Berlin Insider

An Exhibition in the Dark

2011-12-14T11:33:00.000-08:00

Okay, so it is not in Berlin, but it looked interesting enough that I thought I'd post a note on it. An exhibition that takes place entirely in the dark has been going for more than 10 years now. The exhibition,"Dialog in the Dark"takes place in pitch darkness. Guides (who are blind) lead you around and expose you to various sensations. The idea is that you with your eyesight cut off, you experience everything else a lot more intensely.
The organisers say this about the experience:

The sudden withdrawal of eyesight challenges everybody. While participants stay for a short while in pitch darkness, they are emotionally immersed and confronted with own limits. Blind people are the “sighted” ones in this environment and can demonstrate their capabilities better than their sighted colleagues. This reversal of roles guarantee reflection, the discovery of the unseen and the need of communication and cohesion The experience provides an innovative and powerful tool to understand one’s limits and respect the other, reinforcing a collaborative mindset and emotional intelligence.

In Berlin you can experience something similar if you go to the Unsichtbar in Berlin, where you eat in total darkness.
The dialogue exhibition takes about 90 minutes as you are led through six different experiences. You also have the option of eating dinner in the dark.

Berlin Bike Thieves Come Out

2011-11-05T00:11:00.000-07:00

There's just been an ~~entertaining~~ infuriating article in Exberliner about the life of an expat bike thief. Now if you've ever had a bike stolen and know that sickening feeling of staring at the empty spot where you know you locked your bike, you'll have to read this.
Unfortunately it does little to assuage any liberal or empathic feelings you may once have felt about people being forced into a life of crime by poverty. Basically this guy is a complete wanker.

Except at the very start, I never did it because I needed the money. It’s pocket money: it’s beer, weed, get-hoes money. That’s what it is! Plus, you can’t really do it big in the selling-bikes business.

Needless to say it has sparked a huge controversy about whether he should have been given a voice etc. Also a fair number of readers wrote in to vent their fury - which seems reasonable enough. Except that this bloke has felt the need to write back in the comments to defend his reputation:

our bike got stolen boo hoo bitch buy a car or get a better job or i dont know do whatever to make sure you dont need a fucking bike...buy a real fucking lock for your bike.. stop being cheap pussies hiding behind your keyboards and imagining yourself putting your bitch-made hands on me. you wouldnt put a hand on the police. ive been beaten up by police in the police station in berlin for just trying to get help way before i needed to steal a bike...so fuck anybody who has an idea about anything...your ignorant.. your pussy cats on the street. you wouldnt save a fly from a fog... im happy i could make you stupid fucks feel better about yourselves.

So there we have it. If we have bikes that we don't want stolen we're bourgeois pussies. Mmm.

A new form of Yoga - or anti-yuppie Berlin sentiment

2011-07-13T09:46:00.000-07:00

I just spotted this on my way to work. I guess that there isn't a new form of yoga called fuck yoga is there (an offhshoot of hatha yoga perhaps, or even Asthanga). So is this just another example of anti-yuppie Berlinners looking for attention?
Any suggestions welcomed.

Why Are Supermarkets in Berlin so Bad?

2011-04-22T00:29:00.000-07:00

There is much to love about Berlin so don't get me wrong. But there is something about the supermarkets that just does not do it for me. Their fresh fruit and vegetables are often rotten!

The organic vegetables look great from far

Let me give you a few examples. I would say that at least 3/4 of the time when I have bought a little pack of organic apples from the Kaisers store downstairs from my office, one of the apples was bad. Now you might just say, buy loose apples. I do that now, but they aren't organic.
The same is also true of bags of salad. A few times I have bought a bag of rocket salad, checked the date on it and when I opened it for lunch found that it smelled bad.
Now the mainstream supermarkets are quite cheap but I would at least expect that the food would still be good.

Even if you go to a great organic store, you have to check carefully for everything that you buy. And there is no excuse that it is cheap because one pays quite a bit for nice organic food. Check out the photos below and you will see what I mean. A selection of vegetables looks beautiful and fresh from a distance, but the moment you look a bit more closely you see that not all of it is fresh. It just seems to me that no-one bothers checking the shelves to remove the rotten produce.

Still Beautiful

Look closely and they aren't as nice

What do you think about why Berlin grocery stores are so bad?

Tokyo Earthquake - Photos of life amid the aftershocks

2011-03-10T23:39:00.000-08:00

A quick dispatch from Tokyo that has nothing to do with Berlin. I'm here on work and just happened experience an earthquake that is apparently of magnitude 8.8. I was working in my hotel when it struck. I saw the bed start shaking and got myself under a desk (though on the fifth floor of a hotel it was probably pretty pointless - but what else does one do?)

I felt the earth shake for a long 30 seconds or more, heard the water sloshing in the toilet and felt the desk hopping above me. As soon as I could, I got out into the open air - and was not the only one. The following photos are all shots of ordinary people out in the streets after the quake and during the aftershocks.

From Zurich to Berlin by Night Train

2010-06-21T05:21:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago the great ash cloud over Europe forced me to quite radically change some of my travel plans – fortunately for the better. I was in Zurich for a couple of days for business. As it happened I had caught one of the last flights into Zurich Airport before the airspace was shut down. I wasn’t too concerned since it seemed that there are many far less pleasant cities to stay in. And I discovered the lovely Hotel Adler. But after a pleasant few days with my Air Berlin not able to give me any idea when flights would resume I decided that if I waited for a plane I might end up waiting for weeks. I looked into hiring a car but they were already all booked out so I thought I’d try the train.
Now there are plenty of fast train services between Zurich and Berlin that take about half a day and I’m sure would be really pleasant. But I decided that for a change I would try the night train (or City Nightline, as it is called by Deutsche Bahn, the German railway company). We got onto the train at about 7 pm or so and because we were travelling as a family with our two kids were given a 6 sleeper coach for the four of us. This was economy class so there were no frills. I looked at the first class sleeper coaches and they looked really great.
But I had no complaints about our coach. The beds were neatly made, it was spotlessly clean and the members of staff were friendly. After a quick supper in the dining car we tucked the boys into bed and they passed out. Our 3-year-old was in a state of absolute rapture as he loves trains and this was, for him, the most exciting way to travel. I’m sure most kids would love the night train. The movement rocked them both to sleep pretty quickly and my wife and I also had great sleeps.
It was also an incredibly beautiful trip as we travelled first to Basel along the river and through the mountains before crossing over into Germany and going on our way. The train travels relatively slowly and also pulls into a siding for a little while to give you more time to sleep. That way they time your arrival so that you get in at about 7 a.m. in the morning. After doing the trip once I’m determined to do it again. For business journeys between Berlin and places such as Munich, Zurich or even Paris it seems for more sensible to get onto a night train, have a good nights sleep and arrive refreshed rather than get up at 4:30 or 5 in the morning to catch the first flight.
The trip was marred by one unfortunate incident. A winter coat was stolen from our compartment while we were out for supper. Unfortunately it is impossible to lock them from the outside (first class may be different) and although our bags were locked we didn’t think a coat would be nicked.
The second lesson was that if you want a table in the dining car you should book in advance. We were lucky to get one as some people didn’t arrive. But apart from that we would have been in real trouble as all the tables were reserved.
Apart from those grumbles, it is hard to think of a more civilized way to travel than by old style train.

Revolutionary Tourism in Berlin: Die Yuppie Scum

2010-05-03T06:33:00.000-07:00

This is great. I've just come across a bunch of people doing a revolutionary tour of Berlin's famous May Day rally sites. Every year anti capitalists from across Germany gather to do battle with the police and the few neo-nazis who dare to show their faces in one of Berlin's working class districts. What once started as a genuine expression of outrage has now become something of a day out for revolutionaries. This is not shaking the heart of capitalist power but ends up burning a few cars in a working class neighbourhood.
Now, to add to the air of unreality, are the walking tours. It feels kinda circular. Revolutionary tourists travelling from rich parts of the old West Germany to burn barricades in Berlin with more normal sorts of tourists coming to watch. The mere fact that there are now people making a living giving these tours has also outraged the left, who complain that even their protests have been comodified. ouch

The Hotel Adler in Zurich

2010-04-28T09:56:00.000-07:00

This is a bit off the beaten track from Berlin, but I happened to be in Zurich for a couple of days and experienced one of the city’s nicest hotels. As it happens I never planned to be at the Hotel Adler but after a rather unfortunate night at the charming but smoky and noisy Otter Hotel quickly decamped. The Adler is slap bang in the old part of town in Zurich. Its just a couple of minutes walk from the main train station, about 15 minutes walk from the lake and it is surrounded by quaint little shops and restaurants.

The hotel itself was one of the friendliest and nicest I’ve been in for a long while. It was just big enough to be professional but still small enough that it felt family run with attentive and helpful reception staff who went out of their way to make my stay pleasant.

The rooms were nicely furnished and spotlessly clean and spacious enough to stretch out in or to set up the computer for work. If in Zurich in business you can get access to the Internet through a Wifi connection. My only gripe though, is that it is a third-party provider that charges a rip-off price of about 30 CHF for 24 hours. I don’t see why hotels don’t just stick in a couple of wireless routers and make free Internet access a perk of the hotel. So many do these days that when travelling on business I often choose the hotel purely on that basis because paying an inflated rate for something that is free down the road at the McDonalds just irks me.

Right out the front of the hotel is lovely little square that really gives a feeling for Zurich’s old town. And out the back is another square, this one semi-enclosed and leading down to the river. On the Saturday that I was there, the square filled up with hippies selling everything from scarves and jewellery to massage balls and incense. It was a great and festive feeling. I sat outside drinking a beer and drinking in the atmosphere as the market people played on guitars and packed up for the evening.

Downstairs in the front of the restaurant is the Restaurant Swiss Churchi. The smell of melted cheese from all the fondues going on was a bit overpowering, and truth be told it seeped all the way up to the second floor of the hotel, but the food was great. I had a fantastic salmon risotto one evening and an excellent pasta dish another.

There is also no shortage of things to do in Zurich. The shopping is fantastic, although every third shop seems to sell camping gear and hiking boots (the Swiss do love their mountains) and, needless to say, it was impossible to miss the touristy shops selling Swiss Army Knives.

The main museum has a great section on Swiss history with a fascinating display on immigration and ethnicity that takes a poke at the fact that in the 1930s even the Swiss became obsessed by the racialism of the period and tried to determine (by measuring the skulls of army recruits) whether they classified as a race of unique alpine people.

Album launch of Eric Eckhart's "This is where it starts"

2010-03-13T09:32:00.000-08:00

Last night we went to the launch of a new album by our friend Eric Eckhart and I was really impressed. I always knew he was talented but it was amazing seeing his stuff. Over the years I've lived with and known loads of musicians so know all about the heartaches and tribulations of trying to make a career in music. It has to be one of the toughest games out there. But I also came away thinking that Eric has a real chance as he has awesome talent. He's also the nicest guy so I really hope the album does well

It was also great seeing some of out other friends playing alongside him. What a night and also what a great little venue that we'd not been to. Cafe Hilde is a cafe/bar owned by an Irish guy that is close to but off the main drag in Prenzlauer Berg. It has a really nice vibe and also had a great selection of current English newspapers and magazines so I can easily see myself spending lazy mornings having coffee there.
Enough about that. Here's some of Eric's music:

Finding Cheap Flights to Berlin With Low Cost Airlines

2010-01-30T08:12:00.000-08:00

Getting to Berlin is really not as expensive as you might think because it is well served by a network of discount airlines offering a whole range of cheap flight. Your starting point will be to look for cheap airline flights coming into Schoenefeld Airport. This airport has worked hard over the past couple of years to attract carriers such as Easy Jet and Ryanair. Easy Jet uses this as a major hub so has flights coming to Berlin from all over. The best connections are to London with a couple of flights a day going each way between Schoenefeld and Gatwick, Luton and Stansted. A rough guide is that each of these airports has two to three flights a day to Berlin with an early morning slot that gets you into Berlin central by about 11:30 a.m. and the last flight gets in at about 10:30 p.m. That leaves quite a few options.
Ryanair has a smaller presence with fewer flights but they still have a couple from London to Berlin each day. If you book well enough in advance and don't travel just before or after the weekend you can find flights for about €20 each way including taxes. If you are really smart and watch out for regular special offers you can drop that by half.
British Airways also has a great schedule between Heathrow and Tegel, but these flights costs quite a bit more. Lufthansa also flies between London City Airport and Tegel. If you can afford the airfare you can't have a more convenient flight as both airports are pretty small so you breeze through security without a backward glance. If you are travelling from further afield it still pays to look around for deals offering cheap air travel. A cousin recently came out from Dallas, Texas and found a great deal that included her hotels and all by browsing the various travel sites.

Snow Sleds Ahoy: Our Davos has Arrived

2010-01-18T03:09:00.000-08:00

The snow sled we ordered a couple of weeks ago has finally arrived and this past weekend we had great fun heading out. At this time of year the whole of Berlin is full of skids being pulled about by their parents on sleds. Even really little kids are being taken to school this way. And most parks have to set aside dedicated sledding areas for the kids to go charging down the hill on.
The sled we bought was a classic wooden one called a Davos (like the one pictured to the right). It seems sturdy and simple and was half the price of some fancier models. Okay so it isn't a folding sled, but I can live without that. It also seems really long-lived. I mentioned in a previous post that our friend still has her childhood one (33 years old) and it is in great shape and is now used by her kids.
So far I've just taken our three-year-old out on the sled for his first proper experience on it. A couple of days ago we went out with friends and their small kids and the women pulled out her childhood sled - but our little guy was a bit frightened. He hopped about demanding to be on the sled, but then when we put him on it he would shriek.
Anyhow, having the sled in the house for a day gave him a chance to get used to the idea of sitting and lying on it. He spend all evening trying out different positions and nagging to be taken out. So yesterday I had the baby in a buggy in front of me and the little fellow in a sled behind and he had the time of his life.
Today I piled him back onto the sled and took him to school on it. He loved it. It was the quickest exit from the house I've seen yet. But unfortunately despite some snow overnight the Berlin city was on the ball and had gritters out early this morning. Most of the sidewalks had already been cleared so we had a bit of a tough ride. He loved it, but I was feeling the strain of having to pull him bump by bump over the cobblestones. I'm praying for a bit more snow and another nice cold snap this week. The weather is promising just that but who knows. The heavy snow this winter was, I'm told, unusual for Berlin, so I'm hoping I won't have to put the snow sled into storage so soon after its late arrival.

Winter weather and dreaming of a sunny summer holiday

2010-01-15T02:08:00.000-08:00

Berlin is still absolutely covered in snow and it remains a gorgeous wonderland of white. Almost everywhere one sees kids being taken to school on little sleds in the mornings and in the afternoons every little hill has a snake of small children climbing up and zooming down, the air resounding with their calls of "Pass auf! (look out)" as the little daredevils race along.
Unfortunately all the stores sold out of sleds on the first day of heavy snow. I'd seen a couple and foolishly delayed buying one right away before the snow. Since then I've tried about 10 places. Even Amazon.de had sold out. We found another company that promised to dispatch one right away and two weeks later we're still waiting and promising our 3-year-old little boy that it will come any day. Let's hope so. It is a traditional wood sled known here as a Classic Davos and I'm sure the kids will love it. I think they also last as we took the kids sledding with some friends a few days ago and our friend brought along her childhood sled that is 33-years-old and still giving great use to her two little boys.

Still, with the snow thick on the ground, it is hard not to let one's thoughts turn to warmer climates and start planning for the summer. Since we're going a bit native I wonder whether to take the plunge and holiday where the Germans holiday. Spain and the Canary Islands are among the most popular destinations for German tourists in the summer. We love Spain but we've never been to the Canary Islands. Some of my German friends and work colleagues are already busy planning Lanzarote holidays, something they do just about every year. They tell me they love it as the people are relaxed, the food is great and the sun and swimming are just fantastic. The flights from here are pretty cheap too Air Berlin has a regular schedule and other airlines such as Iberia do too. You can also construct a route using discount airlines such as Easyjet if you are prepared to fly via Madrid (a great place to visit anyway) or London.
Just thinking of seafood there is getting me hungry.

Brachiosaurus brancai at the Museum for Natural History in Berlin

2010-01-11T02:51:00.001-08:00

Brachiosaurus brancai, originally uploaded by Markus BrasiL.

Here's a shot to give you an idea of the size of the main hall at the natural history museum in Berlin. This doesn't quite do it justice but I think that nothing short of being in the room would.

A visit to the Berlin Natural History museum (Museum fur Naturkunde Berlin)

2010-01-11T02:48:00.000-08:00

This weekend I became an honorary member of my wife's mom and baby club and joined her girlfriends and their babies at the Natural History Museum in Berlin with my two boys. It was a great outing, though a word of warning is needed. The building is a really old-style museum with loads of steps up front. Fortunately we were in a small group so could help one another get the buggies up the steps, but if you are visiting with small children and don't have another adult to help you will find the going difficult.

The place is pretty awesome, mainly because as you enter you come into a room with the world's largest mounted dinosaur skeleton, a complete Brachiosaurus brancai. No matter how many times you've seen pictures and the like there is something really intimidating about being right next to a full sized reptile that stands 40 feet high, even if it has been dead for a couple of million years. The bones in its toes are bigger than your hand, and you don't even want to look at its mouth.

There are a couple of other really amazing bits to the museum. It has a huge collection of stuffed animals. This would normally make me a bit squeamish but it is wild to see them up so close. Do you know, for instance, just how long the hairs on the ears of a hippopotamus are?
It also has a mini planetarium where you lie down in the centre of a room and look up at a display on the ceiling.

For a wild take on the museum check out the YouTube post below by two crazy chicks. And the MSN video has an interesting spot on the restoration of the skeleton. You have to watch an annoying add first though.

http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/berlin-s-brachiosaurus/60ptkwd?from=sharepermalink
Check out this great MSN Video: Berlin's brachiosaurus

Privacy policy

2010-01-08T14:39:00.001-08:00

I have recently installed Google analytics to track traffic on this page. Although I don't get any personal information about you I do get information that is useful to running the site such as the search words used to find it and how people navigate through the site. None of this is tied to a particular person or IP address in the reports I receive from Google.
The following is what Google has to say about the information that they collect.
“This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses “cookies”, which are text files placed on your computer, to help the website analyze how users use the site. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google's behalf. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser, however please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website. By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner and for the purposes set out above.”

The Bird - The Best Steaks in Berlin?

2009-12-30T14:13:00.000-08:00

I just had supper at The Bird Restaurant in Prenzlauer Berg. I've been there a couple of times before and had some excellent burgers, since its burgers are what it is famous for. The house burger (two patties and enough grease to oil a hippo) is to kill for, though you waddle out. And last night I had the Gonzales, a fantastic combination of burger with guacamole and salsa. Mm, just thinking about it makes my mouth water.
Their fries are excellent too. The are made from real potatoes, which are still in their skins to prove that they came out of the ground and not some reconstituted potato mush that one usually gets when eating out. All washed down with a couple of tankards of good, cold lager.
Anyhow, I'm digressing far too much as the point of this post is to say that one shouldn't just eat at The Bird for its burgers. I've been struggling to find really good steak in Berlin. Even buying good meat to throw on the grill has proved difficult (my latest is to get good French cuts at Galeries Lafayette in Mitte and haven't been disappointed). But good steak has really been a challenge.
Luckily I was there with some real steak lovers. And the meat lived up to the expectations. One of my companies, an American told me "I come from Texas and have been to Montana (where you drive past your steak in the fields on the way into town) and this was the best steak I've ever had in my life."
Would I go so far. Not having had the damned steak, and only getting tastes off each plate, I would certainly rate the steaks great to fantastic. The meat was beautifully tender and done really rare. It had full taste, good fat texture and just the right combination of searing on the outside and raw, red meat in the center.
All the cuts I tasted were good. The only trouble is that you need to take out a mortgage before eating there. Some of the steaks set us back something north of €30. So far I can confidently say that the Bird offers the best steaks in Berlin, but the best in my life, mmm, I'm not so sure.

TXL airport bus Berlin - asleep at the wheel

2009-12-28T06:33:00.000-08:00

I snapped a picture of this bus, the TXL airport express a couple of days ago hoping to provide visitors with a useful visual clue as to what to look for if trying to get toTegel airport from the center of Berlin (or the other way round). It was only after I snapped the pic on my phone (which expplains the poor quality) that I realised the driver was asleep. He couldn't have been too far gone as he asked me if I got a good shot when I got onto the bus though I had a wriggling toddler with me and didn't quite hear what he said so only processed his comment after I got to my seat. This is the starting point for the bus just outside the Galeria Kaufhof on Alexanderplatz.
The bus takes about 45 minutes or so from here to the airport and really is the best cheap way to get to Tegel. It only costs €2,10 per person. A taxi ride would be quicker but cost about 10 times as much.

Berlin guide books: What do I use

2009-12-28T06:24:00.000-08:00

Although I've been in Berlin for more than a year now, I still regularly turn to guidebooks. Here is a brief rundown on some of the ones I use most often. (Full disclosure - If you click on the Amazon links to buy them I will get a small commission).

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The guide book I use most often is TimeOut Berlin. This is aimed at a younger to thirty-something crowd so has a decent section on going out at night, lists the main bars and clubs and also has some pretty good restaurant listings. I've generally found that the TimeOut guides seldom go wrong when recommending restaurants and hotels though they often miss out some of the cheaper or newer options. I also found it is a bit weak on showing you how to get around on public transport. The map showing trains and subways is way too small to be useful. In fact the general map is also a bit clumsy to use and I don't like the way everything is divided by area, so to find a sushi restaurant you end up trawling through half the book. The flip side is that some guide books (Lonely Planet, for instance) list everything by category but you may struggle to find something nearby unless you already know the city.

A Hedonist's Guide to Berlin is fantastic if you have a big budget, or just like to dream. This is a long shot from being a shoestring guide. But if you are looking for a special treat then this book will have it.

I've always been a rough guides fan. The guide books are always clear and easy to use, have a good section on history and the story behind many of the sights. The Rough Guide to Berlin is no exception and provides a solid overview of the city, its sights and restaurants. It also seems a bit better at listing budget accommodation than the other two books. You can't go wrong with this one, but might have a slightly less exciting time if it was all you relied on.

There are plenty of other Berlin city guides out there but I've only written about the main ones that I've used so take the time to also browse in your book store for a guide book that works for you.

Free things to do in Berlin: Bearpit karaoke

2009-12-16T14:26:00.000-08:00

Berlin is a great city to visit because it has hundreds of sights and free things to do that can keep you entertain for hours. Now karaoke may sound completely cheesy. In fact, when friends first told me about this crazy Irish guy who had set up with a bicycle and was doing karaoke on the side of a big market in part of what was once East Berlin, I ran a mile. I'm sorry to say this but I've never been a fan of talentless drunks taking to the microphone.

As it happens a couple of months later I wandered down to to the flea market at Mauerpark Berlin, which takes its name from the old Berlin wall and death strip that ran across the ground it now occupies. It was late afternoon on a cold fall's day and I looked up to see literally thousands of people sitting on concrete steps in this big amphitheater with karaoke happening down below. It really is crazy. This Irish guy really is set up with a bicycle (check out some of the you tube video below) and invites people up. Now what makes this really stand out is that there was a lot of talent in the bear pit that day. Berlin is filled with musicians and other artistic types struggling to make a go of leading creative lives. So more than a few of those who came up were practiced if not professional performers. There was real improvisation going on, not just people blindly following a bouncing ball lighting up words on a screen. This is a great free thing to do, but even if I had to pay I would have got my money's worth.
The other thing that made this stand out was the crowd. There were easily 2000 people, all enjoying themselves, clapping, cheering and encouraging the performers. Plenty of drink was going around (as well as a few less than legal substances) but everyone was well behaved with great spirit. Most were locals although a fair number of tourists and other visitors were also about. Local market stalls are also in on the act. Some were selling gluhwein, others had sparkles and lights which came out as the sun went down. It happens every Sunday afternoon at Mauerpark, which you can get to easily from the Nordhahnhof station.

I'm tempted to say this is Berlin's best kept secret but it is not much of a secret these days. It is certainly becoming one of Berlin's best attractions and is high on the list great free things to do.

Renting cheap apartments in Berlin

2009-12-13T22:22:00.000-08:00

If you're thinking of visiting Berlin, be it for a few days or a few months, you'll be looking for a budget hotel or accommodation. I've written a long article on another forum with tips for how to do that.
If you are just looking for a quick summary the main points here they are:

Your cheapest bet is to find a furnished apartment privately. There are lots of these about with listings in the local papers or in online lists. This saves you paying an agent's commission. Choosing your area wisely will also influence the price a lot. Gentrified neighborhoods such as Prenzlauer Berg will be more than those that are still up and coming, such as Kreuzberg. The cheapest will be those parts of town that have only recently attracted the arty crowd such as Neukoelln. This will still be relatively cheap but filled with interesting bars and cafes.
The next best bet money-wise, but which is much less hassle, is to use one of the many agents that are out there to help you find a cheap furnished apartment. This is especially easy if you are only planning to come for a few weeks as you can book online and the better agents have great web sites with photographs. The choice here is usually pretty good, just be sure to book early for the peak summer months.
Another step up is to use a business boarding house. These have hotel-style receptions, wireless internet and take credit cards. They are great for short trips and can be quite economical if you are coming as a family or with a group of friends as many will comfortably sleep 4-6 people. All of the above will have kitchens, which give one the choice to make the trip self-catering. In truth that isn't too important as Berlin has loads of restaurants and cafes that are offer good value meals. My favorite is Flowers Boarding House in Mitte
Berlin is also full of cheap discount hotels. Some are little more than youth hostels with private rooms and bathrooms. They offer pretty good deals and also have all the usual facilities of hotels such as bars, breakfast and wireless internet so you can stay in touch with home.
If you have a bit more to spend on accommodation but still don't want to pay full fare for hotels, call around as the top hotels in town often have weekend specials when the business-travelers are all back at home. You can usually get a pretty good discount just by asking.

I hope this provides a good starting point to finding a cheap apartment in Berlin, and if you want more detailed information please look at my main article.

FraRosa restaurant Prenzlauer Berg : where you pay what you t think its worth

2009-12-11T14:04:00.000-08:00

Only in a country so orderly that people obediently wait for traffic lights to turn green, even when there is no traffic, could a restaurant like FraRosa work. It is based entirely on trust. You pay €2 into a pig to get a wine glass that you fill as often as you like from bottles of more than decent plonk on the bar, and then eat a four course meal from a set menu. At the end of it all you pay what you think the meal is worth.
It is great fun and I go there often. The food is excellent, even if the menu is limited. The wine is always an experience. Half the fun is choosing and tasting. The crowd is great and people-watching is always lively. The neighborhood, Prenzlauer Berg in the old East Berlin, is full of bars and cafes so there is not shortage of places to go for a pre or post-meal drink. And the decor in FraRosa is also a laugh, mostly murals painted with women popping out of their tops. Their is at least one nipple to be seen on every wall. On my last visit they'd put up a web-cam to the kitchen so you could see the chefs at work.
If this sounds like one of my best restaurants in Berlin, that's because it is.
You can find it at Zionskirchstr. 40 - just be sure to reserve a table.