Things You Should Do In Berlin

I must admit we went to Berlin unprepared. Other than the Berlin Wall, we had no idea what the highlights were or how we were going to fill our days when we weren't at the trade shows. Luckily my brother had brought me the Eyewitness Travel Top 10 Berlin travel guide, which definitely came in handy!

If you're going to Berlin, or thinking of planning a trip there, and are unsure about where to go, I've compiled a list of places that are worth visiting.

1. East Side Gallery
The East Side Gallery is part of the remaining Berlin Wall and the longest open air gallery in the world. It's 1.3 kilometres of art and history, with each painting representing something different and personal to both the artist and Berlin. Whether you're into art or history or both or neither it's definitely a must-see.

https://www.visitberlin.de/en/east-side-gallery

2. Flea Market 
There is an amazing flea market in Mauerpark near the Mitte area of Berlin, which looks small from the outside, but stretches way back through parkland and has such a variety of stalls. It's open every Sunday from 9am till 6pm making it a nice easy Sunday browse.

https://www.berlin.de/en/shopping/markets-and-flea-markets/1998222-2983302-flea-market-at-mauerpark.en.html

3. Bikini Berlin
Bikini Berlin is a shopping mall located near the Zoologischer Garten station. It's more high quality fashion that high street but it's very urban and the visual merchandising is very modern so even if you don't plan on buying anything it's worth a walk around. There is a rooftop too, which was pretty in the evening when as the sun was going down and has some good views of the zoo, but this is definitely more of a summer attraction!

https://www.bikiniberlin.de/en/

4. Alexanderplatz
If you're looking for a day of shopping and eating, Alexanderplatz is the place to go! It's known for being Germany's largest square and hosts a variety of shops, restaurants and attractions such as the TV tower. Within the area is a big shopping mall, Alexa, with a range of shops and cafes, then outside in the main square you can find a large Primark and a large TKMaxx, as well as a department store called Galeria Kaufhof.

Around the corner is Hackesher Markt which is a square full of restaurants, boasting some good happy hour deals and pizza's bigger than you can manage.

5. Jewish Memorial, Brandenburg Gate and Reichstag
These three are in a line with each other so it's worth doing them all together. Even if you're not into history that much it's worth taking a visit in to the Jewish Memorial to see the both the memorial and the museum underneath. You'll read stories of the Jews who were caught up in the Second World War and you cannot imagine what they must have felt.

Once you've visited the memorial take a walk to the Brandenburg Gate, which is amongst all of the embassy buildings, and then walk over to the Reichstag building, which was the former parliament building. You can register in advance to go up to the dome at the top of the building, where there are 360 views of the city. Make sure you pick up a leaflet on your way up, which tells you which building  is which down below.

https://www.bundestag.de/en/visittheBundestag/dome/registration/245686

6. Mall of Berlin
Another amazing shopping mall is the Mall of Berlin, which is a fifteen minute walk from the Brandenburg Gate. It has two sides - the East Mall and the West Mall. Although, if you haven't got much money this may be somewhere you want to miss because it's very hard not to find to buy something here! However, the slide from the top floor to the ground floor in the East side is worth a look.

7. Helmut Newton Foundation
This is more for those who are interested in photography or art in general. It's €10 or €5 for concessions, and in here you will find Helmut Newton's private collection, as well as a mock up of his office. There is currently an exhibition on Guy Bourdin and in June 2018 they will be opening an exhibition on Carla Sozzani's photographs.

http://www.helmut-newton.com

Berlin On A Budget

I'm hopeless at saving money. It's one of the things that I'm trying to be better at this year. Last year I went to New York with $300, which was never going to be enough, and this year I went to Berlin with €160.

Before I went to Berlin I'd heard that it was quite an expensive city and it was safe to say that I was worrying about it. Spoiler alert: I came back with €30, which is pretty good considering we were there for seven days; so I've come up with a few tips on how to do Berlin on a budget.

1. Stay at a hostel 
What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the word hostel? Probably squeaky metal bunk beds with a grubby shared bathroom right? This is the second time I've stayed in a hostel with FCP and both of them have far exceeded my expectations.

We stayed in the Meininger East Side Gallery hotel and I couldn't recommend it more. It's a new build so it was modern and clean; the beds were super comfy, we got our own bathroom, and the breakfast was good too!

Not only are hostels a lot cheaper than a hotel, but they usually have kitchens for guests to use so we saved a lot of money on dinners like pasta and vegetable curry by just shopping at Aldi or Lidl. This leads me on to my second point...


2. Eat cheap 
There is no need to eat at five star restaurants every day, and admittedly it does get boring after a while. For lunch we just had small things like sandwiches or a slice of pizza from a the cafes in the train stations. We ate out a couple of times before dinner, but as I said before we did half of the dinners ourselves. There's also a lot of the common franchises in Germany like McDonalds and Subway, which aren't very cultured but it saves a load of money.

3. Have your money physically rather than paying on your card
Having the physical cash to see makes it easier to not spend much because you can see it going down.

I took my money in an envelope which I hid in one of my pockets in my handbag and then put €30 in my purse each day as my budget. If you don't feel comfortable having so much cash on you, withdraw your budgeted amount for each day each morning.


4. Free or discounted activities 
In New York I found that for most tourist things you have to spend money one way or another, but in Berlin there are loads of things to do for free. For example, you can go up the Reichstag building, which has 360 views of the city, and you don't have to pay a penny, just register before you go! The Berlin Wall is also free to go and look at, and if you walk the whole thing that's a couple of hours of your day done. The Memorial of The Murdered Jews is also free.

A lot of the museums, such as the Natural History Museum and the Helmut Newton Foundation do discounted rates for concessions such as students, making a ticket €5 instead of €10.

5. Day travel ticket
A day travel ticket which covers both the S and U Bahn, trams, and buses is only €7. This gives you the ability to jump on all of the public transport until 3am the next morning as many times as you like, so it works out so much more cheaper, especially as a lot of Berlin's highlights are located around a lot of different areas and it's worth it when it's SO cold outside!


To be honest you can probably use these tips wherever you choose to go. Both Meininger and The Generator (where we stayed in London - see my review here) have hotels all over Europe, making it so much easier to book good quality, yet affordable, accommodation, and with a bit of a Google/Pinterest search you can always find budget friendly things to do!

Falling Back In Love With Photography

Berlin is a hidden Instagram opportunity you never knew you needed.

I love to travel and I have such a burning desire to explore places I've never been before, but there was just something about the timing of this trip, and having been to NYC the year before, it was a little underwhelming. Whilst I was out there I still had mixed feelings about the city, however it does provide some amazing photo opportunities in the most unexpected places. 

The area where we were staying, in addition to our visit to the Helmut Newton Museum, brought back my love for photography and the connection I have with my camera. My camera is fairly old now as cameras go - I have the Canon 650D - but the quality is still just as amazing as it was when I brought it back in 2012/2013. 

From the pops of colour on the tower blocks to the vast amount of graffiti, there's a good photograph around every corner. 

Falling back in love with something that I had a passion for, for such a long time, is such a breath of fresh air and it couldn't have come at a better time. Once all of these deadlines are over and done with, you better believe that I will be returning home with my suitcase in one hand and my camera in the other!