I’m going to Berlin this summer bitches! First week ov August. If anyone has been and has any recommendations, I’d love to hear. I’m curating a list of shit to do and beers to drink. Food wise I’m kinda picky, I eat a shit load of veggies but will eat meat (chicken I eat often) sometimes. I love chicken and burgers; but I usually eat red meat like once a month. I wanna try some German dishes though, so I’ll just have a week of some terrible eating choices.
Jealous! Berlin is without question my favorite city and I can't wait until the next time I'm there.
The first thing I always do when I arrive in Berlin is buy a Berliner Kindl from a Spätkauf and dig into some Currywurst from a good Imbiss. My favorite Currywurst Imbiss is unfortunately out of business. There's a good Imbiss right beside the Currywurst Museum (yes, a Currywurst Museum) which has spicy curry ketchup that's actually spicy. Konnopke's in Kreuzberg would be a good idea to visit too because it's supposed to be one of the oldest in Berlin.
To be honest, I can't really give recommendations to German food places in Berlin because 1) I never ate traditional German food while living in Berlin 2) Berlin isn't the city for that. It's joked quite often that Berlin, despite being the capital of Germany, isn't really German. It's a very international city and you'll probably find yourself on the U-Bahn with 6 different languages being spoken in the train car without one of them being German. There's quite a few Sudanese Restaurants in Kreuzberg that I can't recommend enough, and there's a great Ethiopian place right by where I used to live in Neukölln.
As for other things to do, if you're there on a Saturday, visit Mauerpark. There's a big flea market on Saturdays with great food and they have a big open air karoke. If you like theater, then take advantage of it in Berlin. It's very affordable and some of the best in the world. Berliner Ensemble is my favorite. It was founded by Bertolt Brecht and lives up to the legacy. I've probably seen six or seven pieces there. Unfortunately, it's out of season when you'll be there, but maybe you'll get lucky and they'll play an off-season show. I would also recommend you ride on the U1. Most of it is above ground and some of the views are gorgeous. Something else cheap and fun would be to buy yourself a couple of Berliner Kindls and stroll down East Side Gallery, where the wall is still standing and is covered in art. On that point, another highlight of Berlin is the street art and graffiti. Some people hate it and see it as destroying the city, but I love it, and street art/graffiti actually began in Europe in Kreuzberg after being brought there by Americans in the sixties from Philly, so Berlin is the place to appreciate it. I should also note that street art and graffiti in Germany doesn't have the gang and violence connotations that it does in the US. Look up Berlin Kidz on Youtube if you're interested.
Going to Budapest, Krakow, Prague, Berlin and Amsterdam in 9 days. Need recommendations for food, brews and activities if y'all don't mind!
I'll contradict the others and say that those aren't too many cities for fourteen days. You won't have time to really soak in every individual city, but you can still enjoy yourself and see lots of gorgeous sights. On Berlin, just see my response above. I just got back from Budapest, actually. I was only there for 2 days, so I can't give tons of recs, but here's what I got. You've got to feast on some traditional hungarian food. I'd recommend
Rákóczi. The food is wonderful and because it's not in a touristy spot and looks a bit grungy (as does a lot of Budapest), it's mostly hungarians who eat there, which is always a good sign. And I paid less than 6 euros for a delicious beef stew with dumplings and a beer. If you're into clubbing, Lärm is the place you want to go. They've got 5 or so rooms with different DJs and types of music, so you've got a nice choice between bar dancing vibe or something more on the club drug music. You also absolutely HAVE to go to a spa. Skip out on the big touristy places. I'd recommend you go to either Rudas or Veli Bej. They're both 500 year-old traditional Turkish spas. Rudas is the prettier of the two, but you've gotta check whether or not it's a women or men only day (it used to be a bit notorious in the homosexual aspect, but there was a big controversy related to that a couple years back and the authorities have crack down on it. For context, a gay couple I had dinner with in Vienna recommended it to me knowing that I'm hetero). I had intended to go to Rudas, but I ended up going to the spa with a french girl I hooked up with the night before, so we went to Veli Bej, which is mixed sex. There's no better hangover cure than a few hours in the spa.
