people, great nightlife, great history/attractions, great transport system Disadvantages: some may find Kreuzberg intimidating, Kottbusser crime rate is a deterrent
plymouth117 18.10.2007 (18.10.2007)
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