Last month, fellow Methods writer (plus ever-patient wife of mine) Toni and I took a five night trip to Berlin for our first wedding anniversary. It was a wilfully contrasting mixture of sombre cultural-historical education and going crazy in some of Berlin’s more ‘hipster-than-thou’ enclaves, which makes writing a neat summation of our time there difficult.
So instead I’m going to throw everything at you in an area-by-area guide, covering Berlin’s three most interesting neighbourhoods, which you can easily experience in just a few days: Prenzlauer Berg, Kreuzberg and Charlottenburg.
This may not be for everyone, but if you’d like to know where to find the best burgers, speakeasies, karaoke, graffiti and explorations of the horrors of recent human history, then this is just about the perfect Berlin travel guide for you.
Prenzlauer Berg
Mauerpark
Mauerpark (Gleimstraße 55, 10437 Berlin) translates to Wall Park, as it used to stand in the ‘death strip’ between the two concrete barricades of the Berlin Wall. Now much like many areas surrounding this once deadly and oppressive no-mans-land, it’s a bohemian paradise, where you can spend a thoroughly pleasant day of drinking, carousing and generally lolling around like a no-good beatnik. It’s great!
We went on a Sunday afternoon and the atmosphere was practically festival-like. On this particular day there was a celebration of Peruvian Independence (sure why not, any excuse) and there were stages set up with live music, plenty of bars selling dirt-cheap beers and cocktails (including my favourite Peruvian tipple, the mighty Pisco Sour) and many enterprising individuals who had brought their own portable barbecues to sell deliciously spiced kebabs and other assorted foods that it’s probably best not to think about the hygienic qualities of.
The standard of live music dotted around the park was surprisingly high, although most of it was at the progressive end of rock and the occasional ‘challenging’ jazz quartet, but it all added to the incredible diversity of the park. Oh yeah, plus there was this guy…
One of the major draws in Mauerpark is something terrifyingly known as Bearpit Karaoke. It’s basically an outdoor gladiatorial arena, where trembling punters perform a song of their choosing to a baying crowd. It’s actually not as nerve-wracking as it sounds. The audience is very supportive and once everyone is a few beers in, you’ll soon be fighting for the mic. It takes place at 3pm every Sunday, although do check its Facebook page to make sure a Peruvian Day of Independence hasn’t led to it being cancelled that week :(
Who Killed Bambi?
Honourable mention to the most tragically hipster shop in Berlin, featuring window decorations too weird to be offensive, the trash-tacular Who Killed Bambi? (wkbambi.wordpress.com, Eberswalder Strasse 26, 10437 Berlin).
Inside you’ll find a trove of knick-knacks, vintage clothes and various other rare delights competing for your probably half-cut attention. Oh and this fancy gal can be yours for just a few euros…
Berlin Wall Memorial
It’s the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, and as a 35 year-old my remembrance of this event is a strange one. Too young to really gauge the significance, but fully aware that this was a moment of celebratory relief.
It’s perhaps only now by visiting the remains of the most unfathomable exercise in border control and walking along its exact route while reading the personal histories of those that lived through it, have I now truly become aware of the suffering this barrier caused.
The Berlin Wall Memorial (berliner-mauer-gedenkstaette.de, Bernauer Straße 111
13355 Berlin) runs along Bernauer Straße and extends 1.4 km in length on the exact former border strip, with parts of preserved wall and red metal pipes lining the route.
Along the way you can read and hear from the many people whose families were torn apart by a few metres of concrete for a three decade long period. It’s a sombre but fascinating and occasionally triumphant experience.
Well I think I’m ready for a drink now…
Beckett’s Kopf
Situated further North from Prenzlauer Berg’s busiest area for nocturnal activities, around the U-Bahn station Eberswalder Straße, is Beckett’s Kopf (becketts-kopf.de, Pappelallee 64, Prenzlauer Berg) an unmarked speakeasy providing a deeply intellectual drinking experience that feels as secretive as it does slightly naughty. We went there at a time long past 11pm, strolling far up the relatively quiet and dimly-lit Pappelallee. When we eventually arrived at the bar, it was recognisable purely for its glowing portrait of Samuel Beckett in the window. We assure you, if Beckett is glowing, Kopf is open. You have to ring a doorbell for entry (although there’s no sound, just a faint red light that emanates inside the bar) then you’ll be met by some of the most friendly and knowledgable waiting/bar staff you’re ever likely to meet.
The bar is split into two rooms, one for smokers propping up the bar, the other for fresh air and surreal pornographic artwork. I recommend the smoker’s section just for the pure nostalgia of breathing in some good old fashioned second-hand nicotine.
The cocktail menu is hidden inside a Beckett biography, naturally, and it’s full of artfully described seasonal drinks created by the staff. As it’s all in German, the chances of you ordering something totally unexpected that you wouldn’t normally order are quite high.
I had a peculiar whisky and hazelnut liqueur based number with a slice of apple, a grape and cashew nut balanced on top. It was outstanding. We stayed till 2am and it seemed like nobody else in the bar was ready to leave anytime soon, such is the apparent non-existence of Berlin licensing laws.
The Bird
North of Mauerpark you’ll find the New York style burger bar The Bird (thebirdberlin.com, Am Falkplatz, 5, 10437 Berlin). If you’re into burgers, there’s no doubt you will come across this place occupying the top three spots of most ‘best burgers in Berlin’ lists in your research, and with good cause. Out of the many burgers we tried on our trip, this was the very best. If you haven’t made a reservation, prepare for a wait, and the bar is cash only.
This is the sublimely greasy Da Birdhouse filled with fried onions, melted cheese, crispy bacon and 250 grams of freshly ground steak surrounded by a charred English muffin and a heroic portion of chilli fries…
It was as exceptional as it was messy, and you’ll be grateful for the acres of paper towels provided. Elsewhere on the menu The Big Crack basically recreates the McDonald’s classic, but with its own fresh steak mince, and is again an exceptional and sloppy mess of meaty goodness. Local craft beers are also in plentiful supply and major props to the genius that decorated this place. Oh hi Biggie!
Kreuzberg
East Side Gallery
There are so many places to see the parts of the Berlin Wall, but for a more artistic view head along to the East Side Gallery (Mühlenstraße, 10243 Berlin). If you’re planning on heading to Kreuzberg from Central Berlin, then this is on your way anyway, so it’s definitely worth taking the time out to see it.
This 1.3km section consists of 105 paintings by artists from all over the world, painted in 1990 on the east side of the Berlin Wall. Some of the work is instantly recognisable, Here’s the famous image of Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker kissing as painted by Dmitri Vrubel…
Unfortunately many of the works have been subject to what is basically a scourge of graffiti and defacement. Throughout much of Berlin, the prevalence of graffiti and other outdoor art acts as a welcome relief from some of its starker, more brutal architecture…
But here it just seems heartbreaking…
The Jewish Museum
The Jewish Museum (Jüdisches Museum Berlin.de, Lindenstraße 9-14, 10969 Berlin) is housed in my very favourite building in the world. Its architect Daniel Libeskind using jagged lines and sharp, violent angles to create what is essentially a tortuously pulled apart Star of David.
Inside you are guided through two millennia of Jewish history, but first you encounter three intersecting, slanting corridors called the “axes”, these symbolise three different paths of Jewish life in Germany. Continuity, Emigration and Holocaust. The language of the museum is stark and uncompromising. You will only see the word ‘murder’ used, not ‘genocide’ or ‘cleansing’ or any other word that somehow makes the systematic wiping out of 6m human beings over the course of 12 years seem easier to comprehend.
The Axis of Holocaust leads directly to one of the building’s five ‘voids’, a 79 foot tall empty, unheated tower, with its only light coming from a small slit in the roof. This simple dead space is one of the single most horrifying architectural spaces ever created, and perhaps says as much as the dimly lit possessions of the Jewish Berlin residents murdered by the Nazis that line the corridor towards the void.
There’s no easy way to segue from this to anywhere else, so let’s just say it’s lunchtime and quietly move on to the next stop.
White Trash Fast Food
Back on the burger bus we go. Further into Kreuzberg you’ll find another Berlin burger institution, the aptly named White Trash Fast Food (whitetrashfastfood.com, Am Flutgraben 2, 12435 Berlin). This ramshackle venue, set back from the River Spree is one of the more informally thrown-together, borderline hick joints you will visit in Europe, and that’s exactly why it’s so charming. Live music is frequent, the menu is sufficiently offensive, the laughably awful Krull is projected on the back wall, and burgers are substantial and artery-stuffingly bad for you. Oh and you can get a tattoo in a side-room too if you think that getting a tattoo in a foreign burger restaurant is a great idea.
We went for the King Elvis Supreme Burger (cheddar cheese, sauerkraut, bacon, BBQ sauce) which was pure sloppy filth, and the Marquee de Fuck burger (crispy grilled bacon, cornichons, gherkins and melted raclette cheese) which was a little disappointing as the cheese was not nearly as strong as you might hope,
Also the so-called ‘fuck you fries’ were just plain and thick-cut. I’m not quite sure why that makes them say ‘fuck you’, perhaps it’s towards those who expected something more interesting. Anyway, the Elvis burger was great, the beer was ice cold, the decor endlessly fascinating and 50% of the waiting staff suitably miserable, so all in all a perfectly appropriate experience.
Kreuzburger
As this ended up being a late night, we also swung by Berlin’s very own chain burger joint Kreuzburger (Oranienstrasse 190, 10999 Berlin or Pappelallee 19 10437 Berlin). To our delight, at 2am on a Monday evening this was still open and serving. In fact when we stepped in and suspiciously enquired “are you still open?” the staff looked at us as if we were drunk. It’s just a coincidence that we were. So we did the honourable thing and ordered a Wagyu beef burger and curly fries.
For a 2am takeaway burger on a Monday night for €6, compared to any other takeaway burger experience on the planet, this was excellent. Sure the meat was overdone and the whole thing cooled down almost immediately upon first bite, but frankly I don’t think anyone deserves anything better in that situation.
Charlottenburg
King Karaoke
This may not be the best karaoke bar in Europe. Or even Germany. Or even Berlin. However, and this is a big however, Karaoke King (kingkaraoke-berlin.de, Leibnizstraße 68, 10625 Berlin) is a hell of a lot of fun. For the grand total of €30 my wife and I spent our one year anniversary in our very own room from 10pm till 2am on a Sunday night drinking four cocktails and a few beers. Now that’s a bargain!
The only thing you have to endure is the slightly dilapidated decor and a system that’s entirely in Japanese. But once you get the hang of the complicated numbering system, you’ll be busting out ‘Careless Whisper’ and ‘La Isla Bonita’ to your heart’s content.
Also, much like most foreign karaoke bars, this one has possibly the most wonderfully bizarre videos to compliment the tunes.
Everyone remembers the famous video for Natalie Imbruglia’s ‘Torn’…
Especially the bit at the end where she flew off in a hand-glider…
And don’t forget that every full moon the ghost of Patrick Swayze comes back to remind everyone the lyrics to ‘She’s Like the Wind’…
Glass
One of my very favourite dining experiences ever is here in Berlin. The supremely deserving of multiple rosettes and Michelin stars, Glass (glassberlin.de, Uhlandstraße 195, 10623 Berlin). Head chef Moshe Ben Gal and his amazing team have created a deeply relaxing and delightful atmosphere to compliment an innovative and taste-bud seducing menu.
I’ll talk a lot more about Glass in a fuller article, but for now just know that this should be your highest priority when visiting Berlin. The menu is a reasonably priced taster of five or seven courses, full of extra amuse bouches, finger foods and petit fours, and the beef tartare with black garlic and Béarnaise ice cream was one of the finest plates I have ever had placed in front of me.
You should also order the Candy Box for dessert. The chef comes out and recreates an edible Pollock style mess on the table in front of you. It’s pure deranged joy. GO NOW!!!
So there we have it. Berlin is perfect for anyone who can find equal pleasure in the down and dirty as well as the sophisticated and inventive. It’s bewildering to remember that for a 60 year period this city and its people were subjected to the most intense period of trauma that would have broken a less hardy population. Yet this beautiful, resilient city has come out the other side thriving, friendly and shitloads of fun.
Discover more of the world with our Europe travel guides, including this terrifying account of firing guns in Warsaw.
