Isabella Bauer is a student at James Madison University and an ISA Featured Blogger. She is currently studying abroad with ISA in Berlin, Germany.
Studying abroad in Europe is a difficult balance between wanting to take advantage of the fact that you can hop on a train and explore a new country, or stay at home in your city of choice and explore your surroundings. I know a lot of my friends have had the issue of finding things to do in Berlin when visitors come to the city and they’re expected to be a tour guide for a couple of days, even though they haven’t had an opportunity to actually explore the city for themselves. So, to help out my friends and anyone else who is in Berlin for a day, I’ve created an itinerary based on a day of exploring that I had with my parents during their week-long visit in Berlin.
9:00 AM: Start your day off right with breakfast at Antipodes. This little place is located in Prenzlauer Berg about five-minutes from the “Senefelderplatz” stop on the U-Bahn. Antipodes is a small cafe with delicious coffee and a menu that offers American and English style breakfasts. This is the only place where I have been able to find avocado on toast with bacon and an egg (a rare occurrence in Berlin).
After eating a hearty breakfast at Antipodes, I would recommend sticking around Prenzlauer Berg and exploring the area. Berlin is a great city to explore in general because the city itself is made up of many smaller “cities” or kietzes. This makes it easy to find a variety of things to do outside of seeing popular tourist destinations.
11:00 AM: Once we at our fill of avocado and toast, we started to walk around the Prenzlauer Berg area and saw groups of people heading toward a main road. I’ve learned while being abroad that sometimes you have to follow the people. If there are groups of locals heading in the same direction, it’s a good idea to follow them because they usually know where the best spots are in the city. Following locals led us to the center of the district and into a small market filled with handmade goods and delicious snacks.
3:00 PM: After walking through the market and checking out boutiques and stores on the central shopping streets of Sredzkistraße, Oderberger Straße and Kastanienallee, we stopped by the restaurant Sowohl Als Auch for lunch. Sowohl Als Auch had a great range of items on the menu and had an incredible selection of cakes and drinks. I opted for the enormous hot chocolate that you can see below and yes, it was good as it looks.
5:00 PM: Our relatives were kind enough to let us stay in their apartment in Kreuzberg for the week, so after enjoying some sunshine in Prenzlauer Berg, we took the short 30 minute U-Bahn trip back to Kreuzberg for dinner. Kreuzberg is another small “city” that deserves its own day of exploration, but if you have no idea where to go for dinner, then definitely check out the restaurants in the Kreuzberg area near the U-Bahn stop Gneisenaustraße.
I got a new perspective of Berlin after spending a week with my parents exploring the city and I hope this mini itinerary helped spark some ideas for things to see in Berlin. You can find so many things to do if you dedicate a day to walking around a new district within the city. If you find any new little “cities” for me to explore, comment and let me know!
The world awaits…discover it.