palast_der_republik<\/a><\/p>\nMost of the amazing East style buildings on the Karl-Marx allee have been stripped of their geometric patterned fronts.
\nThe East Berlin, once so present, is disappearing fast.
\nThe bullet riddled buildings which had been patched up with white plaster after the war, have now been restored to their pre-1945 smoothness, leaving no trace of conflict.
\nDismantling history, erradicating the past… choosing to spare only a few tourist highlights like the check-point Charlie.<\/p>\n
But the grand wide roads of Berlin are still there to be riden…
\n
\nBaron Arnaud, our Berlin host, knows the history of the city inside out….
\n<\/p>\n
Summer is perfect to visit Berlin on a bike, as there are lots of cycle lanes and its really flat!
\n
\nThe parks are great to hang out in, and during summer evenings Berliners get bbquing….Volkspark Friedrichshain has often a cloud of smoke over it, its a really nice park with a beautifully restored East style Caf\u00c3\u00a9.
\nAs you cycle by, catch the smell of sizzling wurst..the parks are sometimes so packed its like being on a festival campsite.
\nIn the park you can find some statues from Grimm’s Fairy Tales.
\n<\/p>\n
Spent time at the castle of Peterburgerstrasse….Arnaud has an amazing record collection…
\n
\nPeterburgers’ kitchen, drawn by Baladi…(february 2005, \u00c3\u00a9ditions Groinge)<\/p>\n
Did some font spotting…
\n<\/p>\n
Drunk lots of Berliner, the East Berlin beer.
\nMet some old-time London college friends now living in Berlin.
\nWe really like to have a beer is the Prater biergarten, on the Kastanienallee (Prenzlauer Berg). You sit outside on benches, and can try loads of special beers and enjoy a bretzel with zempf (mustard).
\n<\/p>\n
Another favourite spot is The Wild at Heart, on Wienerstrasse (Kreuzberg). Its a rockabilly bar with a great interior, and a concert hall, there are live concerts nearly every evening. You can eat here too.
\n
\nIf you continue down the road, practically opposite, is the Kreuzberg swimming pool, its a great pool with an outside area to sun bathe.
\n
\nPostcard of Atka depicting her summer swims in various Berlin pools…
\n
\nMonday nights are bat-cave nights in Berlin…the Duncker, one of our favourite clubs…old school goth! Full-on dressing and very nice cocktail bar.
\nDunckerstrasse (Prenzlauer Berg)…….2,50\u00e2\u201a\u00ac entrance.<\/p>\n
Shopping……
\nFavourite record shops:
\n-Hard Wax: Paul-Lincke-Ufer, 44A (back building, 4th floor) (Kreuzberg) electro-techno-reggae, its the DJ hang-out, this time Riccardo Villalobos was in the store buying loads of records.
\n-Saturn: Alexanderplatz (Mitte) huge store with hi-fi, computer and music stuff. Good music section with sales and promotions.
\n-Dense: oderberger stra\u00c3\u0178e 34 (prenzlauerberg) – U2 eberswalder str: electronic-xp-noise
\n-Come-back: Hasenheide 18, near Hermannplatz (Kreuzberg) vintage<\/p>\n
July Vinyl Findings!!!
\ncheap Saturn buys:
\n– Johnny Cash and June carter: duets…..a bit too smooth
\n– Johnny Cash at Folsom prison….grand!
\n– Club hits vol 11 (Zillo)….electro-goth
\n– awake the machines vol 5….electro-goth
\nHard wax:
\n– DJ Assault: Everybody fuck ep……….fan
\n– DJ Assault: The take it in the face ep………….fantastic
\n– DJ Funk: ghetto house anthems 001…..dancefloor
\n– DJ Funk: ghetto house anthems 002…..bootlegs
\n– Luciano: Yamor\u00c3\u00a9 rx…..niceness
\n– Beltram: vol1…….old times classic
\n– Luciano-N-Luciano………
\n– Human Resource: Dominator…….old times classic
\n– Monolake: Alaska meeting………yes!
\nCould have bought loads more……..but $$$$$$$$$ \ud83d\ude41
\nDense:
\n– Die Welttraumforscher: ohm olunde……..beautiful stories with Swiss German accent…..lush
\nHere and there some classics:
\n– Nirvana: Nevermind \ud83d\ude42
\n– Beatlles: St Peppers lonely hearts club band……
\n– Dead Kennedys: Greatest Hits
\n– Soft Cell: Non stop erotic cabaret
\n– Pink Floyd: Relics
\n– The Cramps off the bone…<\/p>\n
But trully, the nurse total tune of the month is Junior Boys’ “In the morning”, on domino records….it’s a breath refresher track, soooo slimy! soooooooooooo wet!
\njuniorboys<\/a><\/p>\nFoooooooooooood
\nFr\u00c3\u00bcst\u00c3\u00bcck (brunch):
\nFollow the road on from Come-back, 100m to the right: Wirtshaus, here you can have as much as you can eat Fr\u00c3\u00bcst\u00c3\u00bcck for 2,90\u00e2\u201a\u00ac.
\n(9.00 till 14.00 sharp!)
\n
\nAnother nice, but more xpensive Fr\u00c3\u00bcst\u00c3\u00bcck, is along the Spree, down by Hard Wax record shop.
\nD\u00c3\u00b6ner:
\nBerlin is one of the best places to eat D\u00c3\u00b6ners, its the most eaten food in the city along with wurst!
\nA fantastic address is Babel on Kastanienallee. Its Libanese and they make the moste delicious vegetarian versions: homemade falaffel and halumi cheese.
\n
\nOn Oranienstrasse, 179 (Kreuzberg) the wicked deli Knofi serves Armenian specialities (vegi friendly),it has a wooden front with benches outside (left side as you walk down street from tube).<\/p>\n
Fashion:
\nNot very keyed up on this topic, but there loats of small designer shops around.
\nThe Alte Sch\u00c3\u00b6nhauser strasse and around Mitte are good for more bigger brands.
\nHumana: 2nd hand shops: a huge one in beautiful eastern building with amazing ceiling lighting: Frankfurter Tor (Friedrichshain) and under the railway on Alexander platz.
\n
\nTrash: army surplus 59, Torstrasse – Mitte<\/p>\n
Books:
\n– Pro QM: Almstadtstra\u00c3\u0178e 48 (Mitte)
\nArt, Architecture, Design….very good bookshop!<\/p>\n
Fabulous Flea-markets:
\nMauer park (Prenzlauer Berg): sundays 10.00 – 17.00
\nBoxhagener platz (Friedrichshain): sundays 10.00 – 17.00<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/champagne.constantvzw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/champagne.constantvzw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/champagne.constantvzw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/champagne.constantvzw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/champagne.constantvzw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/champagne.constantvzw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6318,"href":"https:\/\/champagne.constantvzw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39\/revisions\/6318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/champagne.constantvzw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/champagne.constantvzw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/champagne.constantvzw.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}