photo: Karsten Hintz
Probably the best thing about Berlin is the fact that it’s so diverse that no matter what you’re interested in, you can find a whole bunch of places here that will enable you to pursue your passion. Same goes for design – apart from such amazing examples of outstanding architectural thought like the Martin Gropius Bau or the St. Agnes Church, there’s also plenty of museums devoted to the subject, like the Bauhaus Archive or the Kunstgewerbemuseum. You can also get inspired by new initiatives of people who’re keen on creating beautiful and functional things, like the guys from Fundamental Berlin or LLot LLov. More about them and similar suggestions after the jump!
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by Michalina | Art, Museums
Berlin is a modern, contemporary city like any other, but in one respect it has an awfully bad reputation: Credit cards – let alone any other modern-day form of payment – not accepted! You will read this as a warning in any guide book or hear this from any visitor of the city who complains that they had to pay in cash in the restaurant, couldn’t pay with credit cards in a big electronic stores or with any card whatsoever at the cinema. Germans really seem to value cold hard cash…
But this is changing right now, we just haven’t noticed it yet! With my last visits to the IFA consumer electronics fair I have come across new forms of digital payment multiple times and I wondered, how these are already implemented in Berlin so far. I investigated a bit and made some practical tests.
One of the technologies that I found especially intriguing is the so called mobile wallet that you have on your smartphone. They exist on multiple platforms, the one being interesting for me as an Android user is called MyWallet and it’s available for free at the play app store. What it is is a digital version of your wallet that includes your credit cards, right on your smartphone. Another technology that I tested is the mobile app of Paypal that let’s you use your Paypal credit to pay in stores. More about that and my favorite stores, cafes and restaurants that offer mobile payment after the jump.
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by Frank | Bars, Cafés, Kreuzberg, Mitte, Neukölln, Prenzlauer Berg, Restaurants, Shops
photo: Jason Hargrove / CC
When you live in Berlin you will probably sometimes need more than a recommendation for a restaurant, party or fashion shop. Sometimes you need practical things for projects, jobs or for your house, like where to buy this or that material, where to rent this tool, how to produce this? Especially when you are new in town these things are a little harder to find than the obvious stuff. In an effort to make this blog more than just a tourist and culture guide we have started to come out with some features that go beyond gastronomy and entertainment. So far we already released guides on networking, learning German and moving to Berlin. Today we have yet another one that will come in handy every once in a while: Practical shops and services in Berlin. Here you will find hopefully a lot of places to buy materials and tools for crafts, designing, art, home improvement. We also added a couple of places for rentals and production. Enjoy our guide and feel free to add useful things that you think are missing in the comments below.
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by Frank | Shops
