Polaroid Of The Week: A crisp fall day in Berlin

Last Updated on February 15, 2021

Confession: Whenever I spend time in Berlin, I tend to neglect the most central neighborhood, Mitte (which translates to ‘central’). For me, Berlin is all about the neighborhoods outside of the tourist zone, I guess I could say that in New York it’s pretty much the same way.

But this time around, I decided to stay as central as possible to be able to walk to most of the Festival Of Lights installations and it turned out to be the perfect opportunity for me to explore this part of town a bit more. And what a great decision this was. It showed me that central Berlin has much more to offer than I initially thought – especially when it comes to food. I discovered several excellent Vietnamese restaurants (check out Madami, Pho Hoi, Good Morning Vietnam and Chen Che), had the best vegan burrito of my life (the Vegan Lover at Dolores), and great coffee at Father Carpenter Coffee Brewers, Ben Rahim and Oslo Kaffeebar.

I also discovered that some of my favorite hang outs (Kaschk for craft beer at night and coffee during the day, St Oberholz for a good work session, the new(ish) Barn Roastery for the best coffee in Berlin) are in walking distance from Mitte, and so is Prenzlauer Berg with its countless cool bars and restaurants). And since I was planning to shop for a new wardrobe for my next destination (I’ll share in my monthly round-up next week where I’m going, but: any guesses?! ?), staying at Alexanderplatz turned out to be extremely convenient, with plenty of shopping nearby.

Of course I didn’t only stay in Mitte – I caught up with a friend over lunch in Kreuzberg, wandered around Prenzlauer Berg for a photography project (and randomly discovered the St. Mary’s and St. Nicholas cemetery where this week’s Polaroid was taken), and was taken on a fantastic wine bar hopping tour. I love that there’s always still so much new stuff for me to discover in Berlin – in fact, I am always surprised to see how many more places I keep adding to my ‘places to check out’ list, even though I feel like I know the city quite well. (Check out all my Berlin posts here).

I guess to make it through my list, I’ll have to eventually move to Berlin 😉 For now though, I’ve had enough time in Germany and it’s time to pack my backpack again. A few more days of quality time with my family, and I’ll be hitting the road again!

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