This nightclub and discotheque in the Friedrichshain district features DJ's and artists from all over Europe, and is a top choice for many international rock and indie bands. The venue is unassuming at best, and though it does not boast all the amenities of other bigger clubs, it has a genuine rock appeal that keeps the music front and center. Be sure to check out the website for updated schedules of concerts and events, as there is always something new and hot to be seen at Club Maria.
The buses are not the only double-deckers in Berlin. There is also a double-decker bridge, the Oberbaumbrücke, which spans the River Spree between Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg. Traffic speeds along the lower part of the bridge while trains steam over the upper section. Built a hundred years ago in the red-brick gothic style popular at the time, the Oberbaumbrücke is crowned by two towers. The bridge got its name from the tree-trunks which were used to shut down the river to traffic at night.
When the craving for live metal music strikes, head to Rockcafe Halford for all the headbanging good fun you could want. Here you can mingle with many a tattooed metal fan, resplendent in piercings. The interior is dark and often crowded, and a great setting for live performances. The club also hosts a variety of record release parties that draw large crowds. As a bonus, after a night of wild partying, you can hang around for breakfast at 4a. For a complete list of upcoming events, be sure to visit the website.
Friedrichshain's answer to Mitte's Oranienburger Straße, Simon-Dach-Straße is home to a vast variety of pubs, cafés, bars and restaurants, the most popular being the legendary Astro Bar. Many of the bars here are fairly new additions to the nightlife scene yet Simon-Dach-Straße has already become extremely popular with students and other young Berliners and is without doubt one of the liveliest places in the eastern part of town. During the warmer months, the pavements on both sides of the street are lined with benches and tables which join together to form one huge bar. The street is fairly narrow and in summertime the trees meet in the middle of the street to form a natural rooftop.
Treptower Park was designed in 1880 and is nowadays split in two by the Puschkinallee which runs through its centre. One side of the park contains the imposing Soviet Memorial and the Archenhold Sternwarte, an observatory with the longest refracting telescope in the world. The other side of the park borders onto the river Spree, where there is a quay for boat trips on the river. Further along the Spree, the Eierschale café is a good spot to stop and relax.
Public art sculpture.
When you think of Berlin, the first word likely to spring to mind is Wall. But over a decade after being torn down by angry East Germans, there is not much of the Berlin Wall left standing in present-day Berlin. The longest section of the Wall to be spared (1.3km) runs parallel to the River Spree between Kreuzberg in the West and Friedrichshain in the East. In the months following the fall of the Wall in 1989, 118 artists from all over the world flocked here to pay their artistic tribute to the downfall of communism. The result—an open-air gallery containing a host of colourful and imaginative images—some satirical, some shocking and others unintelligible. The East Side Gallery is a must for first-time visitors to the city. The barren wasteland which surrounds the Wall is oddly fitting and gives you a good idea of how the Wall, surrounded by a 10 metre-wide, heavily mined death strip, would have appeared several decades ago. Yet the current condition of the gallery gives cause for concern. Many of the paintings have been disfigured by souvenir-hunters keen to take a chunk of Wall home with them, while the weather has taken its toll on the rest.
Freischwimmer is a beautiful restaurant in a beautiful, open air wooden pavilion in the water. The menu is short and sweet, and you will feel as though you're dining in an exotic lagoon.
Elevated high above ground level in a lively part of Kreuzberg, Schlesisches Tor U-Bahn station is one of the most attractive stations in the city. Bestowed with beautiful Romanesque arches and towering stone columns, wooden bay windows and riveted iron beams—this 100 year old construction unifies Gothic, Renaissance and industrial elements. Situated at the end of the line in West Berlin, this used to be the place where the West ended and the East began. Yet nowadays, the trains continue eastward over the Oberbaumbrücke bridge into the former socialist sector. While the station itself hasn't changed much over the years, political events have opened up new horizons.
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