One of my favorite playgrounds with big comfy sofas, mounds of random books and lamps made out of magazines. The laid back atmosphere exudes a permanent invitation to sit back, relax and enjoy the colorful array of people that walk through. The walls make your inner child want to break loose to express itself and join the playful style of the hotel it lives in.

It’s a good-looking Berliner with an adventurous spirit that makes friends with almost anyone it meets. Within its walls there are gigs every Friday and Saturday night as well as surprise concerts and nifty parties – because any time is as good a time as any for entertainment.

If you get tired of the sofas you can always opt for a table inside, or outside in the courtyard where the ping pong table lives.

There are always a few snack options available at the bar and a wide selection of beverages to choose from in “The Book of Booze.” Try their refreshing “Fountain of Youth”- pure coconut water – on its own or in cocktail form and follow their blog (which you can access on the website) for updates, pictures, details, or just for fun. It doesn’t bite and it might make you laugh. Just like the time you spend there!

So there, a little jungle of fun, never ending surprises, and never ending curiosity, as it would be to actually stay at the hotel…but that’s another story.

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Honolulu | Bars, Snacks | Hot drinks € 2.50
Warschauer Straße 39/40
24 hours daily

The Fluxbau Kantine lives only a short walk away from the Oberbaumbrücke and the vibrant Kreuzberg nightlife scene. It’s an exciting venue playing host to the Berlin creative scene by mixing concerts, readings, art exhibits and an array of other colorful activities with tasty food and fabulous views of the Spree.

Visit on weekdays for coffee, cake, soup and a yummy homemade style dish or at my favorite time, Friday and Saturday evenings for dinner and a little party.

It’s the perfect spot to have a relaxed dinner with 1, 2 or 10 people if you feel like it. Just make sure you book a table beforehand. Sit back, chat and sip a glass of delicious wine as you indulge in a hearty dinner or dig into one of their 3 heavenly fondue choices (only during the winter months). Check their website or facebook page to see what exciting options are on offer. Mix your dinner party with an exciting gig or art exhibit downstairs, or don’t. You’re allowed to play wherever you want.

They also have a beautiful terrace for sunnier days and colorful parties on special occasions like say, Halloween, Valentine’s Day or any excuse they can find. So keep an eye on their schedule. You never know what they’ll come up with next. Whatever it is, I assure you, it will be worth checking out.

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Fluxbau Kantine | Bars, Coffee & tea, Music, Restaurants (Seasonal)
Pfuelstr. 5
Mon – Fri 12:00 – 15:00, Fri – Sat from 18:00

I don’t drink coffee very often, so I could not judge one special Kenia blend from the other. But walking down Müllerstrasse in Wedding near the town hall, there was often a delicious smell of freshly-roasted coffee beans seemingly coming from nowhere. Until I discovered the nondescript shop right next to the town hall, which had its own little coffee roaster sitting in the window, with a small vent puffing out coffee steam now and then.

Inside, it also does not look like much, but the products on offer and the coffee (the coffee!) are well worth the visit. There’s small sales counter with a clearly arranged array of cakes, biscuits and sandwiches (all locally sourced and produced) and a few chairs along the wood-panelled wall. In spring and summer they also have a few outdoor tables facing busy Müllerstrasse. But as I said, come for the coffee, made from a glistening espresso machine behind the counter. I couldn’t say if this is the best coffee in Berlin (I’m no coffee traveller), but it definitively is the best in Wedding. Oh, and if you like the blend they’ve just produced, you can also take the beans home.  

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Coffee Star | Coffee & tea | Cappuccino € 1.90
Müllerstraße 146 | +493045482893
Mon – Fri 08:00 – 19:30, Sat 10:00 – 16:00

The flea market culture is something particularly wonderful in Berlin. But with so many people wanting to partake in this experience, popular flea markets like Mauerpark and Boxhagener platz have become something of a battle to walk through in the past few years.

As all of these markets started getting more and more crowded and rent prices started going up in the neighborhoods of Prenzlauerberg, Kreuzberg, and parts of Friedrichshain, many artists and international students moved their creative bohemian lifestyle down to the Neukölln streets. This little migration has changed the face of Neukölln drastically.

There are new ideas flowing and shops and bars popped up everywhere. And with these new additions came the ‘Nowkoelln Flowmarkt.’ It’s still small enough to have a very meticulous look about it and still local enough to find your next door neighbor selling homemade chocolate cake and coffee. But it’s hipper than other flea markets since its participants and visitors are mostly that wave of international creative types. You can still find odd little things like old 1950′s ornaments or modern locally hand-made trendy products. And all for flea market prices.

It only happens every third Sunday of the month, so check their blog for details. It’s always a nice, relaxed atmosphere – sometimes with street performers and ‘bio’ food stands. But most importantly, without the big tourist traffic jams.

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Nowkölln Flowmarkt | Art & culture, Coffee & tea, Shopping, Snacks
Maybachufer, Neukölln
Every 3rd Sun of the month 10:00 – 17:00 (See website)

One of my best friends moved to Amsterdam for a while after living in Berlin for years, and whenever he came back for a visit he had a whole itinerary planned for us for the weekend. He was determined to do his favorite ‘Berlin things’ throughout the few days he would be here. One of them was watching the sunset at Nola’s.

Nola’s restaurant is no big secret around Berlin. It’s a lovely place to watch the sunset while you sip on a cold drink sitting on one of the sun chairs outside during the summer or nursing a hot cup of chocolate with a blanket wrapped around you during the colder months.

Nola’s has a wonderful terrace with a fantastic view of the Volkspark am Weinberg, and an inside area with an elegant 1960′s sort of decoration that gives you the feeling of being….in a classic movie set. The Swiss cross is always present along with ‘Rivella’ ads, but this is all very subtle.

On Sundays, they offer a fabulous brunch with an absolutely delicious variety of Swiss cheese, eggs, sausages, salmon, homemade marmalade……you get the idea. And for those winter cravings…Fondue and a variety of Swiss dishes.

The atmosphere is always relaxed and more of a family environment depending on the time of day. But the sunsets…..

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Nola’s | Coffee & tea, Restaurants (Swiss) | Brunch € 11.50
Veteranenstr. 9 | +493044040766
10:00 – 01:00 daily

In a big city, it’s always nice to enjoy the nightlife, restaurants, shops, art exhibits, and all the exciting things that are in offer. But sometimes, we are so consumed with the business of daily life that we forget how important it is to be able to pamper yourself every once in while. Despite its relaxed attitude Berlin, like any other big city, can manage to wear you out.

That’s why it was delightful to receive a voucher for a day at a Hamam right in the middle of Kreuzberg as a present. I’d known of their existence around this area but never ventured out to look for them. So when the opportunity presented itself, I relished in it. My visit consisted of me and my friend relaxing in a warm room with comfortable cushions and magazines, then relaxing some more in the bathing area every once in a while pouring warm water on ourselves while chatting and then dividing the rest of our time between the sauna and the cold water showers. You can also get traditional Turkish ‘Kese’ (Turkish handglove) peeling and ‘Sabunlama’ massages.

I find it lovely to live in an area with such cultural diversity like Kreuzberg. And I think the Hamam at Marianenstrasse, though a bit ‘Europeanized’, has managed to maintain an authentic and heavenly environment in which women of all different cultures come to enjoy such an old and absolutely delightful tradition.

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Hamam at Schokofabrik | Relaxing | 3 hour visit € 14.00
Marianenstr. 6 | +49306151464
Mon 15:00 – 23:00, Tue – Sun 12:00 – 23:00

During GDR times, for East Berliners with a rare and sought-after ‘Ausreisebescheinigung’, an exit permit, there were only a handful of border crossings they could use. Bornholmer Strasse for example, or Checkpoint Charlie – but the most used border crossings was right in the middle of Mitte, at Bahnhof Friedrichstrasse. Here, West Berliners could also enter the GDR, but the the only way to leave for GDR citizens was through the so-called ‘Tränenpalast’, the palace of tears, a building on the square north of the station erected in 1962.

The expression derives from the tearful goodbyes that took place in front of the building, where family members with travel permit had to say farewell to their relatives that had to stay in the GDR. After the fall of the wall, the blue glass pavilion became a cultural center for concerts and readings, and was turned into a museum in 2006, enabling visitors to relive the experience of officially crossing from the GDR to West Berlin.

I’m glad that these days you don’t have to walk through the labyrinthine maze of tunnels and walkways designed to keep West and East from meeting each other, but enter and exit through the same door. And if you feel truly capitalistic after exiting the GDR, you can continue shopping right across the street…

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Tränenpalast | Art & culture | Free
Reichstagufer 17 | +493046777790
Mon – Fr 9:00 – 19:00, Sat – Sun 10:00 – 18:00

The futuristic appearing building of the Bauhaus-Archiv is a real landmark in the urban landscape of Berlin. Combining two houses and a bridge on which you can walk “over” the house makes the museum a special playground of architecture. Planned by the Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius in 1964 and built up in 1976-79 in a modified version the white building is a hidden eye-catcher on the bank of the Landwehrkanal.

The Archive/Museum attends to research and retrospection of Bauhaus architecture, art and design in the 20th century. It is the worldwide biggest collection of originals of the classical modernity. In a permanent exhibition which will be showed in December again, you can only see a part of the collection but the most interesting Bauhaus examples of architecture, furniture, ceramics, metal, photographs as well as artworks of the famous Bauhaus teachers Gropius, Itten, Klee, Feininger, Kandinsky, Albers, Schlemmer, Moholy-Nagy and van der Rohe.

Here you can find information in English about the permanent and the special exhibitions.

For a deposit of €10.00 you can rent an audio guide that explains the samples in your language. On wednesday, thursday and friday the entrance fee is one euro cheaper.

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Bauhaus-Archiv | Art & culture | Entry fee +/- € 7
Klingelhöfer Straße 14 | +49302540020
Wed – Mon 10:00 – 17:00

The window is covered up by paper and the entrance hidden. It looks like a shop under construction but every minute people go in and out. This is Dr. Pong: Prenzlauer Berg’s Ping Pong-Bar.

When you enter you get the feeling that this is not an official bar but a member’s only club. The Spartan interior includes little more than a ping-pong table and some chairs. The walls are empty, but the club is crowded. Upon further exploration, you will find a bar, a small lounge and a DJ stand. No luxuries here, just a comfortable, cozy grotto that offers a remarkable alternative to all the normal bars where you just sit, stand or talk.

In the bar’s main room, people with table-tennis paddles run in circular fashion around the ping pong table. Most of the people are not professional players and some have never played before, so don’t worry if you don’t hit the ball (and as a good excuse, you can always say that beer makes you lose your body control). Anyway, there is always a new round, which gives you the chance to show your hidden talent.

One of the bar’s owner’s interests is, according to the bar’s manifesto, “losing the definition between game/sport and partying”. A “healthy addiction” to beer and ping pong makes you definitely want to come back to this inconspicuous place.

By the way, you don’t need to bring your own ping pong paddle; you can borrow one at the bar for a deposit of 5 euro.

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Dr. Pong | Bars, Relaxing | Beer € 2
Eberswalder Str. 21
Mon – Sat 20:00 – open end, Sun 14:00 – open end

The alternative look of the Zosch’s façade seems not to belong in the tidy area of Oranienburger Straße. You could imagine it in Friedrichshain or Kreuzberg but Mitte has turned more or less into the home of fancy chic in the last years. The Zosch is one of the survivors of the first pubs that established itself after the political turnaround in 1989. And it still remains true to itself. The staff and the people are down-to-earth and the interior is rustic. But the attention belongs to the music.

Downstairs in the cozy cellar which reminds you of an old larder in a medieval castle, mostly every night jazz bands or songwriters play. The atmosphere is familiar even if the pub is full of people. The big wooden tables and benches almost fill out the whole room and the place is quickly crowded.

Especially on Wednesday evening when the Goethe Institute of Berlin holds its student’s regulars’ table in the pub. But normally Zosch is a place where you find a lot of native people. It’s not overcrowded by tourists and most of the bands playing here are from Berlin. The Zosch is always trying to satisfy different tastes of music. Not only jazz but also songwriters, blues or gypsy bands enter the small stage.

Every Wednesday the band La Foot Creole which is committed to New Orleans Jazz plays in the Zosch’s catacomb.

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Zosch | Bars, Music, Snacks | Beer € 2
Tucholskystraße 30 | +49302807664
16:00 – open end daily