Germany
Cafe 100 Wasser is a good place to have a chilled out meal and a beer in the evening. The menu includes couscous, pizza and pasta at affordable prices.
Good service, relaxed atmosphere and friendly staff.
Cafe 100 Wasser
Simon-Dach-Straße 39
Berlin, Berlin 10245
Tel: +49 (0)30 2900 1356
info@cafe-100-wasser.de
www.cafe-100-wasser.de
This Friedrichshain bar has great atmosphere. Relax in the shabby chic surroundings (standard lamps, rugs, armchairs and wine-coloured walls) and enjoy whittling away the hours listening to the eclectic soundtrack, sipping beer for under two euros. Friendly staff and chilled out clientele. Look out for the wooden bowls of tea (bit odd and bitter).
Macondo
Boxhanger Platz, Friedrichshain
The Bauhaus Archiv is a must see for any design/architecture fan. The collection is limited but of quality. They have a great range of Bauhaus posters on sale starting from five euros (a bargain) and the shop is full of gorgeous items classic and contemporary.
The cafe's good too - lots of healthy choices.
Bauhaus-Archiv / Museum of Design
Klingelhöferstraße 14
D - 10785 Berlin
Wednesdays to Mondays, 10am - 5pm.
Usually the museum is closed on Tuesdays. On public holidays which fall on a Tuesday, 10am - 5pm
Bus 100 from the Zoo stops just along the street.
This DDR styled hostel is fantastic - it's kitsch, basic accommodation. It's affordable on a budget, clean, has friendly English-speaking staff and it doesn't feel like a hostel at all! Double and single rooms come with private bathroom with shower or there's the 'Stasi' apartment for up to five sharing. It's on the fringes of the Friedrichshain area with a 10-15 min walk to Boxhanger Platz/Simon-Dache Strasse area but there's a bus-stop outside the building where a 240 will take you straight there in a few minutes. Ostbahnhof Station is across the road where the Underground will take you direct to Warschauer Strasse Station (or anywhere else for that matter).
Avoid the breakfast (three euros); we were directed to a darts pub (?) and were served up a very strange mix of spam, boiled eggs and UHT milk all in the midst of an OAP coach party briefing. Bizarre.
If you have a taste for currywurst at three in the morning there's a take-away across the road.
www.ostel.eu/ostel_willkommen_eng.htm
Ostel – GDR the Hostel, Wriezener Karree 5, 10243 Berlin
Tel: 0049 030 25768660
Directions:
From Ostbahnhof Station come out onto E.Steinfurth-Str.
Turn left onto Strabe der Pariser Kommune,
Turn right onto Wriezener Karree (5).
Off-the-beaten-track but central (in Prenzlauer Berg)
little cute family-friendly cafe serving cornish pasties, PG tips tea, great ice cream and soups. With English-speaking owner.
zionskirchstr.75
senefelder platz U-Bahn
030 44038577
www.cafe-am-teutoburger-platz.com
Germany isn't that great for vegetarians, but for a delicious, cheap and filling meal, falafel is a must! On nearly every corner of Berlin is a Doner stall or shop and they all sell Falafel in a big chunk of FladenBrot (Flat bread which really is wonderful) heaps of salad and sauce!
One of my favourite places to get falafel is a Doner place under the arches on Friedrichstrsse by Friedrichstasse Ubahn, also in the supermarket on Hackeshehof and of course in Kreuzberg are some great places too!
Most Berlin districts have open air cinemas showing old, classic and new films, some are formally organised in parks and venues, others happen in courtyards of cultural centres and nightclubs. Entrance is about five euros and most cinemas have deckchairs and blankets for customers.
Look in Tip or Zitty for "Freiluft Kino"
The open air cinema season normally starts mid May through to September
Fotoautomat booths are old school passport photo booths. For two euros you get four black and white passport size photos on a strip.
These are not modern digital prints, but real photographs. It's the best fun you can have in Berlin for two euros!
There is one opposite the Circus Hostel on Rosenthaler Platz and one at the top of Kastanienallee.
Totally vegan, totally organic, totally smoke-free, totally free WiFi, cafe.
Great atmosphere, cheap to moderate food, and music is excellent. No wurst on the premises, because wurst is the worst.
2a DunkerStrasse - Prenzlauer Berg
Near DanzigerStr
030/41717822
www.myspace.com/hanswurstvegancafe
Part of the excellent Baxpax chain and recently opened, this modern, funky hostel is slightly out of the centre but located in the über-cool Kreuzberg district.
Some of the rooms have country themed decor (think Swiss cheese, mountains, flags etc) and kitchen and bathrooms are impeccably clean.
The small bar is laid back and chilled out; a good place to meet fellow travellers for a random chat.
Staff are welcoming and incredibly helpful, and you can even hire bikes for only 12 euros a day.
Skalitzer Strasse 104, 10997 Berlin, Germany.
Tel.:++49(0)30 695 183 22 www.baxpax.de/kreuzberg
An excellent little Vietnamese restaurant in the heart of Kreuzberg.
The menu is limited, but there's a daily specials board in English along with a range of tasty lassi drinks.
The service was impeccable with the food cooked right in front of your eyes.
The best thing is, a meal and a lassi only cost me 8 euros.
Bargain.
Skalitzer Str. 103, 10997 Berlin-Kreuzberg. Across the road from U-Bahn stop Gorlitzer-Bahnhof
While there are plenty of great hotels in Berlin, staying in an apartment proved much better value. We had a huge one-bedroom place in Kreuzberg, where the bathroom alone was about the size of our whole flat in London. And it was £25 a night each. This website has loads of different apartments all over Berlin or varying sizes. A great way to feel like a local while being on holiday.
Fantastic Vietnamese cafe/bar, serving unbelievably cheap fresh noodles, soups, dumplings and juices in a trendy bit of Mitte. Young and cool and always very crowded, with a picture of Monsieur Vuong on the bright yellow and red walls. A welcome respite from too many wursts!
Alte Schonhauser Strasse 46, Mitte
www.monsieurvuong.de
The bars and restaurants around Hakescher Markt & Oranienburger Strasse are great: lively venues offering good value with great service. The 'ladies of the night' plying their trade on Oranienburger Strasse was an eye opener.
However, under no circumstances visit 'Dante' in the row of restaurants situated in Hakescher Markt's S-Bhan station arches. We waited 50 minutes before we found that the kitchen had lost our order and a further 30 for the food to arrive, the staff were rude and at no point was an apology offered. This is not the norm as all other retsuarants in the area provided very friendly and efficient service.
In the Mitte. There are countless restaurants situated in and around the railway arches of Hakescher Markt's S-Bahn station, which is on lines; S-5, S-7, S-9.
This is a student estate exchange where you can find rooms and roommates also for a short amount of time.
It is totally free and you don't need to register.
Especially in Berlin there are plenty of free rooms to rent out short-term. This is just the place when you are looking for an alternative to staying at a youth hostel. This is where you can check out what the real Berlin lifestyle is all about!
I went to Berlin last summer and stayed at an ample apartment shared by three people. I was only there for three weeks but I got to meet local characters and had the chance to hang out at insiders only locations.
I can recommend this experience to anyone who detests feeling like a tourist and who wants to breathe the same air as the locals in Berlin do!
This student estate exchange is to be found online. At www.WG-Gesucht.de you can find your new home in Berlin (shortstay or long term- either way).
I translated the apartment search for you guys:
Go to:
www.wg-gesucht.de/wohnraumangebote.html
In the left field at the top choose:
Either:
"WG-Zimmer - flatshare"
or:
"1-Zimmer-Wohnung - one-room-flat"
or:
"Mehrzimmerwohnung - flat with 2 ore more rooms"
In the right field choose the city (Stadt), where you would like to live:
-> Now you see an overview of our flats available in this city:
The columns of the list are:
Eintrag vom - date of entry
Miete - rent
Grösse - size
Stadtteil - town area
frei ab - available from
frei bis - available till
You can sort the offers by clicking one of the columns at the top of the list, for example sort by "rent" by clicking "Miete"
When you click on the adverts you can see a detailed view of the offer.
The most important information given in the detailed view:
Miete - rent
Nebenk. - additional cost (water, heating etc.)
sont. Kosten - other costs (electricity...)
Grösse - size
Kaution - deposit
For all other information delivered use dict.leo.org to translate if necessary.
At the end of the advert you will find the contact information such as email-address or phone number.
If no contact info is delivered use the button "Nachricht senden" to get in touch with the offerer via email.
City bus tours can be expensive but routes 100 and 200 in Berlin are regular (double-decker) services which pass most of the main sights in the city centre. Buy a pack of tickets (which can also be used on the S-bahn and U-bahn) and get on and off where you want.
A day (or more) ticket (Tageskarte) is the most economical option and can be bought from most BVG ticket offices, such as the one at Zoologischer Garten (Zoo).
Best hostel I stayed in out of the other 6 I visited while packing backing around europe. Would def go again, Berlin was also awesome.
Baxpax Downtown Hostel Hotel, Ziegelstr. 28, 10117 Berlin
www.baxpax-downtown.de
This little takeaway with tables, located in the happening area of Kreuzberg, is unbelievably cheap.
The Bavarian style “pasta” it serves (comfort food at its best!) is freshly prepared in many different ways which all sound delicious. According to a local it’s as good as the one Mutter used to make which is surely a compliment.
Wienerstr., Kreuzberg
A compact but very illuminating visit to what life was like in communist era Germany. Reveals many artifacts of the era in the form of mock-ups of an apartment, a Trabant car etc, some of which you can handle. English and German commentary on the displays.
Great Winter diversion but light content, near cafes / aquarium near Alexanderplatz, open late to 8pm (10pm Sat).
By the river side at Spreepromenade
an der Liebknechtbrücke
Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 1
10178 Berlin
Phone: +49 (0)30/847 123 73-1
Former film studios in south Berlin converted into an eco haven with organic bakery, bar and restauarant, outdoor performance space, artist studios and theatre.
The accommodation is basic but fun - the rooms have beds on a mezzanine and there's a large communal kitchen you share with performers. Great for the budget - conscious and a great insight into the real Berlin.
www.ufafabrik.de/en/nav.php
Viktoriastr. 10-18, 12105 Berlin / Tempelhof
Metro: U-6 right at the U-Bahnhof Ullsteinstrasse
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