Stella | iHeartBerlin.de

An Excursion to the Peacock Island of Berlin

Leute! Get your exploring caps on! Considering your next sunny-day excursion, and you’re in a princessy mood? I got just the thing for you! The Pfaueninsel (Peacock Island. YES, Peacock Island!) is a right-out-of-a-fairytale destination, super close to Berlin and ready for you to explore.

A nature conservation area since 1924, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and accessed only by ferry, this cute little island is upon the Havel river, and it’s got a long and rich history, dating back to the 17th century. To help you do your homework, let me share some of the highlights of the island’s history.

Art, Faith & Death: Unusual Churches & Crematoria in Berlin

by Stella | Art, Stories

This city is just full of surprises: To a newcomer here, a lot of Berlin’s ways might even come as a bit of a shock, until one gets used to it. Among these shocking things, is seeing spaces with a very particular context, such as churches, not serving solely their religious purpose as gathering points of worship, but instead being used for other cultural activities: exhibition spaces, concert stages, theatre stages. For most other parts of the world that’d be unthought of: but Berlin is just like no other city, haven’t we established that already? In terms of, well, everything; and churches confirm it.

Spaces so holy, designed to create awe and devoutness, connected with faith or death, both parts of life that are hard for us to conceive, find other, secular uses, and thus step off their high place somewhere closer to us. That’s got a lot to do with the city’s tendency of giving a new life to things old and abandoned: from the secondhand scene being so strong here, people reuse every chance they get, to abandoned places that often become art spaces, to churches and crematoria being reused, having a new life, and gain new meaning. A collection of such spaces, that caught our eye somehow, either with their design, or with the whole new use, we are about to present to you 🙂

How to Plan a First Date in Berlin

by Stella | Stories

You like him. But you’re also not really sure you do; The lights were dim, the exchange all too limited due to the loud music, and as it’s well known, a 4 can turn into an 8, maybe 9, depending on the amount of vodka shots consumed. But you did give him your number and now he asked you out. Or, more petrifying, an online date: He sounds funny on text, he looks cute in the pictures, but there’s always a more than 50% chance this could be all miles away from how he is in person.

How do you prep yourself to set out on this frightening adventure, that’s called a first date? The thing with first dates, they can be so awkward. Even a good first date, still has some good grimacing-emoji moments. It’s two people with zero or little idea of who the other is, trying to figure each other out by a series of questions, that need to be insightful and yet not creepy, and then when they answer questions they must reveal enough, but not too much, cause then where will the mystery go? read more…

Superheroes and Villains taking over Berlin

by Stella | Photos

photos: Berlin Ninja

How many times haven’t we all quoted Bonnie Tyler’s ‘I need a hero!’ in this crazy crazy city: This is probably what Berlin Ninja had in mind, when he unleashed all kinds of comic and cartoon heroes and villains around Berlin, to protect or sometimes attack it.

Inspired by the city’s amazing scenery and fun stories, and guided by freeing his imagination, Berlin Ninja’s Instagram keeps, among regular Berlin shots, a place where fictional worlds, such as the Marvel universe, and Berlin collide: He sent King Kong to attack our beloved TV tower and the Victory Column, Batman to guard over Friedrichschain, and Spider Man to climb on Panoramapunkt. How well the superheroes fit in the landscape only shows how magical Berlin can be; when I first looked at the pictures it both felt like they are and aren’t real! Take that, Gotham City!

Staying Safe and Getting Help in Berlin

by Stella | Stories

photos: Frailfail

Part of my answer to ‘what draws you to Berlin?’ is it being this exciting metropolis where all cultures mix and interact. Life here changes from one minute to the other, making each day a unique experience that keeps me on edge, as I try to be part of everything the city offers.

This lifestyle, however, doesn’t only have a positive side to it. This constant business and change can be overwhelming and stressful, turning the fairy tale into a nightmare. In big cities like Berlin, where the levels of excitement, challenges, temptations are always on max, it should be our primary concern that we keep ourselves safe, maintaining our peace no matter what; ‘When we love ourselves we can love others’, and other Eat Pray Love cliches, in this case stand surprisingly true. There is absolutely no shame in getting help, us is all we got, so our well being should come before any fear of mom, friend, employer being judgmental. Sometimes it’s little things we need to do to decompress, like jogging, meditating, knitting, whatever works. Other times though, balance is a bit harder to find: Instead of ignoring the signs or avoiding it, we owe ourselves to reach out to a professional helping hand, and Berlin gives us quite a few options to help us get back on track.

Berlin Illustrations That Will Melt Your Heart

by Stella | Art, Design, Products

The internet’s just great, isn’t it? Giving you access to the coolest blogs (like iHeartBerlin!! 😎 ), and also to discovering artists you wouldn’t otherwise: Jenny O’Boyle is one of them, and her illustrations will make you want to hug them. Jenny is a professional illustrator, running both a physical store at Wissmannstr. 21 and an online shop, both called bär von pappe (meaning bear of cardboard), selling her work as well as a line of sustainable stationery. Everything she designs is super cute, and we’d suggest once you find yourself near Hermannplatz, looking for a cute notebook in which to write about all your Berlin adventures, that you go and check out her stuff.

Lovers of all things Berlin as we are, what caught our eye is one of the artist’s city-themed projects, where she sets out to explore an object for each street of Berlin, and in this way, guide us around every neighborhood by means of illustration. Massive undertaking as it sounds, she’s done, however, a beautiful job so far, taking us from one massive monument, building, subway station or fountain to the next all the way from Mitte, over Kreuzberg, down to Neukölln. Here are some of her Berlin-themed artworks.

Discover Art inside the Labyrinth of Lies

by Stella | Art

Berlin is for the art lovers: its vast art community gives both locals and visitors the opportunity to feed their creative side with new events, going on almost everyday. Trying hard to keep up with all that’s going on in the city, we stumbled upon an exhibition that stood out, and couldn’t wait to tell you all about it: its name (seductive itself), Labyrinth of Lies.

400 (!) umbrellas are installed in an old industrial site, forming an actual labyrinth, through which the visitor is invited to walk through and explore multi dimensional pieces of art that had us go “wow!”. The maze’s creators are the London-based Connor brothers, in collaboration with Berlin artist Sven Sauer, brought together under the “umbrella” of the Plus One exhibition series. It’s truly remarkable how the artists try (and succeed) to have us, even for a second, question conventional rules of space — It’s not to be missed!

Stunning Impressionist Photo Art of Berlin’s Icons

by Stella | Art

photos: Florian Lonicer

You’re no strangers to iHeartBerlin’s crush for unique, cool art; let alone when there’s an innovative new project, inspired by the beauty of this city– we have to share! Florian Lonicer‘s love for urban photography and pursuit for perspective, combined with Berlin’s most significant touristic attractions brought to us the project Blickwinkel. At first sight, one might think this is a series of impressionist paintings, which would be cool enough, but finding out that these are actual photographs blew our mind!

This amazing result comes from 25 snapshots mashed together in postproduction: Each landmark is being photographed 25 times, all from different perspectives and locations. In this way, we perceive the essence of the landmark, while its frame becomes less concrete. For Florian, the different shots symbolize the different perspectives, as well as the different personal experiences each of us has, that connects us to each landmark: therefore each work of art is the sum of different perspectives, where rigid frames are shattered and colours prevail.

The photos are now available as a calendar for 2018 here.

Turning your Love Affair to Berlin into a Relationship

by Stella | Stories

We all have a story we cannot wait to share, of how we met and fell head over heels with Berlin. Arriving here for the first time, with no mental images or expectations in mind, I found myself observing every little thing in awe: cultures from every corner of the globe coexisting in such an interesting, diverse way, the insane nightlife which often becomes night-and-the-next-day-and-the-next-nightlife, its tolerance of everything that’s different or doesn’t fit in; all freaks find a safe haven here.I liked its chillness and its vibe, and finally was like, I’ve nothing to lose, I’ll date Berlin for a while; and it’s not until I had to leave that I felt magnetized,the thought in my head being: I keep thinking about Berlin. Maybe I should call Berlin again.

It’s not once or twice one hears this story: ‘I visited Berlin and fell in love with it.’ ‘Wow, Berlin! Such a good time I definitely wanna go back there!’ But where is the line actually being drawn between, Berlin was a good one night stand, and Berlin being the One? As in every relationship, an evaluation has to take place. Of course, choosing this partner often means leaving a lot of your previous life behind; and dealing with the unfamiliarity of it can be a pain too: the language, the lifestyle, the pace of the city can all be factors to discourage you. But how can you go on, knowing you’ve found something so special, but you’re too afraid? As Monica did before marrying Chandler, you have to weigh the pros and cons.

Pictoplasma: Berlin’s Cutest Festival

by Stella | Art, Design, Events, Galleries

illustration: Rob Flowers

Berliner creatives, rejoice! Once a year, our incredible city becomes home to one of the coolest designer and artist gatherings, Pictoplasma Berlin, which showcases the latest trends in character design, bringing together artists, video game and animation designers, virtual and augmented reality creators, but also illustrators, graphic designers, even kids’ books and ceramic designers, inviting them to explore how far they can push their genre boundaries, and our grasp of what’s real.

As its central event, Pictoplasma holds a conference where creators and producers have the chance to exchange ideas on new strategies on characters and trends. And while they do their thing, the wider festival invites us to enjoy multiple screenings of selected short films, bringing us the latest anime eye candy, combined with the opportunity to learn a thing or two, as the makers hold Q&As right after the screenings. Along with that, exhibitions run in galleries all around Berlin: there, one gets the unique chance to be part of quite rare exhibition tours by artists themselves, where they present originals and new productions. Cool huh? Parties and further art happenings is also part of the deal- enabling some fun interaction with the festival’s audience and production members.

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