Excluding one short secondary school trip (because, really, do you even register that you’re in a different country on a school trip? It’s more like an extended lunch break), the first time I visited Berlin was on my own. Though I met people once I was there, Berlin was the first place I’d gotten on a plane on my own to go to—so it felt fitting that, given that I had some free time, I would choose to go to this city again solo.
Continue reading “Alone in Berlin”
My day trip to Görlitz started at 8:30am in Hauptbahnhof, Berlin’s main train station. I was there over an hour too early for my first train to Cottbus, where I’d change to a small, regional German train to Görlitz, in the very east of Germany on the Polish border. Hauptbahnhof is a maze of levels and platforms, and it took me almost the whole hour to orientate myself within the station, find somewhere cheap for coffee (Pret a Manger to the rescue, as always), and find my way to my platform.
Continue reading “East Meets West: Exploring Görlitz, Germany”
Approximately 11am on the 2nd August 2015. I had just arrived at Berlin Schönefeld airport and was being talked to in broken English by a young Chinese man – my first direct point of contact to City Travel Review, the company I had arranged to come to Berlin for a month with. At one point he simply turned and asked me ‘Do you like Coldplay?’. I was not feeling very reassured.
For wine connoisseurs and casual drinkers alike, Weinerei Forum is an experience. Continue reading “Weinerei Forum, Berlin”
The wide boulevards of Prenzlauer Berg are unlikely to be places you find yourself wandering down on a whim, but this is precisely where bookshops Shakespeare & Sons, St. George’s English Bookshop, and Do you read me?! are to be found. Catch the underground from Alexanderplatz to Eberswalder Straße and you emerge in a beautiful neighborhood just north of Berlin city centre. First stop: Shakespeare … Continue reading English Bookshops of Prenzlauer Berg
The Schlossgarten Charlottenburg (Castle Garden of Charlottenburg) is 55-hectares of parkland that accompanies the eponymous castle, encompassing darkly wooded groves and wide graveled boulevards, plus a meandering river.
Continue reading “Schlossgarten Charlottenburg, Berlin”
At 9.30am on a Saturday morning, Museum Island (Museum Insel) looks like a painting. The classical architecture is awash with golden morning sun and the streets have a hazy, warm quality, as if produced in watercolour. It is a perfect backdrop to the Alte Nationalgalerie (Old Nationalgallery), which is snugly situated on Museum Island next to the Neues Museum. The queue for the entrance is a less appealing prospect; however, patience certainly pays. Upon entering the Gallery and standing under the imposing white marble entrance hall, the waiting is certainly forgiven and forgotten.
If you are of the opinion that there is nothing more comforting than a combination of cats, coffee, and cake, then Pee Pees Katzencafé is likely to become your new favourite place in the city. Continue reading “Pee Pees Katzen Café, Berlin”
With its modern glass frontage contrasted against the quaint neoclassical architecture of its neighbours along Auguststraße, it is difficult to miss me Collectors Room. Part chilled café, part exhibition space, the gallery also plays host to the Olbricht Collection – a showcase of over 200 curiosities ranging from intricately crafted wooden skulls to stuffed turtles. Continue reading “me Collectors Room, Berlin”
Emerge from Berlin Grunewald S-Bahn station and you are almost immediately thrown into seemingly unexplored territory. It is difficult to tell from the main entrance into Grunewald Forest that it covers 3000 hectares of West Berlin, bordering Lake Wannsee in the south and overlooked by Teufelsberg mountain in the north. Continue reading “Grunewald Forest, Berlin”
