Favourites
After two months of residency in this fabulous city I can finally establish some fave spots and list them. However, some fave spots might end up to be top 5 or even top 10... Oh well, I'll give it a go. Favourite...
... shopping mall: Alexa - Alexanderplatz. Even though the surroundings are a bit too Eastern Germany for my taste with the Fernsehturm tower lurking in the periphery, the mall itself is so beautiful! The shops are awsome too, I love it, and crawling distance home aswell.
... cinema: CineStar IMAX - Sony Center, Potsdamer Platz. To be fair to all of the other cinemas, this is the only one I've been to, but there aren't that many theatres that actually screen movies in their original version. We went there to see 2012 (awful movie, don't pay to go and watch it), and it was quite fascinating since not only was it in English, there were no subtitles. Whenever a character would speak another language, the subtitles would be in English too. Weird. But the movie theatre is beautiful, I love the Sony Center!
... park: Volkspark Friedrichshain - Friedrichshain. Hands down the best park, ok maybe I am slightly biased since it's right around the corner from where I live and I go there all the time, but it really is great! It's the oldest and second largest park in Berlin, there are two "mountains" built over bunkers (how awsome is that?), heaps of monuments, a Japanese garden and not to forget Märchenbrunnen which is a beautiful fairy tale fountain! It's gorgeous (see image below). However, what I love most about this park is that I can go running there, both on soft wood-chip paths, flat and steep, on paved roads, with lots of space. It's ideal!
... café (this is a tricky one, so I'll divide them into sub-categories) to hang out: Lois - Gormanstr. Mitte. Right next to roomie's work, so we hang out here a lot. They make excellent sojalattes and delicious cheesecakes. Also, some of the magazines are in English, yay to that! Cosy setting.
... café with the best breakfast: Tous les jours - Hufelandstr. Prenzlauer Berg. Their breakfast is insane! The biggest one costs 7 euro (!) and you get all of this;
Unfortunately, Tous les jours isn't the cosiest café in town but their carrotcake-muffins are to die for! So I have to say, they win on sugarinduced-coma knock-out.
... café with the best smoothies: Fruit Bar - Hufelandstr. P B. (Have you noticed that these cafés all are right around the corner to where I live?). Nothing to say really other than the smoothies in this place are fergalicious. The guy who owns this place runs it all by himself and all the smoothies are made from scratch, fresh fruit all around. Love it. Love. It.
... café with the best baristas: Spreegold - Hufelandstr. P B. I had to. www.spreegold.com/new/typo3 check it out for yourselves!
There are plenty of other cafés, of course, but I won't list them all, it'd bore you to bits.
... bar (also many different faves, I'll mention two): CCCP Bar - Torstr. Mitte. Russian bar, awsome setting with slightly shocking decor. Small but funky. Schmittz - Torstr. Mitte. We hang out here a lot for the same reason why we hang out in Lois, it's an excellent after work-bar, unfortunately people smoke a lot but there's a fussball table and table tennis and the beer is 2 euros. And oh, did I mention that I have a huge loser crush on one of the bartenders? H O T!
Now, my memory is failing me a little, perhaps because of too much alcohol consumption, naturally I have been to more bars than these but I won't list all of them either. Let's move on shall we?
... club: White Trash/White Noise - Schönhauser Allee. P B. Awsome DJ when we were there ("her" name was Anita Drink, get it?) who played very random songs, but managed to squeeze in both Living on a prayer and Sweet child o' mine, so I couldn't possibly be other than smitten. The decor was as always very interesting, didn't care much for the live act though, a little pretentious. Kulturbrauerei - Schönhauser Alle. P B. Huge club with many different dancefloors which will tickle what ever fancy. We cruised between the Techno Lounge (with many pretty lights) and the more rock/pop floor, very entertaining. Kaffee Burger - Torstr. Mitte. Cool little club with a lot of alternative people, fun but obscure at times.
So there, now I'm sick of listing things, sun's shining so I'll go out and enjoy it before it gets dark (night falls around 4.30 pm, it's horrible!).
... shopping mall: Alexa - Alexanderplatz. Even though the surroundings are a bit too Eastern Germany for my taste with the Fernsehturm tower lurking in the periphery, the mall itself is so beautiful! The shops are awsome too, I love it, and crawling distance home aswell.
... cinema: CineStar IMAX - Sony Center, Potsdamer Platz. To be fair to all of the other cinemas, this is the only one I've been to, but there aren't that many theatres that actually screen movies in their original version. We went there to see 2012 (awful movie, don't pay to go and watch it), and it was quite fascinating since not only was it in English, there were no subtitles. Whenever a character would speak another language, the subtitles would be in English too. Weird. But the movie theatre is beautiful, I love the Sony Center!
... park: Volkspark Friedrichshain - Friedrichshain. Hands down the best park, ok maybe I am slightly biased since it's right around the corner from where I live and I go there all the time, but it really is great! It's the oldest and second largest park in Berlin, there are two "mountains" built over bunkers (how awsome is that?), heaps of monuments, a Japanese garden and not to forget Märchenbrunnen which is a beautiful fairy tale fountain! It's gorgeous (see image below). However, what I love most about this park is that I can go running there, both on soft wood-chip paths, flat and steep, on paved roads, with lots of space. It's ideal!
... café (this is a tricky one, so I'll divide them into sub-categories) to hang out: Lois - Gormanstr. Mitte. Right next to roomie's work, so we hang out here a lot. They make excellent sojalattes and delicious cheesecakes. Also, some of the magazines are in English, yay to that! Cosy setting.
... café with the best breakfast: Tous les jours - Hufelandstr. Prenzlauer Berg. Their breakfast is insane! The biggest one costs 7 euro (!) and you get all of this;
Unfortunately, Tous les jours isn't the cosiest café in town but their carrotcake-muffins are to die for! So I have to say, they win on sugarinduced-coma knock-out.
... café with the best smoothies: Fruit Bar - Hufelandstr. P B. (Have you noticed that these cafés all are right around the corner to where I live?). Nothing to say really other than the smoothies in this place are fergalicious. The guy who owns this place runs it all by himself and all the smoothies are made from scratch, fresh fruit all around. Love it. Love. It.
... café with the best baristas: Spreegold - Hufelandstr. P B. I had to. www.spreegold.com/new/typo3 check it out for yourselves!
There are plenty of other cafés, of course, but I won't list them all, it'd bore you to bits.
... bar (also many different faves, I'll mention two): CCCP Bar - Torstr. Mitte. Russian bar, awsome setting with slightly shocking decor. Small but funky. Schmittz - Torstr. Mitte. We hang out here a lot for the same reason why we hang out in Lois, it's an excellent after work-bar, unfortunately people smoke a lot but there's a fussball table and table tennis and the beer is 2 euros. And oh, did I mention that I have a huge loser crush on one of the bartenders? H O T!
Now, my memory is failing me a little, perhaps because of too much alcohol consumption, naturally I have been to more bars than these but I won't list all of them either. Let's move on shall we?
... club: White Trash/White Noise - Schönhauser Allee. P B. Awsome DJ when we were there ("her" name was Anita Drink, get it?) who played very random songs, but managed to squeeze in both Living on a prayer and Sweet child o' mine, so I couldn't possibly be other than smitten. The decor was as always very interesting, didn't care much for the live act though, a little pretentious. Kulturbrauerei - Schönhauser Alle. P B. Huge club with many different dancefloors which will tickle what ever fancy. We cruised between the Techno Lounge (with many pretty lights) and the more rock/pop floor, very entertaining. Kaffee Burger - Torstr. Mitte. Cool little club with a lot of alternative people, fun but obscure at times.
So there, now I'm sick of listing things, sun's shining so I'll go out and enjoy it before it gets dark (night falls around 4.30 pm, it's horrible!).
Sprrrrrregold!!
I have a job! And it's a great one. Since one week I am officially working as a barista at Spreegold café, will be working full time there making and selling superdelicious sandwiches, espressi, cappucini and baked goods (had to do some advertising while I'm at it, huh?). The crew's really nice, mostly all German so obviously everything is in German as well, guests, instructions... Luckily, they're all very patient with me and even though I don't comprehend it all, they explain very carefully and repeat if I don't get it. The guests are very cool as well, chatty and friendly and international from time to time. Every now and then I get to shine when there's a party of Norwegians or Frenchies coming in. And there are plenty, believe or not!
Saturday was Halloween (if you guys weren't aware of that) and there was this big jazz/dress up party planned at Spreegold; I had to wear a black wig whilst working, very amusing. Unfortunately, not only did it shield my vision, it also decreased my hearing even more (the band was playing quite loud), so I could hardly hear what any of the guests were saying, add broken and drunk German to that equation and you have an extremely confused Carolina. Managed to work it out though and had a really good time!
So getting this job means I won't have to do any more babysitting in Spandau!! Hoorah! I don't know if I've mentioned it earlier, but that family is crazy, and not in a good way. I could seriously write a whole thesis on everything that has gone wrong with those children, but it's not my problem any longer. It's a tad tragic, but also comes to show to what extent money can ruin a person's standards and norms. As soon as I have gotten my salary from them, I am outta there!
So there, I am making coffees and taking names! Having a blast, can't wait to get my first real paycheck so I can live a little too. Am so over being poor, being poor sucks. It is so 2008.
