Bike Riding Around Berlin

Once we got everything settled with Flat Tire rentals, we made our way towards the Brandenburger Tor to start the 24-hours with our bikes!

Passing by the Brandenburger Tor

Fun in Tiergarten Park

Selfie in the Tiergarten Park!

Looks like a scene straight from a Monet painting!

This photo basically sums up our time in the park!

Got to the Victory Column!

Entrance to the park’s zoo!

Part of the fun biking around the city is getting lost once in a while!

Exploring Berlin’s Neighborhoods

Since we were riding most of the time, I was not able to get many photos of the places we passed, but the Breitschneidplatz area is well-known for shopping and it is home to many luxury stores.

Passing by Breitschneidplatz

A sculpture in Breitschneidplatz

This loop took us around 3 hours! Time for LUNCH!

Renting Bikes for the Day at Fat Tire

From our great experiences riding bikes in Amsterdam, we decided to rent bikes for the day from Fat Tire in Alexanderplatz!

Fat Tire is an American-owned and run company that specializes in bike tours. If you have extra money, they also lead highly recommended segway tours around the city. We decided to go for the 24-hour bike rental for less than € 15, which is a better deal than renting city-provided bikes at various bike stations.

Fat Tire is named for the fat tires they use on their bikes. Although these bikes are really heavy, Berlin is a very flat city so riding around is very easy and painless. Also, the city has fairly clear bike lanes so it’s very safe to travel by bike.

Annalisa and Sarah with their bikes

And Yours Truly!

I would HIGHLY recommend traveling around the city by bike. Not only is public transportation a little on the pricey side, the boulevards and promenades are MASSIVE, partly because of Nazi expansion of the city where they widened the streets to make room for passing tanks. Since everything is huge and far apart, although walking is still manageable, biking is the better way to inexpensively get around!

Exploring Berlin’s Nightlife on a City Pub Crawl

For our first night in the city, our hostel recommended a pub crawl around Berlin. For €12, we could go to 5 bars, 1 club, get free shots, and 1 free beer. Doesn’t that sound great?

*iPhone makes for grainy night photos…

Yours truly, Sarah, and Annalisa!

We were part of a group of around 15 participants, not including our 3 tour guides from the UK and the US. Although it sounds like they provide us a lot of drinks, the shots of flavored schnapps were basically juice so I bought at least 2 drinks for myself during the entire night. Overall, the pub crawl was basically a fun way to meet other tourists and chat over some reasonably priced drinks.

Got my wrist stamped and got my free beer. Yummy!

On our crawl, we met a brother and sister duo who apparently work at Google (it’s hard to tell when people are telling the truth) and we also met some sketch guys also from the States who all made for interesting conversation. There was a group of 7 Parisian guys, but they spoke very little English so mainly kept to their group.

Silberfich bar: one of the few local bars on the Pub Crawl

At the end of the crawl, the tour guides dropped us off at The Matrix night club where we were free to do whatever we wanted. The Matrix is apparently one of the largest nightclubs in Berlin. Sarah and Annalisa loved it (I agree, there were some really good looking guys), but I couldn’t really tell whether I liked it or not. It was still a really fun night and I would definitely recommend anyone to try at least one Pub Crawl when traveling around Europe!

Trying Currywurst in Berlin

From what I hear about the cuisine in Berlin, currywurst is definitely the food to try! The most recommended currywurst stands were pretty far from our hostel, but we did not have to go more than a block to find a place that served the dish.

Currywurst is made of chopped grilled sausage served with ketchup and topped with curry powder.

Currywurst is really not bad! It basically tastes like Tikka Masala or any tomato-based Indian curry dish.

Sarah finally joined Annalisa and I in Berlin! Woohoo!

The minute Annalisa and I got back to our hostel after walking around the city, we ran into Sarah at the front desk! She’s another classmate I met at UCL and she is spending the next three days with us exploring Berlin!

First Day Adventures in Berlin

Later in the afternoon, our friend Sarah is joining us in Berlin. In the meantime, Annalisa and I scoped out the city on a little walk!

Museum Island

Street Book Sale

Brandenburger Tor

Tiergarten Park

 

Victory Column

Finally Arrived in Berlin!

We woke up again early in the morning to catch our short flight from Brussels to Berlin!

Our early morning one-hour Easy Jet flight from Brussels to Berlin!

After short stays in Amsterdam and Brussels, Annalisa and I are now slowing down in Berlin for the next four days.

Train to Berlin

Note: Like Brussels, Berlin in a primarily CASH city, which means most establishments don’t accept credit cards as payment.

First Views of the City

We are staying near Alexanderplatz on the East side of the city. It is in a very great location for young tourists and these are just a few of the sights we passed on our way to our hostel.

The Berlin TV Tower in Alexanderplatz

The Famous Walking Sign of Berlin! AKA Ampelmannchen

Interesting message on the sidewalk

City Stay Hostel

Annalisa found the City Stay Hostel on HostelWorld. So far, every hostel we booked from that website was very good and clean! People who leave reviews are fairly accurate and like our previous hostels, this one was a mixed dorm accommodation, which means men and women share a room. I thought it might be awkward, but honestly from my brief experience traveling, it just reinforced the stereotype that men snore and are more smelly that women.

We brought locks with us for the lockers provided, yet I am always surprised at the level of trust travelers have with their roommates. I would always lock everything up for your own protection, but so far, not everyone feels the same. Once we secured our belongings, Annalisa and I went out to explore the city!