The East side is definitely where the action is; it seems everyone is arty and fashionable (like SoHo or something), and every little shitty bar and cafe has a beautifully designed sign and incredible identity work (menus, signage, interior design). A lot of the town is newly built, and there is a ton of construction going on.
This observation, by a filmmaker friend-in-law who spent a few weeks in Berlin in 2001 shooting spots for Gran Turismo 3, aptly recalls something that's always struck me about the city. Berlin is a magnet for artists and creative types, and the city has been reaping the benefits of such magnetism for a while now. Moreover, when I first came there in 1998, the appeal seemed to be Continent-wide; more and more, however, it seems to be world-wide. I'm no artworld-insider, but it's easy to get the impression that, whether you're a local
Prenzlwichsler or an
Osaka-born installation artist, Berlin is your new capital.
Over the years, people have asked me for advice about
what to do and where to go while in Berlin, and I've provided suggestions to the extent that I'm able (given the pace of change in Berlin, advice from someone who's no longer living there is bound to be of limited value). But I've gotten tired of composing long emails on the subject and then being unable to find them for the
next traveling slacker looking for guidance. So here's an attempt at some disordered, but at least revisable, suggestions (if you don't find the Berlin I found, relax: one Berlin-based correspondent now goes so far as to claim that
Munich is where it's at...):
Stay with friends. If you don't have friends in Berlin, stay with my friends, if they'll have you. (It's worked before.) If they won't, or you're too shy, or we don't know each other well enough for me to be able to vouch for you, here's some advice about what do on a
super-posh or just-posh budget. (I'm not sure if I've already been to the riverside Club der Visionaere mentioned in that article, but I'm definitely going next time, and putting
Berlin's Summer 2008 hit in my headphones.) If you're
sub-posh, try this piece on hostels. I'm no sophisticate when it comes to fine dining in the middle of
Mitteleuropa, but I could prolly put together an exhaustive Google Map on the subject of chowhounding. Being lazy, however, I'll refer you to
this New York Times piece. And this one,
for chow-blood hounds.
East Is East, West Is West
In my heart, I'm a Prenzlberger, but people have been trying to beat the drum for West Berlin for the last ten years. Kreuzberg is,
of course, still agreeably boho; every few years, however, I come across someone claiming that quieter quartiers like Charlottenburg or Schoeneberg are making the move from bourgeois to 'BoBo'.
