Unconventional and conventional Berlin

Some years ago I had a chance to visit this controversial city during a cold November so first impression was not so positive, my italian soul ;).. so accepting an invitation of some sicilian friends to meet there here I am back again and finally I started to love this city a mix of conventional and unconventional things that make Berlin unique and a place where you can also find something to do...

My Arrival

Saturday is a perfect day to arrive and enjoy the night life of Berlin as after I met my friends in the lovely quarter of Neukölln and welcome drink, we straight went to eat at Ris a cheap and tasty chicken in persian way. You can eat whatever you like in Berlin and you will find something open always. Our kind friend and host Sandro found an iranian party and a birthday party too to join at karakas bar where we had fun and found cheap drinks. In the same night I had a birthday of friend of mine so night was just started when I moved to meet her and her friends and I discovered Berlin is a city full of life. Many clubs still full of people and long lines to get in even if it was 5am like this at Katerholzig

line at 5.15am at Katerholzig :o

You should learn there's a strict selection to place like this and I hope to have more time to spend at Berghain or at weird ones like Kitkat club hehehe...

Sunday

Berlin is not only night life so we spent time to discover some touristic spots during day before heading to a famous sunday flea market. We started at Checkpoint Charlie a border point between East and West Berlin during cold war. There's a nice museum about it and very nearby you can visit for free Stasi museum and you just walk a bit more and you can see a part of Berlin wall and you can visit a topography of terrors museum for free as people should not forget what happened in second world war. It also was time to try the famous curry wurst maybe not the best one but a must ;)

Sunday is perfect day to enjoy Mauerpark flea market : this market is populated not only by some younger hipsters, but also the more international, grunge-yuppies of the neighborhood. From may you have a chance to take part in a karaoke with huge audience and you can lie on the grass and enjoy a sunny day like it was. Day was long so we ended up with some yummy pizza made by a turkish guy nicknamed Allianz ;)

We had a chance to have a tour of Neukölln thanks to Sandro and his friend Diego. It's not a famous spot but you can visit interesting things and understand how a quarter changed in last years. About this it's interesting to read a book like Arabboy explaing how tough it was living here and its still a very active part of the city. On the way we stopped to see the ex brewery Alte Kindl now home to artist studios, project spaces, performance hall. We had a tour in the neighborhood and  we found a building with a famous golden sun.

We had a walk in lessinghoehe park where Diego told us a creepy story about a burnt dead body of a girl found here some years ago. Imagine it was so dark in a middle of a park in a not so safe area and we started to see a red light moving slowly then fastly towards us, panic was to start when we hear behind us a girl called Fuffy her dog with red light ahah what a shame :)... We kept touring till another park called Comenius garten where we met the statue of the famous Comenius, our lovely mascotte for the rest of the trip.

Comenius is considered the father of modern education and small community following his ideas lives here. Nearby you have a nice multiple religions church where everyone can follow its religion. We finished the night tour in a punk pub called Syndikat, nice atmosphere and a no-taking pics place, weird :) 

Monday

A good start of a day is a yummy and cheap breakfast and Sandro suggested to go to Bierbaum3 before having time to visit some other spots of Berlin, like Alexander Platz, Rathaus and the Cathedral just in front the famous Island of Museums Unesco Heritage. This is a fast stop in most famous touristic spots before having a tour in the underground Berlin where you can experience the history of Berlin from an unconventional perspective! Italian tour was sold out so we started with german one to finish with the spanish one more understandable for all our group.

Day was really sunny so a good way to have lunch is to visiting the ex airport of Tempelhof where we had a delicious barbecue and you can have a nice walk around and have the feeling to stay in the middle of landing track. Thats something unusual to mix up with what we did later: we visited the famous Brandenburg gate and we reserved a tour of the doom of Bundestag where you have a wonderful view of all Berlin. Last stop was to visit Holocaust memorial before moving to Kreuzberg.

This day was the eve of Labour Day so we had parties almost everywhere but great spot is Kreuzberg where first we had dinner at Kreuzburger then we tried to see what's going on but it was bit cold so we decided to move to Warschauer Strasse where a common friend lives and we spent the night in a pub before moving back and you could have many parties in a community center nearby the bridge. We still had time to visit a trans-gender pub and had a fast look at pub called Tristeza, thats funny name.

Labour Day

Sadly it was my last day so I didn't have so much time to discover new things. We decided to go back Warschauer Strasse as you can visit a famous left part of East Side Berlin wall where some selected artists painted the wall around 1989-1990.

It's an 1,4km of painted wall and you can also visit Oberbaum bridge and Frankfurter Tor just close to U-bahn station. Time went by fast so we came back the island of Museum before I left but my mind was already thinking when I can come back:

You can still do lots of things like Potsdamer Platz, Berlin Zoo, Tiegarten or you can visit nearby towns like Postdam or Brandenburg well some I had already done but you know you can still have many reasons to come back and discover other hidden cornes :) Auf Wiedersehen...