After spending a month in the former-hippie turned wealthy-bohemian-latte-mom Prenzlauer Berg district of Berlin, we decided to change our surroundings – we moved to another popular neighbourhood called Kreuzberg, which turned out to be a complete contrast to Prenzlauer Berg …

Gritty but Cool

Berliners love to refer to their city as “poor but sexy”, and no neighborhood represents this as well as Kreuzberg.

With graffiti covered lanes, murky bars and alternative hang-outs, Kreuzberg is gritty but cool – it’s far from picture perfect and pretty, but it has some of that roughness that gives a place depth and makes it interesting.

Shops and restaurants seem to pop-up and close down before the ink in newly printed guide books has even dried, which makes this neighborhood the perfect place to explore without a guide book.

Multi Cultural Cuisine

Kreuzberg is one of Berlin’s areas with the densest population of immigrants, which has created a great mixture of different cultures.

If you want to sample cuisine from all over the world, Kreuzberg is the ideal district to base yourself in.

From Vietnamese to Turkish, Nepalese to Middle-eastern flair, there are restaurants serving delicious food from all over the world, and while we had a perfectly working freestanding oven in our studio apartment, we ended up eating out a lot of the time.

It’s hard to resist all the awesome diners when often it was cheaper to eat out than to cook at home, and even when they weren’t – who can resist all that deliciousness?!

Here are some great places to try out when visiting Kreuzberg:

Café Mathilda: This place is by far the coziest cafe we went to in Kreuzberg. Plunge into the comfy armchairs and sofas with a latte macchiato in one hand and a home made cake in the other, and enjoy the laid back vibe and vinyls playing on the DJ set by the bar.

With free movie nights every monday, this place has the perfect balance between hip and welcoming (too many places in Berlin are over-doing the hip and underrating comfort!) – address: Graefestr. 12

Wonder Waffel: The staff at this cafe will happily stuff your waffle to the brim with whatever topping you want, from crumbled candy bars to fruit, syrup, ice cream and sprinkles of all kinds. The most baffling part of this is how they manage to keep the price at only €3. We also like the fun atmosphere and retro nintendo game in the cafe – address: Adalbert Strasse 88.

Imren Grill: There are literally hundreds of Turkish diners in Kreuzberg and we have barely scratched the service, buts Imren Grill is a local favorite with cheap, fresh meals and kick-ass Pide! address: Boppstr. 4

Hudson’s: This café truly brings Britain to Berlin, with shortbread, ginger crunch and friendly service in a stylish cafe – and an all-you-can-eat cake and tea deal every Sunday! The only minus is that it can get pretty loud if the cafe is full. address: Boppstr. 1

Wirsthaus Hasenheide: In our last Berlin post we mentioned the obsession Berliners have about the Sunday Brunch, and every Sunday between 9am and 1 pm the most popular Brunch cafes are crowded with locals all meeting up for brunch.

While Prenzlauerberg may win in number of brunch places, no place we’ve been to has beaten Wirsthaus with its huge buffet offering many interesting choices with fancy cheese and Dolmas – all for a measly €4.50!

An interesting thing about this place is that they charge double for Brunch, even though there seem to be no difference in what’s on offer – so beat the crowd, go there early and pay half the price for the same delicious food. address: Hasenheide 19.

Turkish Market

Visiting the Turkish market on Tuesdays and Fridays were one of the perks of staying in Kreuzberg.

There are stalls selling hummus in a hundred varieties, freshly baked bread and home made pasta and dolmas. The aroma from grilled feta cheese wraps is irresistible!

The market is located along the river on Maybachufer street, if you’re nearby but have trouble finding it just tag along with the many old ladies in colorful scarves dragging their trolleys to the market to do their weekly shopping.

Tempelhof Airport – Berlin’s Strangest Playground

It’s not every day you get to roller-skate down a runway or barbecue sausages in the shadow of an airport terminal – but both are everyday scenes in Tempelhof Park, Berlin’s newest playground – check out our article about Tempelhof Airport here!

Exploring The Area

Kreuzberg is full of surprises, most of which you just happen to stumble upon when you’re out exploring.

From street art so big they cover whole buildings to small galleries and a surprising number of odd furniture shops, put on a good pair of walking shoes and bring a camera to capture it all!

One place to include on the itinerary is the Topography of Terror (a free outdoor museum on the site of buildings which during the Nazi regime from 1933 to 1945 were the headquarters of the Gestapo and the SS).

Nearby is the famous Checkpoint Charlie, the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East and West Berlin during the cold war – also make sure to walk across the beautiful Oberbaum Bridge when walking over to the Berlin Wall in neighbouring Freidrichshain.

To sum it up, Kreuzberg is a perfect place for food lovers, travelers who love spontaneous exploring, and those interested in Berlin’s shaky past – so in short, a little bit for everyone…

Prenzlauer berg is the hippest district in Berlin – at least that’s what the people living there love to describe their beloved neighborhood.

With beautiful 20th century buildings, cute boutiques and an overload of cafes lining the streets and boulevards – it’s easy to understand why this area has become so popular.

Wondering what it would be like to live in Berlin’s most desired districts, we decided to spend a month renting an apartment there to see what all the fuss was about…

From Poor Hippies to Rich Bohemians

Prenzlauer Berg has a fascinating history, and was once one of the poorest districts of the city, attracting a young bohemian crowd.

But the days of poor artists living on cheap rents in crumbling buildings are over – since the reunification, the district has transformed into a wealthy, trendy area – and the poor bohemians have been replaced… with rich bohemians…

While the residents are wealthier, they still want an alternative lifestyle, and have paved the way for the organic supermarkets, vegan restaurants and fair trade shops that now line the streets.

We found a vegan fast food restaurant around the corner from our apartment and another one with an all vegan buffet around the other, a vegan shoe shop a few blocks away, which was right next to a vegan supermarket – this was vegetarian heaven!

The P-berg Mum

When walking into the hallways of apartment buildings or in one of the many cafes and parks, you may suddenly find yourself surrounded by deluxe baby trolleys.

Prenzlauer Berg is the so called “latte-macchiato-mums” hood, also known as the “p-berg mums” (Prenzlauer Berg mum).

You can usually find them at the nearest boulevard cafe sipping a latte-macchiato with their friends – check out this post if you want to read a hilarious and dead-on description about what the “p-berg mums” are like!

Café Culture

Perhaps thanks to the “p-berg mums”, there are countless of cafes in Prenzlauer Berg that are perfect hang-outs for people wanting to spend half their days with one cup of coffee.

Here are some great places to check out:

• Godshot Coffee Club: Famous for its great coffee, and a very cozy atmosphere making guests stay for hours on end. Only bad thing is that the wifi costs.
• Café Morgenrot: Has a great vegan weekend brunch, where you pay what you can afford and a very laid back hippie-vibe.
• Café Im Nu – A cozy little place with a lovely Sunday breakfast buffet (€8,90) by a nice square. 
• Schwarze Pumpe – The perfect Berlin atmosphere and typical German food so filling that you will last all day.
• Vita Bäckerei & Café – Our favorite bakery with delicious home made cakes in fun varieties and flavors. The Coffee is nothing to write home about, but the chai latte is awesome. It’s one of those places where old people hang their coats on the clothing hangar and sit there for hours with a newspaper.

While Sundays tend to be very quiet days in Germany with empty streets and closed doors, the cafés and restaurants in Prenzlauer Berg will be crowded already by 9 am.

Going out for Sunday brunch has become a phenomenon in Berlin, and with the huge amount of restaurants, bars and cafés in Prenzlauer Berg it’s almost a crime not to indulge in all the brunch options!

Shopping & Hang-Outs

There aren’t many attractions in Prenzlauer Berg, and yet it’s one of the places everyone tells you to visit. But why?

The reason is that Prenzlauer Berg is kind of an attraction in itself. The best way to enjoy this area is to simply stroll along the streets and alleys, sit down for a cup of coffee, check out some event at the Kulturbrauerei and shop in the many quirky second hand boutiques – and of course make a visit to Mauerpark.

On a sunny day, few places beat Mauerpark. It’s the favorite hang-out spot for locals in Prenzlauer Berg, and is also where one of Berlin’s most famous flea markets is held.

Every Sunday you can make your way down the jam-packed market an find lots of unique things you want and convince yourself that you actually need, from vintage and antiques to furniture, toys, clothes and jewellery.

There is a great vibe in the park and a good mix of people, and sometimes there is even karaoke section going on which is pretty crazy.

To sum it up, Prenzlauer Berg is the perfect place to spend a Sunday – you join the latte-macchiato-mums for brunch before visiting the Sunday market and do some thrift shopping at Mauerpark!

It’s not every day you get to walk, bike and roller-skate down an airport runway or set up a barbecue on an airfield at an airport.

But at Tempelhof Airport in Berlin, these things are normal – the closed airport has become Berlin’s newest playground, now known as Tempelhof park.

Taking up a space of 400 hectares, picnics and jogging aren’t the only things this park has space for: kite flying, hot balloon rides, urban gardening and marathon events are just a few of the things you can and will soon be able to do in the park.

The city plans to recreate the park in many ways, from creating a lake to building new homes, while still keeping the airport building which plays a major role in Berlin’s history.

A Little History

Built in 1939-1941, Tempelhof airport was built in typical Nazi monumental “Bombastic” style, complete with carved eagles at the entrance and a roof constructed to hold an audience of 100,000 people watching military parades and air shows, designed to be the world’s biggest terminal.

A Symbol For Freedom

Tempelhof is more than just an abandoned airport or an awesome park, for many of the Berliners it remains a symbol for freedom …

Outside the airport stands the Airlift Memorial, honouring those who fought for freedom and participated in the “supplies action”, and the 79 pilots who lost their lives during the Airlift.

In 1948 Soviet authorities halted all traffic by land and water into and out of the western-controlled sectors of Berlin, with the only access left being an air route across the Soviet Zone. For the next 11 months the western powers began sending skytrains supplying the people with food to survive.

The legendary “Operation Little Vittles” is almost as famous, where the “Candy Bomber” Gail Halvorsen started dropping candy to the children from his parachute before landing, and other pilots started to do the same.

Go There Before It Changes!

Today, a dilapidated plane overgrown by weeds hides in one corner of the park, and in summer you can buy sausages from a beer garden created for the US military during the Cold War.

As always, in true Berlin style, the past is mixed with the present.

I’m sure the future of this park will be amazing, but the way it is today is truly unique and something to experience, and who knows what will be left and distract from its history when the park is recreated into something new?

So don’t risk it, go bike down the runway and enjoy the unique view while you still can!

As you walk along the streets of Munich this week, you could be forgiven for thinking that you’d stepped back in time – men are decked out in lederhosen and checked shirts, women are showing off their curves in traditional Dirndl dresses and everyone is slurping frothy beer and enjoying huge platters of meat. It can only mean one thing – Oktoberfest is back in the town!

The world’s biggest beer festival invites locals and visitors to eat, drink and be merry together, and 6 million people flock to Munich city each year to do just that.

So whether you’re a first timer at Oktoberfest or looking at Munich flights and growing your moustache in preparation for next year, here are some tips for how to survive the crowds and really get into the spirit of this exuberant two-week celebration.

Tents

Oktoberfest takes place across 14 different tents, which spring up across the city in the week before the festival kicks off. The tents vary in size but all house the familiar rows of beer-stained wooden benches, with colourful bunting draped across the high ceilings.

The first beer of Oktoberfest is always poured in the largest tent Schottenhamel – it houses a massive 10,000 people, so expect the cheers to be deafening.

Backpackers tend to head to the Hofbräu tent, where you’ll predictably find young American travellers enjoying litre on litre of the beer that they’re banned from buying at home.

If you’re in Munich with the family, head to the Augustiner Festhalle tent for a calmer and cozier atmosphere and to enjoy beer from more modestly-sized wooden kegs.

Tuesdays is family day and this friendly tent offers great-value meals for kids and adults between 12 and 6pm – for an afternoon of German celebrity-watching check out the famous Hippodrum tent – it’s a favourite of Boris Becker’s.

Accommodation

If you’re already in Munich, you’ll know that the city is crammed to capacity – booking a hotel room in advance is an absolute must and even the city’s temporary campsites become full weeks before the festival begins.

In the city centre expect to pay hiked-up ‘festival prices’, particularly in the area around the hub of the action in the Wiesn.

If you don’t mind a short train journey into Munich, try looking at rooms in the neighbouring towns of Nürnberg, Augsburg, Ingolstadt, Landshut and Rosenheim.

Create a Festival Plan

With so many revellers crammed into one city, it’s often hard to find at seat at Oktoberfest. But the one rule of the festival is this – no seat, no beer.

Do a bit of pre-planning before you leave for the airport and note down all the tents and events that you’d like to see.

On weekdays make sure you get to your chosen tent by 2pm at the absolute latest and before midday on weekends – there are outside places to sit across the city, but the cold weather and lack of brass bands playing sing-a-longs may dampen your festival spirit somewhat.

Have you ever been to Oktoberfest? 

(photo credit: 1)

Earlier this year, we spent 3 months living in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, where we went skiing every single day. It was an amazing place and the perfect location to build up our new project.

We know this is probably a strange time to be posting articles about winter, but in the scorching summer heat we think of this video as a nice, cool, refreshing drink!

This was the first time we had used the GoPro video camera, and it turned out to be easy and really fun to film with – check out the video below to view our impressions – enjoy!

You can read more about our time in southern Germany here:

• Living In Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany – Our Impressions
• Top Of Germany – Instagram Photo Essay
• This Will Be Our New Home

Eating out in Europe is always a slightly different experience depending on which country you visit, and while many things are similar to the US, Canada and the rest of the world, there are some important differences.

To make sure you don’t have a bad and confusing experience, and that you act with good etiquette when eating out in Germany, follow this guide…

Getting A Table

When you stop to eat at a restaurant, you will most likely be seating yourself – if you choose a table larger than you need, you may be joined by other diners.

This is not bad etiquette in Germany, and often there are a few long tables rather than many small ones, especially in beer gardens.

If this does happen, take the opportunity to meet new people – it could be a lot of fun.

Smoking and non-smoking sections exist at some restaurants, but most restaurants don’t have specific “non-smoking” sections and second-hand smoke is somewhat tolerated, so complaining about it won’t help much.

When looking for seating for your group, remember that some tables are reserved for specific regulars – these will likely have a “Stammtisch” sign in plain view – if there are no other tables, ask the waiter/waitress if it would be okay to sit there.

Complimentary Goodies

It is not customary to serve bread/rolls before a meal without charge, that is sometimes added to the bill as a separate “cover charge”.

Even water carries a charge at most restaurants in Germany. If you order water you will have to pay for it as any other drink, and you will never get tap water (asking for tap water is sometimes even seen as rude).

Germans generally don’t drink tap water even though it’s usually safe to do so.

Service is a bit slower than in the U.S., so you might be tempted to opt for the water and bread and rolls to hold you over until your first course arrives.

In many restaurants, even in fast food places like McDonalds, you will be asked to pay extra for ketchup and mayonnaise.

And, if you are at a familiar fast food venue, don’t expect the same taste or serving size you are accustomed to in the US.

The Tipping Custom

Tipping in Germany is totally different from the United States – first of all, Service and VAT are included in the menu price in restaurants, cafes, bars etc – however, it is customary to tip the waiter.

In Germany waiters and waitresses are normally paid more so the tip tends to be much smaller.

A rule of thumb is to add 5 to 10 percent of the bill, and it should be rounded up to the nearest Euro.

For example, if the waiter says “€7,50, you can hand him a 10 Euro note and say “9 Euros”, and will get €1 back in change.

You don’t leave the money and the tip on the table when leaving the restaurant, but it expected to pay when the waiter comes up to your table with the check and tells you the price.

When deciding how to tip for services at restaurants and night clubs in Germany, you should also consider how many people were served and how good the service was just as you do in the U.S.

Cash, Credit Card or Check?

In Germany, cash is king – checks are very rarely accepted and credit cards are not the norm. Germans use either cash or electronic cash cards (EC), so be prepared before visiting a store or restaurant.

If you don’t have cash, ask in advance if another form of payment will be accepted – it sometimes is.

It’s very common to split the bill (especially among younger people), and the waiter usually asks if you prefer to pay together (“Zusammen?” in German).

If you pay separate the waiter will tell you how much you pay each, and you round up your own bill just the same.

Table manners and restaurant etiquette are a little different everywhere you go, but embrace the differences and you will have more fun and make more friends when you venture out to a new world.

For information on Frankfurt & flights from the U.S. to Frankfurt, visit: http://www.singaporeair.com/jsp/cms/en_UK/promotions/new-york-flights.jsp

(photo credit: 1)

Our time here in southern Germany is coming to an end, and during the winter months we have grown to really love this little gem tucked away between the mountains.

Here is a photo essay with photos taken from our iPhone and edited in Instagram, showcasing a few of our impressions from Garmisch-Partenkirchen and the surrounding alps – enjoy!

The Bavarian Alps in southern Germany is truly a winter wonderland, with cozy villages, quaint houses and an abundance of white, glittering snow.

With its claim to fame as “the top of Germany”, the Zugspitze mountain is the highest peak in Germany. To get there you have to take a cogwheel train through tunnels in the mountains, passing quaint villages, churches and fields along the way.

We have really had all types of weather here, from snow storms with 2 meters of powder snow to ski in, to sunny days hitting well over 20 degrees Celsius.

The people are very proud of their traditions, and many take every opportunity they can to dress in traditional clothes.

The façades on the houses are beautifully painted sharing the history of the people who live in the homes and who own the shops, and cafes and restaurants serve mainly food famous for their region.

Spring has really arrived by now, and people are enjoying the alps the way you do best – spring skiing, beer drinking, walking, beer drinking, biking, beer drinking, and so on…

Have you been to this part of Germany? if so, what were your impressions?

We’ve spent just over two month in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a small town in southern Germany, and have had such an amazing time.

We weren’t quite sure what to expect as we had never been in this part of Germany before, but we were curious to find out, especially since everyone we spoke to during our travels in Germany were very opinionated about Garmisch and Bavaria - the region it is located in.

One girl we met in Stuttgart said that there was too much forest for her liking, and a guy we met in Berlin broke into a big smile and started reminiscing about the huge pints of beer we would get.

But whatever their thoughts on Bavaria were, they all agreed on one thing – Bavarian people are different from other Germans…

The People…

Bavarian people are known to be very proud of their heritage, and tend to see themselves first and foremost as Bavarians, and secondly as Germans – something we noticed very often, but in a different way than we had expected.

The people in Garmisch do talk about themselves as Bavarians, but always with a sparkle in the eye and never seem to take themselves very seriously at all.

When something isn’t quite right, they joke and say that it’s ”Bavarian”; a Bavarian bill (one that is wrong or doesn’t make any sense), Bavarian time or Bavarian English are things we often hear from people here.

Most people we’ve met are very friendly and many start random conversations with you on the street – this has made us more determined to improve our German so that we can actually hold a proper conversation.

Our stay here in Garmisch has really made us realize how many opportunities you miss out on by not speaking the language well.

There are small things with the language here that is different from the rest of Germany, and if you don’t know about them – you could accidentally rub people the wrong way.

For example, it’s considered prim and distant to say ”Guten Tag” (Good day) – here instead most people say ”Grüß Got” (Greet God).

The Traditions…

In some sense, life here is a bit like living in a bubble, no matter what goes on in the rest of the world, little happens here, and many things remain the way they always have, especially traditions…

Everywhere you go you will be sure to pass a man wearing the traditional Bavarian alpine hat on his head.

It’s fascinating how such a small and flimsy hat can stay on someone’s head, and I’m surprised that they are so determined to wear them even though they can’t do much good in the winter weather, giving no warmth or protection from the sun – it just…sits there…

Even in -16 degrees Celsius you’ll see men in their 60′s going for walks in their knee-high lederhosen and knee socks – pretty impressive..!

The Lifestyle…

I guess the life we live here in Garmisch is very different from most people who have a normal 9/5 job, just the ability to get up in the morning and be skiing down a mountain an hour later is a winter-lifestyle-heaven for us.

It takes some time to get used to the slower pace, but for us it has been like taking a refreshing break from life.

I absolutely love how you can walk into a dairy shop and buy fresh, unpasteurized milk that comes straight from their own farm in the back of the house.

Have you been to Garmisch-Partenkirchen? What were your impressions?

Our first stop after Berlin was Nuremberg and Rothenburg – which according to Hitler were ”the most German of German towns”.

Nuremberg is perhaps most famous for its significance to the Nazi era and the huge Nazi party rallies that were held there.

But strolling around the city center we were amazed by the beauty of the medieval city we found behind the surrounding stone walls.

The traditional German houses lined along the cobble stoned streets was a big contrast to what we had seen in Berlin.

Nuremberg did feel very German, and very traditional.

There were shops selling Lederhosen and Drindls (traditional Bavarian pants and dresses) everywhere, every five meters there were shops selling traditional Lebkuchen (a type of gingerbread), and every ten meters a stall selling fresh Pretzels.

Within ten minutes of arriving we had already bought and finished a whole bag of Lebkuchen, and I was already fantasizing about when I could possibly find the excuse to wear those Drindls…

You could tell the people were proud of their food, and I would definitely say that when it comes to food tradition, Germany has a lot to thank Nuremberg for its Lebkuchen and sausages.

The Christmas City

The next day we took a day trip to a small town outside of Nuremberg called Rothenburg Ob Der Tauber.

Rothenburg is everything foreigners picture of Germany.

This place seriously looks as though it has been taken from a fairytale like Hansel and Gretel, with wonky half timbered houses in different colors, and steep red rooftops.

It’s often nicknamed the ”Christmas city”, since the streets are lined with amazing Christmas shops that are open all year round.

If Nuremberg doesn’t captivate you with its food, then Rothenburg will with its quaint Old Town.

For some reason the people in Nuremberg were the friendliest out of all the places we’ve visited in Germany – the easy going and cheerful strangers we met made this place Nathan’s favorite.

Have you been to Germany? If so, which German city did you most enjoy?

Tucked away on the second floor of a theater building in the center of Berlin, the Tajikiztan tea room is well hidden for those who are not looking for it.

Even if you do have a rough idea of where it is chances are you still won’t find it. Last summer we spent a good half hour looking for it without success.

That was the reason we did not want to give up this time. But when we finally entered the fancy theater building we were wondering if we had really found it, or just gotten lost again. It just didn’t seem to be a place for a tea room, and it was far to late for the usual afternoon tea.

But this tea house is very different from the English tea houses you’re used to.

Before entering the room you have to take your shoes off and leave them outside. Once you’re inside you sit down by one of the low tables surrounded by colorful cushions in different sizes.

It is almost impossible to sit on the cushions. Sooner or later you will find yourself half lying down, but that’s OK because everyone else is doing it too.

And once you get used to the idea, it is really cozy. In fact I have never been in a cafe where I have felt as much at home as in this odd place.

The atmosphere is relaxed, almost drowsy, and people sit and drink their tea for hours on end.

To give you an idea, at 11 pm after having been there for about two hours we basically forced ourselves to leave, and everyone who was there when we arrived was still there, ordering a second, third perhaps fourth refill.

The waiter brought us a thick menu of different teas to choose, and we picked a Russian smoked tea flavor, curious of how a tea can possibly taste of smoke?

Surprisingly, it tasted just like smoke. This tea was far from the fruity flavor of berries or the fresh mint teas you normally find. It was a strange but somehow still nice flavor similar to burned wood – strong and manly, and exactly the way I would have thought Russian tea would taste like.

In Tajikiztan women are not allowed in these tea rooms, they are strictly meant for men to meet with friends, drink tea and do business.

So I am glad that this place which was initially set up during the Soviet era for Tajikiztanian people/ soldiers? Was still there. When the Soviet era saw everything else falling down, the Tea room remained, and little has changed since.

So if you want to experience part of Berlin’s history but in a different way, this is a good place to visit.

It is right in the middle of Berlin’s Mitte – but once inside you feel like you’re a world away from all of it.

Which are some memorable café experiences you’ve had?