Showing posts with label Clubbing. Show all posts

Berlin Calling Part 2

April 11th, 2015: Brunch, Shopping and Clubbing

Our next day started a little bit late, but excellent with an early brunch at a Cafe called Mokkabar in the district Kreuzberg, formerly known as the district for its high criminal rates is now famous for its hip but cheap cafes and restaurants.
As we looked for a place to sit, we already marvelled at the plates of the other custormers.
We finally found a place outside the cafe on a sunny spot and as we read through the menu, we had a difficult time deciding upon a plate. In the end, Our friend Jasmina and me took the cheese breakfast and my sister took the vital breakfast.
This is how it looked like:

Looks like heaven, right? It tasted like that as well <3

Unfortunately, all three of us couldn't finish our plates, since it was obviously bigger than our stomach.

After breakfast slash brunch we went to the Kurfürstendamm, the famous shopping street in Berlin.

My sister and me wanted to go to Forever21 since we don't have this shop in Stuttgart, unfortunately, because I found some awesome clothes <3. A black ripped jeans, a flower print tank/crop top, and a long black Kimono. The latter one was the most expensive, about 30€ but it looks beautiful and I can't wait to wear it already.
Anyway, we walked through the streets and looked for a drugstore to buy some sweets because Jasmina's friends invited us on a picnic nearby. We bought some candy, crisps and finger food and headed to meet the guys.
When we arrived there, the weather unfortunately slowly turned a little bit darker, but we were lucky that it hadn't started raining yet. After we arrived, more and more people came. They were all nice and interesting people and we all crammed ourselves with junk food (except for some cherry tomatoes). Someone had brought a package of purple sweet potatoe crisps and they were oh so good! The best crisps I have ever eaten.
After sitting there for 1 or 2 hours, we noticed that the weather became worse and worse and it seriously looked like rain. Plus, my sister and Jasmina wanted to go buy some sneakers, so we all left the green hill and went to the bus station. It was a funny bus ride because we were about 9 people, on top of the bus, joking and laughing around :D one by one, everyone got out of the bus until we three were left alone. We got off in front of the new shopping mall at Alexanderplatz. It was raining so we waited beneath a shelter but a few minutes late it stopped, and as lucky as we were, a rainbow appeared <3

The mall was quite modern, big and beautiful. However, the sneakers Jasmina and Didi wanted were sold out everywhere.
In the end, we left the mall and took a photo in front of the Television Tower.
Me and my sister
When we arrived back at Jaso's apartment, I took a shower and My sister and Jasmina went downstairs to buy some falafel for us. When they came back I was already finished and dressed. We prepared some drinks and enjoyed our meal. It was the first time I ate a falafel and it was so good. I have to eat it again soon.
When we were ready, we were already in a good mood, but it was ready to be destroyed soon by some douchy doorman.
It all began with a club my sister recommended. And since she already recommende the Mokkabar where we had brunch at and it turned out to be so good, we trusted her. Unfortunately, we didn't read the comments on google about that location, thus had to learn it the hard way. The queue in front of the club wasn't that long and it also wasn't that late an hour of the night, but still there were a lot of groups of people before us that were denied the entry. We got worried a little bit. As it was our turn, the door man didn't even properly look in our faces and told us right away that we couldn't get in tonight.
We turned and left immediately, infuriated and perplexed about this denial. Could a club be so superficial? We knew that there is this most famous club in Berlin, the Berghain with a reputation of having the strictest doormen of Germany's clubbing scene, but we didn't think that this club we wanted to go to, Tube Station, was something like a wanna-be Berghain. It was the first time we were denied entry to a club as a woman. And it is funny that it happened in Berlin, since all we heard about Berlin's clubbing scene was that it was the most chilled one. No Dresscode, no superficial prejudice, just relaxed. But the truth was different.
Anyway, we went to another club at Alexanderplatz, called 2be. That was actually not bad, but not what I imagined of a club in Berlin. It rather looked like just another normal Hip Hop club you could also find in Stuttgart. But we met some funny people there. A drunk girl called Fiona saved us from a creep and then Jasmina went out to smoke a cigarette with her. Later we dance all together and found out that she was from England and a friend of her celebrated her bachelorette party. I was dancing and laughing so much that I couldn't breathe.
We left at about 3 or 4 am. The first thing we did when we arrived at the apartment was to give a negative rating for Tube Club on Google :'D
Complaining about that club and laughing about how funny Fiona was, we soon managed to get into bed and get some sleep before waking up to some good plans for the next day.

What we learned: Our second day in Berlin included a first excellent food experience, as well as our first clubbing disappointment.

Today's rating:

Sightseeing: still due
Food: 5/5
Shopping: 3/5
Clubbing: 2/5
Transportation: 5/5

I hope you enjoyed this post. If you did, leave a comment.
In my next post I will show you more cultural stuff and the reunion with some old university friends. Stay tuned!
Until then:
Here to make you happy!

BCN Day 2: Parcs and Creations


2. Day, Wednesday, 18th March 2015: Sightseeing Parcs:
That day was a loooong day. We had a good breakfast at the hotel.






The view from our hotel


After breakfast we got on the metro to go to Parc Güell. It was a bit outside of the city centre, at the metro station Vallcarca, but we met Keddy and found it. The weather could have been a bit better but still it was nice and thankfully it didn’t rain.

Half the way we walked to get to Parc Güell


When we arrived in Parc Güell we walked around the charge-free area a bit and climbed up there to have a view over Barcelona. And it was worth it. There was also a guy playing the guitar, so the atmosphere was very peaceful and calming.

The view from Parc Güell
  

Then we continued walking amd came to the main part of the parc. There we found out that we had to pay so we did. It was about 8€ but I think it was okay. We had to wait 30 minutes to get inside, so that not everyon’d go inside at once. In the meantime we took a lot of photos.



Gaudi's House


I love that house. Looks like a gingerbread house. And the bird looks like it is loosing its soul o.O

My sister <3

My friend and my sister


This bench was built so that it could provide you with shadow in summer and sun in winter.

The famous mosaik salamander



 After walking for about 2 hours, we got tired and hungry, so we went to Barrio Gracia to find a place to eat. We walked there since it wasn’t too far away. Barrio Gracia is a artsy district with a lot of small boutiques, bars, restaurant and strangely enough, a lot of vegan shops. 


 After walking around a bit we found a Tapas Restaurant.

These were our tapas. I know, it doesn’t look like a lot of food, but it stuffed us quite well. They were all sooooo delicious, I wanna eat all of those again.

Look at that cheese!

If you happen to be in Barcelona, make sure to visit this place at Barrio Gracia. It is cheap and the tapas are so delicious. 

 After eating we got on our way to the metro station. My friend Keddy saw a coffee shop and bought a cup of coffee. Then, a few streets further, we saw a froyo shop and got ourselves a frozen yoghurt :D
 Now we took the metro to go to the Parc de Laberint. I saw this online on trip advisor and fell in love with it: It has a maze guys!!! Whatever you do, you have to go to that parc! It is not far from the station Mundet (As I can remember that’s what the station was called). As we arrived we didn’t even have to walk that much. Soon we found it. It is near the campus. And we were lucky: the entrance is free on wednesdays (and sundays as well I think). But usually it’s 2€ so that’s quite cheap.



  Further ahead from the Romantic parc, we found little water falls. I couldn’t stop taking photos of these <3

 After that, as we walked around the area, we saw some roofs and I was wondering what building that was. So we had a look and found this place below. It was the entrance to the maze.




 And finally: THE MAZE!

 Aaahhhh! It was sooo amazing and fun! The gloomy weather fit perfectly to the atmoshpere of the maze. I think it couldn’t have been better <3

 As we wanted to leave we came across these little cuties :’D I noticed that there are a lot of animals, especially bird-type animals. In Parc Güell we saw some beautiful green birds that looked like tropical birds. Here we saw a heron and some ducks :D Well, after the parc we decided to shortly get out at station Catalunya. There is the parallel street to the Ramblas and so the Casa Batllo. We saw it and it really is quite beautiful. Gaudi was a genius, really. 
 My friend wanted to show me something. After walking for a while, it turned out to be a bookstore :D what else! It was a book store called Altair and was one especially for travelling. image On this board people could pin their announcements to look for travel partners who want to go to the same place. A cool idea in my opinion. I bought a bookmark here. It was a bit expensive but it was a beautiful one.

After that, we went to our hotel room. In the evening we wanted to go partying. My friend asked us if we want to go to the Sonora Bar first where the Erasmus students usually meet. After that we would go to a club called Razzmatazz. Wednesdays, clubs usually are closed. Only a few are open and Razzmatazz is one of those.
At the hotel, we lay down a bit cause we were so tired. It was also the day when FC Barcelona had a match (against Liverpool I think), so I could watch all the football fans down in the streets in front of our hotel room window. Later when the game started, we could hear everything from the stadium. Well, almost everything. Every time the goal keeper made a long, hard kick to the other end we could hear that, and every time the crowd groaned and cheered we could hear it as well :D no need to pay for a seat ;D
Well, a few hours later we were ready and went to meet our friend at the metro station Marina. At the bar we ate a hamburger but I didn’t like it a lot and couldn’t even finish it. But I drank a lot. Maybe too much. Whenever you go partying in Barcelona, or Spain in general, keep in mind that the drinks are quite strong. At the bar we met some Argentinien friends of Keddy. They were quite funny and nice people :D


My sister and my friend at the student bar Sonora


When we went inside the club, I was already a bit tipsy, but the crowd at the entrance gave me a little shock. The People were going crazy as though there was something for free. The entrance was usually 15€+free drink. If you had a screenshot of the event flyer, you could get inside for 8€+drink of course. Well, the entrance fee was the only thing I spent that night. I had my free drink, Rum-Cola and then my sister couldn’t drink half of her Vodka Bull so she gave it to me.
At the end of the night, I was drunk and feeling sick. But still we had fun and met a lot of nice people. Although I didn’t really like the music at the club (it was a mixture between pop charts and 90s trashy music), I had a good time, no wonder with so much alcohol consumed. However, the club Razzmatazz actually is known for its techno music, and its 7 or so floors, but on Wednesday, only 1 floor is open and the music is rather bad.



Well, at some point in the club, my friend and my sister were gone and I found myself dancing alone and having a lot of fun :’D My sister also told me that she saw a lot of gay couples making out in a corner :’D I think I was just too wasted to notice that.
Well, in the end, when we were feeling tired, we decided to leave at about 5 am. We went outside and there was a huge crowd of young people, mostly Erasmus students. At after 5 am we took the metro to the hotel. At 6 am we arrived and instantly fell asleep.
This was our excellent second day.
How we survived the next day, you will find out in the second part of the post :)
Until then,
Here to make you happy!

What we learned: Never trust a spanish bartender!

Today's rating:

Sightseeing: 5/5
Food: 5/5
Shopping: 3,5/5
Clubbing: 4/5
Transportation: 5/5