September 26; Autumn in Berlin 🍁🇩🇪
Mellow days and nights in cool Berlin... this was my week 🍻
Happy Sunday,
Ellie and I were in Berlin this past week, where she got a few days of work and much-needed partner face time at their launchlabs HQ in Kreuzberg, and I spent most of my days working remotely and seeing a few friends and associates over beers and dinners.
This time we stayed at the funky Student Hotel near Alexanderplatz, a popular concept of late, where student dorms and hotel rooms are put on different floors of the same building, with a big lobby that features co-working spaces, a barbershop, a bar, a gym, and a restaurant.
In Sofia this concept is done very stylishly by Kitchen59, which Ellie and I tested earlier this summer, but if you find yourself in Berlin, the Student Hotel is really a cool place to stay. The premium hotel rooms are actually quite upscale, with a fantastic bed, a rain shower, and a large rooftop terrace.
People either hate or love Berlin, and if I have to choose, I’d be in the latter group. Berlin is cool in so many ways. More than any other large city in Europe, it’s a petri dish for cultures and lifestyles from all over the world, and its unique recent history allows it to be a literal bridge between Western and Eastern Europe. The other obvious cultural capital of Europe is of course London, but after Brexit, it lost its welcoming aspect, in my view. I mean, if we EU citizens can’t just move to live there, then how can it be our capital?
Berlin is different. It’s still affordable, mostly cheaper than most Western European cities, and hardly more expensive than the Eastern ones. It’s extremely accessible, with the S-Bahn, U-Bahn, trams and buses pretty much doubling each other across the city, so it’s a breeze to get from point A to point B, with usually more than one convenient option.
With the new Willy Brandt airport finally open, it’s also easy to fly in and out, and no longer a headache to get to and from the city quickly for your flights. Berlin is also still bizarrely car-friendly, with paid parking limited to the central areas only, and myriad car-sharing and short-rental options available to EU-driving-license holders.
On that note, I signed up for Volkswagen’s proprietary WeShare car-sharing service this week, and had a fantastic time trying out the new Volkswagen ID.3 electric hatchback. You can also pick up and leave their cars at Willy Brandt airport, super-convenient.
And then there’s the food and the culture. With over 1% of Berliners having Vietnamese heritage, and hundreds of Vietnamese restaurants, it’s definitely the best place in Europe for your Phở cravings. Also, the ubiquitous Döner Kebab famously hails from Berlin, up there with pizza, hamburgers, and kombucha as one of the iconic food items created by immigrants far away from the food’s branded land of origin. Read the fascinating story of the Döner founder here.
When it comes to art, my favorite Berlin museum is the Boros Collection. I first visited the famous museums like the Pergamon on Museum Island twenty years ago, and since then I enjoy discovering the new offerings when I can. Boros Collection is an amazing concept, a private modern art collection housed in a former Nazi bunker, with the owners’ residence built on top of the bunker as a penthouse.
This time around unfortunately, I didn’t have time for much art, but Ellie managed to squeeze in a visit to the Jewish Museum, where a friend of hers works as a curator, and we dropped in on a dinner hosted by another friend at the Zagreus Project, a really cool restaurant-cum-gallery in Mitte.
As mentioned last week, I’m feeling comfortable to limit my foreign travel to about one trip per month, and my gut feeling is that a good number of these trips will be to Berlin in the times ahead. Perhaps I’ll catch you in person there, for a Radler or a Berliner Weisse at Prater Garten!
Thanks for checking in today and talk to you next Sunday! 😇
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