Berlin

What's the stroke between the two for? You might as well have said Opera/Heavy Metal is sooooooo over. If anything confirms it isn't over it's that you don't have a fucking clue about it.

Anyone actually been to the Love Parade?

!!

momus to thread

I'm off to Berlin next week, for a few days - anyone who's been over there recently (or lives there?) have any recommendations for stuff to do, places to go? Or should I just spend my time hanging out at the film festival?

Apparently people still go to Tresor after all these years. Might be a place to hang out with non-berlin celebs who happen to have heard of it.

The coolest place is White Trash Fast Food on Tor Strasse in Mitte.

also I liked Mitte more than either P-berg or K-berg

Neukoln has MORE shops, cafes and bars now i guess, but it still feels "authentic" - basically it is still a turkish neighborhood.

Friedrichshain already felt pretty gentrified when I first visited Berlin in 2007. Last time I was there a couple of years ago, I stayed at a German friend of mine in Neukölln, and she said the area is definitely becoming more hip now.

Neukölln also has this creepy but cool abandoned hospital complex, apparently a former children's hospital. It's at Mariendorfer Weg. Very much worth the visit if you're into places that could be horror movie sets, though this blog post suggests you might run into squatters or bums there. (When we were there a few years ago we saw no one, though it was clear some homeless people were using is as a shelter.) One person in the comments even says he came across some people shooting a porn movie! :)

And yeah, I second the recommendation on the Stasi prison, it's kinda depressing but eye-opening to see the places where people were actually tortured, and to hear about the various corporal and psychological interrogation methods. Many of the tour guides are actually people who were imprisoned there, though I think they only give German tours..? Our English guide was a younger person with no personal history with the place, though she still could illustrate everything quite well.

yes, I think the ex-prisoner tours are german only. we also had a young woman tour guide, and she brought a lot of deeply felt concern and interest to the tour so I didn't feel we missed out on that much.

How awful it would have to be -- I'd think -- to give tours of your own former prison.

the amazing thing is, except for the prison manager, all the Stasi prison staff weren't sentenced for what happened there after the union with the west.
as a matter of fact, most of them are now high socieity german lawyers and judges. it was a part of the peace agreement that they would not go to trial for their actions.

yeah stuff like that is fascinating/chilling ... i've been looking for a good book on the reunification for a while now.

if anyone has any suggestions ...

except for the prison manager, all the Stasi prison staff weren't sentenced for what happened there after the union with the west.
as a matter of fact, most of them are now high socieity german lawyers and judges.

When we took the tour, the guide told us that one of the other guides, a former prisoner, now lives in the same Berlin neighbourhood as one the men who used to interrogate him, and he sees him quite often on the streets. I can't imagine what that would be like, especially considering that the guy was never brought to justice in any way.

yeah even when I was there I got the sense that P-Berg and K-Berg were already kind of like OVER man (but still very pleasant and nice in a west village sort of way), and friedrichschain and increasingly neukoln were more where it was at.

i've been prob 10 times in the last 5/6 years and i'd say friedrichshain seems the most gentrified of these, loads of families, dunno if it's a factor but the apartments there seem to be a lot bigger. neukolln does seem to be good now though, a lot more time spent there in recent visits.

tbh the quality of bars you just walk into is quite high ime.

ya friedricchsain has the nicest flats

ya there are like 3 packed bars per block in neukolln. and even then often like, dozens of ppl just sitting on the curb outside corner stores (what do they call these again? shpetzis or something?) that was my fav neighborhood but there's not a tonne to do during the day (which i guess u could say abt the whole city lol) just a turkish neighborhood

Back to Berlin for the first time in 5 years, not sure why it has been so long but glad to be going back finally.

Pretty sure we have the nightlife plans pretty well covered, but really interested in knowing some places to go to for €1/2 record bins to do some serious digging and punting on random stuff (don’t have the cash for anything new at the moment). Mainly interested in house/techno/disco/boogie etc. but all record shops are good. Staying in Mitte, but willing to travel.

The Mauerpark flea market on a sunday is a safe bet - http://www.mauerparkmarkt.de

I had my most enjoyable digging experiences there when I visited Berlin a few months ago.

I liked Q-Tip Records a lot too - http://record-shops.org/berlin/kreuzberg/q-tip-records

This website is a nice starting point...
http://record-shops.org/berlin/

Thanks, I law Record-shops.org the other week but had forgotten about it. I have been hearing that Belin is rather overpriced for second hand records, probably a combination of cheap large apartments able to hold lots of records, and lots of DJs. So perhaps won't be the digging I’d hoped for, but I shall see what I find.

Berlin record stores

In the end I didn’t think I had enough money to do a proper shop, so only went into a few in passing, although I did find €30 in my pocket after I got back, doh!

But, for a grand total of €7, I got:

R.I.P. Productions – Club Trax Vol 1
My Mine – Hypnotic Tango
Bobby O – Freedom In An Unfree World
Fox The Fox - Precious Little Diamond
Diana Ross - Diana

I'm in Berlin next week to present at a conference and am sticking around for a few days afterward. Will have four free evenings from November 20-23. Any recommendations for shows or other happenings?

I am going to Berlin for 9 days (with possibly a 2-day trek off to Leipzig)!!! I think we're staying in Kreuzberg!! What should we do??!?!?!?!!?

like what are good days of the week to go to Leipzig, ugh, so much to plan

stevie d, you must must must walk around hansaviertel. it is so beautiful and i promise you will love it very much.

http://www.e-architect.co.uk/berlin/hansaviertel-buildings

buy drugs in görlitzer park, go to berghain on sunday afternoon, eat schnitzel or artichokes at markthalle restaurant, see soviet war memorial, drink lots of beers while strolling along landwehr canal...

Consume thyme-heavy drinks until dawn in Café Kreuzberg, try to squeeze through the improbably narrow gap between entrance and bar directly on the left, convince the bartender to play The Idiot LP at regular intervals (he will probably do it anyway).

I mentioned this upthread, but the Gay Museum (Schwules Museum) is a small but cool and super informative museum, they've got material on the German and Berlin gay and lesbian scenes from the 19th century 'til today. And there are English translations available of everything. If you're into gay history or social history in general, go there.

I was there in October, and I ate the best veggie burger I've had in my life in this place, it's between Kreuzberg and Neukölln. (They were playing music super loud, so that kinda made the atmosphere not so awesome, but the food was great.) The Neukölln area in general is worth checking out (it's southeast from Kreuzberg), I think it's the current "happening" neighbourhood after Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain have become gentrified.

Getting into Berghain is going to be my top priority; multiple ppl have recommended going Sunday afternoon and wearing all black and not smiling or talking.

i know someone who shaved his eyebrows in line because he was afraid of not getting in lol

i watched the door while taking a smoke outside when i was there and tried to find a logic to the bear's denials, seemed like he was mostly turning away straight squares (esp if solo) but he definitely throws a little curveball of randomness into the mix just to keep you on your toes. funny cause everyone you talk to will have a different theory of what his process is

the club on a boat is pretty cool

xp that is exactly what I hear over and over. What percentage does he turn away? like 70 or something?

No, 30 surely? I spent 15 hours in berghain the weekend before last. I stayed for so long I just couldn't leave. I was scared to leave! I left because (believe it or not) it was closing. Yes, closing.

It was Monday lunchtime btw.

i would say he turns away around 1 in 20, maybe 1 in 15. if he turned away 70% no one would bother standing in line

i wasn't in culinary tourist mode when i went but ime the food in berlin is pretty whatever. cheap kebabs are great and you can definitely find nice turkish blaces. and german supermarkets have like, half an aisle devoted to fresh produce and 4-5 aisles devoted to meat cheese and bread. there's one pwyc vegan brunch place (i think in friedrichsain) that was really good, may be necessary if you are a vegetarian

Go to the Newton Bar and have an Adios Motherfucker, then go to Tresor and stay until about 3:30am, I did that and it was fun.

The better part of Brandenburger Tor was walking past the embassies to get there. The story I was told goes that after reunification the US built first, so we're closest to the Tor, but not the biggest. The Russians built second so they're bigger than the US, one block down, and then the UK built third and has the biggest of the three.

It was a lot of fun walking past Checkpoint Charlie chatting with my Russian government counterparts.

Berlin food is def not the reason to go, but it's worth eating flammkuchen and spaetzle at least once each imo. And go to the Turkish market, I think in Neukoln on weekends.

Are there many parties on weeknights or is it a mostly-weekend thing? Is Berghain at noon on a Sunday comparably fun to Berghain at 3am on a Saturday?

i went out every night i was there. there's definitely more options on the weekends. time is kind of nonexistent in berghain lol, except that at some times only panorama bar is open

yes, and another good berlin experience is to end your monday night at 6:30am riding the ubahn home with commuters on their way to work. suggest dark monday at dunker for one of those. you might want to decide how nocturnal you plan to be ahead of time because you can easily lose days to sleep if you like to dance and drink a lot.

Stevie pls report your findings. When are you going? I'm heading there for the first time in June, and even tho I have some friends there idk how free they'll be and I'm thinking you will be a reliable guide for actual fun things to do. Plus I like to explore cities on my own in between socialising. Likely to be there for around the same length of time, not sure where I'm going to stay yet but have a few places in mind, just depends on how affordable it'll be when I have the $ saved to book. Looking for venue recommendations apart from Berghain, not sure I care that much to risk being turned away, and I'm probably going to see the kind of DJs that would play there a week or so later anyway.

Does anyone have any good recommendations for swimming lakes and forest walks? Also day trips to the fringes and idk any cool recent free/cheap stuff.

We'll be there around the last week of March! I will def report my findings.

the Cafe Am Neuen See is wonderful in June. You can get a rowboat from there, too.

xp don't be too scared about Berghain. regardless you should check what's up on residentadvisor ahead of time. if you do get turned away, just get in a cab (there are tons of them waiting next to the BH line) and head to one of the other places!
some venue recommendations: Arena, Suicide Circus, about blank, Golden Gate, Watergate maybe.

oh that's excellent advice! So basically if you want to go out and you don't get into Berghain you will still have a fn incredible night

Yes

Stevie, I wouldn't worry about not getting in. I actually didn't see a single person get knocked back that last time. It's a business, ultimately, and is vast and needs punters. I've a feeling you can pull off a queer enough vibe that the chances of you being turned away were extremely negligible :)

otm

Do ppl have recommendations of cool stuff to do in Leipzig?

hope this isn't too late. i was there last year in wintertime and these were some things i did that i particularly enjoyed:

grundmann cafe: a viennese cafe with a beautiful if understated deco design and a lot of nice graphics courtesy of a local cartooist who design ads for them which line the staircase to the bathrooms. This cartoonist seems to also have a small shop-studio on the west side of town. the atmosphere is very charming for passing some time in and has a nice old world charm and seemingly a lot of regulars. while i was there a woman came in with some cut flowers and a waiter brought her a bucket of water to keep them in while she ate. the food is good too. i had a great wiener schnitzel that overhung the plate.
http://www.cafe-grundmann.de/

try a local gose beer. i enjoyed the ritterguts gose.a little sour, kinda salty.

it seems the panorama is closed, but if not, that was well worth it for a fun survey of leipzig history combined with a very unusual artwork that gave a taste of public entertainments before the cinema age, in an impressive industrial structure.

there was a nice antique shop-gallery called unterholz with a friendly owner at Arthur-Hoffmann-Straße 47. at the time they had an exhibit of photos of black metal acts and also sold some of the owners interesting self-published photo books and other works.it's in a fairly quiet area but there were a couple of other nice shops selling curated junk on that street.

i enjoyed walking through the johanna park and the area around it, which had a nice glass pavilion and seemed like it would be lively and pleasant in the spring-summer months.

there seemed to be more of a hip district west of the river, along karl-heine strasse, with some local design boutiques and small restaurants, but nothing stood out for me.

Going for a long weekend. Will be looking but in the meantime suggestions appreciated.

*at this thread later