The Famous New Berlin Free Tour

If you want a great way to get to know Berlin when you first arrive, The New Berlin Free Tour comes highly recommended. In fact, it's so famous that even my friend Dawn, who was traveling all the way in Prague heard about this 3.5hr English walking tour. It's unique because all the guides work for tips only, which means they're all really interesting, dynamic, and will share with you their love for Berlin. You'll get to see all the main sites and find out a bunch of interesting things about the city. Tours leave daily and the guides are easy to spot (they'll be wearing red New Europe t-shirts). Check out the website for more details on exact times for tours, pictures, videos, and other details. From what I hear, the tour is nothing short of awesome so it'll definitely be worth your time!

Coheed and Cambria in Berlin

I was lucky enough to see one of my favorite bands, Coheed and Cambria, when they rolled through Berlin on the European leg of their tour. It was at a medium-sized music venue called Columbia Club. They played a great show, and while I had already seen them a few times in the states, it was pretty unique to see them while I was staying in Berlin. If you're into live music and concerts, keep an eye out to see if bands you like happen to be in Europe while you're abroad. You can also check the Zitty for concert listings, either in print or online.

Prague

Prague (album) was amazing. We went during spring break, before our quarter in Berlin began. The city itself was beautiful, it's kinda like walking through a fairy tale. It was a little cold, and it actually snowed a bit, but in general the weather held out and we got to see all the sights. We had a group of 6 and got an apartment-style room at the Czech Inn (clever, isn't it) hostel. This was by far the nicest hostel I have ever seen, it felt like a 3 or 4 star hotel. Definitely try to stay there if you make it to Prague.

The bars there were great, too. A half-liter beer was only about €1 considering the exchange rate, a fact that I did not really appreciate until I got used to buying beers for at least 3x the price everywhere else in Europe. The sausages sold at stands on the street were also absolutely delicious, I definitely had a few of those.

The Night of my First Beer in Berlin

Getting my first beer in Germany was a difficult task. So the plan was for me, and my friends Artur and Trey, to do this whole "bar a night" thing, where we'd go to a different Berlin bar each night. I backed out of the plan after the first week cause it got too tiring, but congrats to Artur and Trey who stuck it through and actually COMPLETED the challenge; they literally drank one Beer for every day they were in Berlin, and believe me, some of the days were tough. They not only managed to come out of the challenge without any beer bellies, but they also have GREAT stories from it. If you're interested, ask to hear some.




Now back to the night of my first beer. Since it was Sunday and lots of businesses are not open late on Sunday nights, we couldn't really find any bars on the street we were on near Nollendorf Platz. But we finally found ONE that was kind of full. We looked in and decided to go in because we saw this man and this blonde lady who seemed to look like they were enjoying themselves. But the second we went in, EVERONE stoppped and looked at me. We were all confused cause we weren't sure if we had done something wrong. It took us a minute to realize the "woman" we saw was actually a man and that we were in a gay bar; so that's why they were all looking at me! Cause they didn't understand why a girl was there. And that is how we accidentally ended up in a gay bar. What a night. Later, we ended up finding another local bar nearby. It ended up being a nice find--a candle lit bar with a chill atmosphere. We settled in and I finally enjoyed my first German beer (a Pils)!

The U-Bahn and S-Bahn: Einsteigen Bitte!

Get used to hearing those words. You’ll hear it EVERY time you sit on an U-Bahn or S-Bahn. For those with limited German, those two words mean “Board Please”. Pretty soon you’ll get so used to it that you’ll feel like something’s missing if you don’t hear it. When my friends and I went to London all we heard was “Mind the Gap”, which is WAY less cool than Einsteigen Bitte! Not only that, some of the trains never even came; the Tube (that’s the name of the London system) is really old, and at one point, the lights went out while we were all on the train. So needless to say, when we got back to Berlin, we were so HAPPY to finally hear the ever-familiar “Einsteigen Bitte!”. You gotta hand it to the Germans, they definitely know how to run their transportation system. It works like clockwork and can get me to anywhere in the city at any time, day or night. You’ll end up using it ALL THE TIME and you won’t even realize how amazing it is until it’s gone. One day during Winter quarter, all the U-Bahn drivers went on strike so NONE of the trains were running and the city went into complete chaos. Nobody could get to work, none of us could get to school; people couldn’t get anywhere--- it was just crappy. Anyhow, the point is, German trains are the best in Europe, so enjoy the short time you have to use it before you have to go back to Stanford and are forever stuck with the “wonderful” CalTrain.

P.S. To those who are interested, drinking on the U-Bahn is allowed. This little tidbit comes in handy when you're taking your long ride from your homestays on the west over to the east (where most of the nightlife is)...Prepartying on the U-Bahn made for great fun and stories :)

Bar 55: huge cocktails

Bar 55 (map) was one of the first bars I went to in Berlin. They serve these massive 1.3L cocktails, and of course there are different drink specials depending on the night. It's on the east side so it's a good place to go with friends right before heading to the clubs. Last time I was there I had a 1.3L long island iced tea, and needless to say the rest of the night was pretty fun. But whether you're sharing or taking on your own liter cocktail, it'll be a good time.