The declining Corona regulations and warm weather of the last few months have given us the chance to rediscover Berlin. But now that the autumn gloom is upon us, and the dreaded Berlin winter is already lurking around the corner, you might feel more inclined to rediscover the city from the comfort of your home. And why not do it with a lovely puzzle?
Many Berlin creatives managed to come up with some amazing stuff during the pandemic. Such is the case of Magda Stadnik, an illustrator and designer originally from Poland, who has come up with “we come in piece” – a wonderful puzzle depicting Berlin.
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by Michalina | Design
The beloved cozy Christmas atmosphere with all its lights, markets and holiday feels are gone, even the excitement and glitter of New Year’s Eve has faded. The new year leaves us longing for more happy celebrations, but instead, gloomy January has taken their place to spread his dreaded winter blues. I can’t tell you how bad it gets to me, every time. Since I was very quickly over Netflix and couch after the fourth night in the row, I thought about what other activities in Berlin could brighten up this dark January. So this list goes out to everyone suffering from the January blues – let’s get off the couch and have some fun!
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by Franziska | Bars, Market, Music, Restaurants, Theater, Wellness
photos: Alicia Kassebohm
The following guest-article is brought to us by our favorite Berlin-based Yoga teacher and founder of Your Space Michaela Aue who is making the iHeartBerlin team sweat like animals and giggle like kids in all of her classes.
Berlin is Yoga heaven but Berlin men can be a Yoga hell. But before I go into this in detail let me tell you just a bit about me. I am yoga teacher living and working in Berlin for many years now. My best friend would probably describe me as a white-wearing creative chaos of some sort. For most of my adult life I have been consumed with the search of the ‘Mind-Body-Connection’. Sounds so cheesy, but it is so true. Some might call it ‘the moment of bliss’ while others call it ‘being in your center’. The balance between body and mind is probably something we can all agree on for now.
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by Guest Author | People, Stories
photos: Markus Abele
I totally get that Yoga is not for everybody. Sometimes when I am sitting there, in one of those hardcore Jivamukti classes where they sing all together and talk about important life lessons I try to imagine the face of my grandmother when the yoga teacher says: “You are a beautiful flower. And now please spread your legs and hips wide to let the deep emotions in. Like the sunshine is entering with its beams into your inner flower”.
My secret method to enjoy these kinds of situations is taking it with a sense of humor. It’s like a free live episode of one of your favorite comedy shows and you build muscles and flexibility while watching it. I call it a win-win! But that does not mean that I don’t take yoga seriously. Actually, it’s one of the few things in my weekly routine that helped me in many situations of life for the past 8 years.
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by Claudio | Books, Wellness
Berlin is many things, but undeniably, Berlin is pretty damn gay. The capital is so famous as a vibrating LGBTQ hotspot with countless bars, clubs, parties, different places, different styles, scenes and people that it can all become pretty confusing. You have something for everyone here, and that can be a bit overwhelming at times. So, we put together a little list of places a Berlin gay should know.
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by Andy | Bars, Clubs, Events, Kreuzberg, Mitte, Neukölln, Party, Prenzlauer Berg, Schöneberg, Tiergarten
One of the ways in which Berlin is truly incomparable, is that it’s a big city you can escape without really leaving it; no long hour driving to get to an oasis of green, for they are all around the city! And the best way to enjoy nature, relax, and let all stress go? A boat ride.
For those who don’t have a way out of the city due to work, Berlin’s parks offer the perfect little escape on a daily basis: it’s the place we can cool off, forget about the city’s busyness and let nature have us as its kids again. And when these parks have a lake we can take a boat ride in, all the better! One of our options is right in the center of Berlin, with Tiergarten offering boat rides in Cafe am Neuen See! A cute little lake you can paddle your way around, wave hello to your co-paddlers, and lose yourself in the serenity of the scenery.
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by Stella | Cafés, Tiergarten
Whether it is Christmas, New Year’s Eve, holidays in general or a simple Saturday night, we have all had this friend urging us to go out, forget worries and problems and just let ourselves loose by partying and….having fun. It has recently dawned on me how bizarre it is that a term as vague and broad as fun would be strictly and exclusively defined by very specific activities, such as hanging out in bars and clubs. Should you ever opt for doing something different, such as read a book or play board games, you would most certainly run the risk of being labelled as boring, miserable and generally “not fun”. Should this one incident develop into a pattern of behavior, that does not abide by the sacred and inviolable guidelines of how to have fun, then the situation might even be considered alarming and lead to people asking you if everything is alright in your life in general, so that they can find and eradicate the root of all evil.
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by Nikos | Stories
We’ve all been there. During summer literally all of Berlin seems packed with beautiful, super fit people hanging around semi-naked and looking like they just jumped out of a fitness-Instagram channel. The problem is, regarding your own fitness, you wouldn’t dare hang around these super humans to practice your yoga skills, running stamina or doing sit-ups. What seems annoying but nonetheless joyful in the summer becomes practically impossible during wintertime: doing sports outside. But, you might ask, how and when should you achieve your perfect summer body?
Together with the newly opened gym JOHN REED Fitness Music Club, we wrote down a series of serious (and not-so-serious) reasons why you should avoid doing outdoor sports in Berlin in winter. As an alternative, we are not only recommending you this new fitness club right in the middle of the city, but also raffling out two full-year memberships. Not bad right? Check out our little GIF series after the jump.
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by Claudio | Mitte, Stories, Wellness
To really feel like you live in a place – to feel a real sense of belonging in a city – you need four things: A literal place to live (obviously), work of some sort, a lover or something like a love life, and then this fourth, often overlooked thing: a social life.
We take friends for granted a bit. When I moved here from Brooklyn, I sort of forgot that I’d have to start from scratch to have an active social calendar: to know where to go and what to do, and have people to do these things with. It can be quite hard to make solid plans! Berlin is a vibrant city, of course. With so many visitors and hostels and everything, it doesn’t take too long to learn that, say, clubs exist. But without some effort, you might think that nightlife is all about Matrix! Who knows when you’ll meet the cool person that turns you on to Sisyphos?
Fortunately, there are lots of resources out there to help those of us new to the city. After you’ve sorted your anmeldung and visa and all the headache stuff, and even found an apartment (miraculously!), it’s time to have fun. I don’t need to tell you about Tinder or im gegenteil or the many other dating apps focused on finding love and sex. But finding friends is another story. It’s sort of hard to imagine a Tinder for friendships, isn’t it?
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by Keith | Stories
Sometimes when I get asked about what you could do in Berlin in the summer and I have just given every imaginable advice about lakes, outdoor locations and open air parties I simply run out of suggestions. That’s the moment when I have to become creative, or simply a little silly… So instead of giving you sensible advice about summer activities today I give you a list of the most awkward and random things to do on a sunny weekend. Have fun!
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by Frank | Stories
