Berlin - anyone been?

miss choc

Heading of to Berlin with a few mates next month and looking for some advice kinda did a bit of research on the usual sites. We have 4 days so what would be the best to fit into the 4 days, also wondering about a day trip to Potsdam anyone been? Any advice on public transport, cafe, restaurants bars and where to shop would be great too. We are staying in the Mariott Courtyard hotel.

keenan110

Do this free walking tour when you arrive, it's absolutely brilliant and lets you get to grips with most of the big sites in Berlin!
Visiting the holocaust memorial at night is a good thing to do.
Also check out Treptower park, there is an incredible Soviet war memorial which has to be seen to be believed!

dr.bollocko

http://rogacki.de/ro/roga.htm
It's a big ole german deli with head cheese and liverwurst and all sorts of strange fantastic German fare. Would recommend if you're interested in trying something different.

gerrybbadd

There's a cool shopping centre, the Sony Centre, it's a bit of a landmark in itself. In and around Potsdamer Platz, there's a building with the fastest elevator in Europe. There's a lovely little cafe on top, and the views of Berlin from there are breathtaking.

A lot of people go to the tv tower, but the queues to get to the top are serious (maybe 2 hours or more of a wait)

You could get lost in the Ka De We shopping centre too.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

I'd recomment the Alternative Berlin tours rather than the Newberlin ones (do some reasearch on New Berlin if you're got an ethical side to you!).

Potsdam - nice, but a bit boring. More for the historical/war enthusiasts.

Night life -- the areas around Warschauer Strasse/Simon Dach strasse in Friedrichshein, plenty of variety. Cassiopeia if you like urban music and art. Also Oranienstrasse (eastern end of it moreso) is interesting.

Public transport is quick, easy and efficient and runs all night. Night busses every half an hour durigng the week, ubahn and sbahn every 15 minutes at night throughout the weekend. Price for a ticket is 2.30, irrespective of what time it is and allows you to hop on and off at will for two hours, provided you're not going back to where you started. Day ticket is 6.30, covers you on everything until 3am the next morning.

degausserxo

There's a basediving place in Alexanderplatz if you're into that kinda thing! The usual touristy stuff too, like the Holocaust memorial, Checkpoint Charlie, stuff like that. There's actually a Toni and Guy near Checkpoint Charlie that does haircuts for €19, so if you're looking for a nice one... !

As far as clubs go theyre very casual. I was with a group of six and some of the girls were wearig heels. We ended up lost downtown on our first night so I was elected to go into a shop to ask or directions, and the guy told me to tell them that only eh.. Ladies of the night wear them there! On that note actually, they've a sex museum too. But back on track. We visited some lovely beer gardens around the place, and QDorf nightclub (they have a Facebook page). It was the night before my eighteenth birthday and I was terrified they wouldn't let me in as they were asking for id, but strangely enough they didn't. I felt something strange that I just couldn't put my finger on until ten minutes later I looked at the stamp on my hand - 'Black Attack'! It was a black club night, and we were the only white people there! It was gas craic though, rap battles, cheap drink (70c shots, €1.50 Bacardi and coke, €2 bottles of wine) and very casual dress code. Most places stayed open til six or seven in the morning.

As for food and drink, just load up on currywurst and berlinerweisser - beer with a raspberry sort of syrup in it, sounds rotten but it's lovely. The zoo is great (the main one) and there's a little place near it where you can get a 'china box' (dunno what that's supposed to mean!) that's gorgeous. We usually sat near the public aviary around the corner to munch on them!

Again these places are all along the ubahn, usually Alexanderplatz or potsdamerplatz, it's been three years since I was last there so I can't remember exactly, but around the main parts of the west. Have a great time OP, it's a brilliant city.

Twee.

Bar 25 (http://www.bar25.de/home/) is unreal. Pretty intense night out but you'll never forget it! It was still going strong when we left at 8am. Oh and people were taking a dip in the canal!

Hamburger Bahnhof (http://www.hamburgerbahnhof.de/text.php) is the modern art museum. Great way to spend a morning. Cool grounds and a fantastic collection.

biko

Some previous threads with even more suggestions
http://www.boards.ie/search/?subforums=1&f=547&q=Berlin
http://www.boards.ie/search/?q=Berlin&f=547&subforums=1&page=2
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