Euro Trip Planning - Berlin

Next stop on my Europe holiday is Berlin, this capital city of Germany is well known for being the capital of the Kingdom of Prussia back in the day (17th century till early 19th century), it was also the Capital of Nazi Germany, so if you find history interesting, like I do, then there's a lot you can learn when traveling to Berlin. In addition to the historical attractions Berlin has beautiful forests, cool markets and what;s said to be amazing clubbing (keeping with the theme from my last blog post on Ibiza).


The main things that I'm personally interesting in doing in Berlin is shopping, clubbing and learning about the city's history, so that's what I'm going to write about.


The Shopping
I've been doing a bit of research on the best places to shop, the streets around Kurfürstendamm are said to be the main shopping area in Berlin.If you're more intrested in boutiques and non-department stores, like I am then the East of upper Friedrichstrasse and Northwest of Alexanderplatz are said to be the places to head.Apparently the best vintage store to check out is Stiefelkomninat, I honestly have no idea how to pronounce all these German names, going to need a crash course in German before I go!


When I go to shopping in different countries I like to buy the brands and products that the specific country specializes in, rather than just buying the brands I can purchase at home. Some of the more famous German brands include Adidas, Etienne Aigner, Jil Sander, JOOP! and Escada.

Clubbing

I'm really interested in deep house music, and Berlin is said to be one of the world capitals for house and techno and is renowned for it's clubs. The club that I've heard the most hype about is Berghain, it's one of the top clubs in the world (sitting at no. 14 according to DJ mag), and is known for being extremely hard to get into. Apparently once you get in you don't come out for days. It's hard to find pictures of this club because of the strict no cameras rule for entering the club, but from what I could find it looks like a very cool place to check out:

Other notable clubs include Katerholzig and Sisyphos which is said to not have as strict bouncers as the first two mentioned. If you're interested in attempting to get into Berghain there there are a couple of things you should do to give you the best chance of getting in:

• go in small groups, large groups don't get in

• dress cool, don't turn up in something you'd wear to Pacha Sydney

• act cool when you're in the queue, apparently it's not a good idea to laugh

• don't touch your phone, leave in in your bag

• Berlin Wall

• Brandenburg Gate

• Memorial to the Holocaust

Best of luck!

History
I don't actually know that much about Nazi Germany, apart from the general knowledge about Hitler, I don't know the details, but have always found history really interesting! I've done a quick Google and have found a number of key historical attractions that I'm going to try visit whilst on my trip:
Just a quick background on these places, the Berlin Wall is a symbol of the cold war and was the divide between Eastern and Western Europe, the Berlin wall fell in 1989, so it's only the remnants that are left. The Brandenburg Gate has been used to symbolise many things, it was intended to symbolise peace, but then was used as a party place by Nazi's, I want to see it because in my opinion it's one of the iconic things to see in Berlin.

Finally, I think it would be very interesting to visit the eerie memorial site of the murdered Jews, aka the memorial to the Holocaust. I think it's important to remember World War II and to pay respect to the millions of innocent Jews that were murdered by Hitler.

I hope you're enjoying our posts! First hand takes on Berlin to come in July :)

Cheers,Maddy