finding berlin

If you love to ride bike you should def­in­itely know Fahrtwind Ber­lin. They are an open group of riders and organ­ize great events in and around Ber­lin. Also have a look on there Face­book Page to get the latest news, fun facts and other stuff all around the bicycle biz. Back in the sum­mer we had

I always perceived the stretch of land between Ostbahnhof and Warschauer Straße always as a no-man's-land. The part that is located south of the S-Bahn tracks – mostly because the East Side Gallery is more a tourist spot than a place of daily life – is as alien to me as as the northern part, that is dominated by warehouses, hardware and central markets. If it wasn't for Berghain I might have never noticed the strange isolation of this small inner-city island that was built at the historical site of the former Wriezener Bahnhof and its tracks. Always wondering what might be stored in there, it takes a couple of minutes to pass these depots of innumerable miles of shelving. I still remember this late summer weekend in 2010 quite well, when we left the club at dawn, climbed up to the roof of one of the warehouses and sat there to enjoy the first warm shafts of sunlight. We stayed for quite some time and were not bothered by anyone, let alone the owners or the police, simply because there wasn't a soul in sight.

The New York Times have recently pub­lished an art­icle about Ber­lin describ­ing the exper­i­ences of a tem­por­ary expat in the city. As always, whenever Ber­lin gains inter­na­tional atten­tion, Ber­liners feel some­what flattered. It’s nice that New York­ers might think our city is inter­est­ing enough to pub­lish words on it. But the art­icle in

I think Marcus still hasn't been to the Kreuzberg. Not the district, but the actual hill. He's been living in Berlin for a hundred and two years and we once promised to take him there. Judging by Stefans pictures, it seems like the weather conditions are perfect for a serene view from above. The park is a 12,8 hectar area on the Kreuzberg. The Kreuzberg - translation "cross mountain" - is the highest natural peak of Berlins city center. Yes, the highest. Which means Berlin is as flat as an iron board. The Kreuzberg - the actual Kreuzberg hill - is the pimple in Berlins face. But it's a really nice pimple. The green park and slopes which you can picknick on are very inviting to spend a whole afternoon on top of the city.

I’ll be hon­est: there is lit­er­ally noth­ing attract­ive about Pots­damer Platz and I’ll rarely ever pass by. It’s bor­ing and dis­con­cert­ing, pretty much the typ­ical go-to tour­ist hot spot with a mix of fancy res­taur­ants and posh office build­ings. You can expect some stuff to see, but a col­or­less lack of human inter­ac­tion. The only time

(Jan Herd­licka is a con­stant con­trib­utor to our site. We love his ana­log black and white approach and embrace this quiet but power­ful series he took in the Grune­wald. Read his thoughts about it and like his page!) Although the pho­to­graphs were taken in imme­di­ate near­ness to big cit­ies, they seem­ingly show impalp­able places. The eye seeks

Neon lights shine brine by night. Where Karl Marx Straße lacks in charm and aes­thet­ics by day­light, this street knows how to be flashy as soon as the sun goes down and the neon shop– and head­lights go on. The patch between Rathaus Neuk­ölln and Karl-Marx-Str. U-Bahn sta­tion seems espe­cially mag­netic to pecu­liar situ­ations. The shops,

In case you've missed it: Yesterday's dense fog didn't leave any doubts that autumn has finally arrived. Upon coming home to Kreuzberg I was amazed about the city being densely covered with thick mist – enjoy for yourself how beautiful and eery the Oberbaumbrücke sat enthroned over the Spree yesterday.

The most astonishing places are often the most hidden ones. Isolated from their surrounding, one has to know about these spots, otherwise it's highly unlikely to suddenly stumble over them. That's certainly true for Dong Xuan Center – a place, that I always considered as as exotic as Berlin can be.

Remem­ber the Zoo Palast? The one next to the Bahnhof Zoo? Some of those who’ve been here a while know that this used to be a swell cinema with a story reach­ing back to the 1920s. Although it was des­troyed in WWII, today the facade and the cinema halls on ground & first floor are under monu­ment pro­tec­tion.

Christ­mas is approach­ing and many people have already star­ted look­ing for the per­fect presents to give. Per­son­ally, I’d ser­i­ously love if someone gave ma hand-picked bas­ket full of lux­uri­ous, well-chosen foods and exotic fruits, exclus­ive drinks and extraordin­ary cheese from the deli depart­ment of the KaDeWe. I can’t really deal with all

With some places it’s just a feel­ing. The Bahnhof Zoo has always been an icon for Ber­lin, the former cen­ter of the West. Nowadays I hardly ever get as far as Char­lot­ten­burg, and I try to avoid crowded places and shop­ping des­tin­a­tions (I tend to like my life stress-free. Plenty of tour­ists and the typ­ical pre-Christmas craze are