I love traditional Berlin pub names. They always begin with zu, like you’re taking a mental leap to somewhere: zum Nussbaum (to the nut tree), zur Glühlampe (to the lightbulb), zur fetten Ecke (to the … fat corner). Their names make it sound like you’re being transported to a very special place, just by stepping over the threshold into a smokey, candle-lit grotto. Getting … Continue reading The Secret Beer Garden: Zur Laube
Pierogi please. I would like to pretend that this post about hearty pierogi and restorative beetroot soup is tied in with autumn sneaking in. But it’s not – I don’t give a damn what season it is, I always fiend after them. Have you ever had them before? Yes? Thank God. No?! I’m sorry. After a trip to Poland, how can you not come back addicted to them? … Continue reading Yes Yes: Polish Food in Berlin
Spoken, not said.
If we’re honest with ourselves, open mic nights can be a bit of a mixed bag. And sure, that’s how they’re supposed to be – an evening that any old Jack or Jill can go to to get up on stage and get a few seconds of glory. You can’t always expect that much from them. At least, unless you go to Du Beast on a Thursday night.
Before going, I invited a friend to the “open mic night”, Berlin Spoken Word. But after just one dose of it, I realised it would be unfair to sum it up like that. It delivers exactly what you’d suspect: spoken words. Those can be poems, stories, true anecdotes, amusing lies, songs, stabs at saying something in front a crowd, whatever. They’re not restrictive about what you can do, almost to the point that the schedule starts to go a bit haywire. But what they are selective about is that human element, that open-minded, conscientious empathy, that an average open-mic night down the local pub really lacks. Continue reading “Spoken Word in the Spotlight”
Bad pun about a board game cafe? Never. It’s a… translation.
“Spiel” is the German word for game. “Wiese” is the German word for meadow. And “Spielwiese” is my word for inexhaustible fun. Spielwiese is also the name of a board game cafe in Friedrichshain.
This place has been a favourite of mine since 2012 – that’s commitment by Berlin’s standards. Spielwiese has kept me and many others under its spell with a promise of good times that is kept every time. I like it for the cosy and slightly nostalgic atmosphere, but after a quick google I found out it’s the second biggest board game cafe in the world with ca. 1,400 games (we have to concede victory to France).
How it works: you turn up, say hi to the bearded owner (I think), who looks like a Professor of Board Games. He’ll give you a card. The first half hour is free, and then after that it’s 1 euro per hour, and you pay when you’re ready to leave. There are bottled beers, cider, caffeinated drinks and snacks (the waffles call to me every time). These are to keep you fed and watered while you lay siege to your frenemies. If you want to completely fiend out on board games you can also rent them overnight. Continue reading “Play the Field: Berlin’s Best Board Game Cafe”
Yes, we know. Berlin is hard to leave.
Many have moved here from other continents with good intentions: “Ooo, no more than a couple of hours to Hamburg, Leipzig, Dresden? Hell yeah! Backpacking, here I-” and then they’re called out to the latest vernissage with free tea tastings followed by beer yoga (google it if you doubt me).
But there’s more to life than Spätis and Mauerpark. Sometimes we tend to forget that Berlin, half a day away from Cologne and Munich, is almost sitting on the Polish border. This makes it a mere three hours from Poznan: the cutest cafe town I’ve ever been to.
Now, what are your excuses? Time? Poznan can be done in a day, and you can easily work on the train. Money? A train ticket can cost 40-50 euros last minute without a Bahncard25 (i.e. 25% discount), and there are some buses that go there. Plus it’s 1 euro to 4 zloty, so your spending money is quadrupled. I probably spent no more than twenty euros for two and a half meals and a handful of hot drinks.
Leave your shoes and sorrows at the door.
There is only one place more relaxing than my own bed. And it’s one of Berlin’s best-kept secrets. Or, it used to be, until a couple of years ago when I became a regular and dragged carefully selected confidants along with me.
I’m not too worried about this place becoming the tea-lover’s Berghain*, though. It’s tucked away in an artsy courtyard, labelled “Kunsthof“. True to its name, the cobblestoned inner city glade makes a pretty picture: go at dusk to get the full benefit of the tree covered in fairy lights. Continue reading “T is for Tajik Tearoom”
When things start going down the toilet, a family hires a Jessica to clean up.
Actors: Robert Beyer, Jenny König, Sebastian Schwarz, Marie Burchard; Photo: Arno Declair
Stück Plastik (A Piece of Plastic) is the Schaubühne state theatre’s latest excuse to break the fourth wall with food.
Nothing goes unmocked in this play. If you’re a character who’s lost all creativity and sensibility, you get spaghetti thrown at you. If you’re a character who thinks you haven’t lost it, you get spaghetti thrown at you. If you’re not a character and have paid 30 euros to sit in the first row, you get spaghetti thrown at you.
I think I’d go to see this play for the spaghetti-slinging alone, but that’s not why I came home raving about it. Continue reading “Plastic is the New Poo: Berlin Theatre gets its Hands Dirty”
Maths isn’t my forte. Drinking coffee in nice cafés is.
Don’t ever big up a brunch place in Berlin. It’s as if they know you’re coming, and to prepare for your modest party of two they’ll hire hipsters & co. to strategically spread themselves across the five only tiny tables. This was my experience at Roamers, which deserves both its hype and its following. But that said I may have thanked God for gentrification in Neukölln – Two And Two was just around the corner. Continue reading “Two and Two = 10/10 Cafe in Berlin”
An old piano workshop has become my new concert favourite.
Hi, my name is [yeah, not so fast internet] and I like classical music; but I know squat all about it. It’s pretty, it’s soothing, it even makes me feel a bit clever until I’m asked what the name of the piece is I’m listening to. The answer the poor, sophisticated soul will get is probably: “Uhhh… abbreviation, number, some foreign words?!” At least, this was the limited extent of my relationship to classical music for some time. Until Piano Salon Christophori walked into my life. Continue reading “Piano for the people”
Paupers become book billionaires thanks to Tasso’s magic number.
Are you a student? A read-a-holic? A polymath – of course you are. Now read this sentence; you’ll never be the same again:
There is a cafe which sells books for one euro each. Continue reading “Yours for a euro”
Blah Blah Berlin 