My god I hate that pastime! Shopping. It’s gotta be the most brain-deadening activity North of the Alps, but anyway. Nevertheless after 3 years in Berlin, being a woman who loves to look dressed up for ballroom dancing 24-7, I obviously do have a favourite shop or two around the city.

Photo by Sophia Sanwald

My all time fave is Blush. Blush is a boutique, ladies, where you never want to leave, and if you have a man of stature by your side, he wouldn’t want you to leave either.

It’s more than underwear: it’s a lifestyle of erotic lace and arousing details on everything from brassieres, knickers, bathing suits, dressing gowns and piquant negligees, every sensual woman’s sensual dream – and her guy’s too.

Photo by Sophia Sanwald

The shop is wonderful, especially because it has no sleazy undertones whatsoever; it’s simply a boutique accommodating women who like to look their best – even when they are almost naked.

The bouquet of women working there are all darlings in stilettos, and no matter if you are big or small, curvy or skinny, they will dress you up and make you feel like the sexiest woman alive.

Blush dessous; Rosa-Luxemburgstraße 22; Berlin-Mitte

Bargain with a smile

Besides this wonder of a shop, I will only recommend two other shopping destinations, namely two of Berlin’s best second-hand stores.

Photo by Sophia Sanwald

My favourite lies on Eberswalderstrasse, about 30 meters down on the left side from the metro station and it’s is called… eh, nothing at the moment, I am afraid, but it’s easy to find since its occupying the space of two former shops, a supermarket for Asian Groceries and a Photo Shop called “Porst” respectively. Maybe the owner of the new shop didn’t have time to remove the old signs, because business is simply doing so well, or he just loves the Berlin-trash-attitude, which makes us two!

Anyway, regardless of the shops nameless status, the content is great! In a true jumble of old dresses, neon-coloured boots and old lamps, you might find the dress to wear at your sister’s wedding or a great skirt or bag for yourself. It’s not particularly cheap, but the guy there is willing to bargain and does it with a smile (maybe because he is overcharging you, who knows?) 

The other second-hand shop is situated in Schliemannstraße, about a 7-minute walk up the road towards Prenzlauer Allee, and is called “Dress Faktor”. This is a peculiar small shop, famous for 60’s style bathing suits and swimming caps, groovy sunglasses and funny hats. Recently my girlfriend bought a hat in there and only a few hours later she was stopped on the street by a trend scout and asked to take her photograph

Photo by Sophia Sanwald 

If the weather is tropical, (and you gotta trust me on that one, because it truly happens in Berlin sometimes), I would drop the fancy restaurant, the fake diamond earrings, the indoor bar, and treat myself to a combo-experience of drinking and eating in the old, traditional beer garden 'Prater' on Kastanien Allee 7-9.

Since 1837 there have been some kind of beer activities on these grounds, and when you sit down under the big trees and drink a cold Prater Pilz or a Weissbier, you do feel the serious presence of history and tradition.

Photo by MikeBlakeDuncan 

You can choose to sit on the more primitive wooden benches next to a wide variety of local Berliners, and enjoy sausages, olives, corn on the cob and freshly baked Salzbrezel (pretzels), or you can park yourself in the restaurant 'Prater Gaststätte' next-door, where they serve traditional German dishes… and the Cesar salad is really good!

 

Being a single mum, nightclubbing is pretty much a closed chapter in my life, but I love bars where you can arrive in the early evening, have a great time with friends, and still make it home before the babysitter has emptied all the food reserves.

My two favourite bars are both located on Helmholtzplatz (nickname Helmi) in Prenzlauerberg, former East Berlin.

EKA 

EKA is situated on the Dunckerstrasse side of the rectangular square of Helmi, a small Portuguese bar, where the atmosphere is always chilled and the drinks always made with true dedication. Music nine out of ten times is cool, and I love that you can always order ham and melted cheese sandwiches, or the wonderful small Portuguese custard tarts called Pastéis de nata.

 A really cool place to hang out with friends before going to the nightclubs (this is the part where I go home to pull the babysitter out of the candy cupboard).

Bar EKA, Dunckerstraße 9, Berlin

Wohnzimmer

Photo by CDrewing

The other bar on Helmi is called 'Wohnzimmer' (Living room). It is a big corner apartment, converted into a bar furnished with soft armchairs and couches. There are chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and smoking is forbidden between 10 A.M. and 6 P.M. When the weather is good, which it often is during the summer, there is a great atmosphere outside this lively, well decorated, and in a way, typical Berlin bar.

Wohnzimmer, Lettestraße 6, Berlin

One of the good things about not being a night-clubber is that you wake up early the next day, ready to go out and eat big chunks of yummy Berlin.

After a typical Berlin-brunch in one of the city’s many nice cafés (I think I wrote enough about food, and since there is a nice breakfast place on every other corner of the city, I will spare you further food recommendations), I highly recommend you find one of Berlin’s nice and cheap saunas, just to gear down and digest a little before shopping or sightseeing.

My favourite sauna is Olivin on Schönhauser Allee 177 (Berlin-Mitte), a calm and very often pleasantly empty wellness lounge, where you can alternate between the sauna, the ice-cold shower, the outdoor bamboo garden or the nice lounge where you can read magazines, quench your thirst or even indulge yourself with a nice and cheap massage (23 euro for 30 minutes).

The only thing to be aware of is that the Germans consider nudity as natural as a handshake, and despite the fact that I am a hippie child born in free-spirited Scandinavia, I recently got rather shocked when I found myself stark naked and alone in the sauna with eight naked Adams, where six of them were shaved down there where the apes hide their nuts (they stared, so looking back was my only weapon…that’s why I know they were bald). But if you are not afraid of German freikörperkultur (nudism) a trip to Olivin is a shot in the arm. And by the way: Thursdays are women only!

What do you do when your country is bankrupt and is in desperate need of foreign currency? Well, you rent out the buildings that house your foreign embassies. At least this is what North Korea has done with parts of its Berlin embassy, which has been turned into a hostel.

The Cityhostel Berlin opened on July 1. 2008 and has around 100 rooms covering two floors in the former embassy building.

The embassy was built in the 1970s on Glinka Strasse in the old East Berlin and consisted of two buildings. After the Cold War, staff numbers at the embassy were cut and now one of the buildings has been rented out and turned into the Cityhostel Berlin. The other building on the site still houses the North Korean embassy .

We hope that the money North Korea recieves from renting out its embassies will be spend on improving the miserable living conditions in North Korea, but we fear that the money will be converted into sustaining Kim Jong-Il’s repressive regime and the 'Dear Leader’s reputed exorbitant private consumption.

The history of the building and Cityhostel Berlin's location right next to the North Korean embassy will probably be attractive to many. Communist kitsch is a big thing in Berlin where the Ostalgie vibe has been going on for several years and in May 2007 the city got its first DDR design-hostel.

Author David Rich Momondo

Go further: Experience a night in the old East Berlin together with Erich Honecker and other former communist leaders at Ostel.

Find more hotels in Berlin here.