Berlin...what to do? Where to try to stay (which area)

Cool, thanks.

I don't drink beer!!!! Loathe it.

Going to Berlin, but don't like beer, or eating meat...

Have you considered Thailand?

Seriously, that department store is worth a visit. An Aladdin's Cave of food. And loads of other stuff of course. But you mentioned food.

easy to get around - busses , streetcars , subway and fast suburbun trains .
" pickpockets " come with the territory - berlin is a large multi-ethnic city .
a little caution goes a long way . the "criminals " are often just transients who need some cash - really no need to worry about hold-ups .

if you check out the website you should find vegetarian restaurants - i'll have a look .
of course , berlin is famous for it's " currywurst" - isn't that vegetarian ?

Signing out and saying "Gute Nacht" to Hamburger.

i got this listing of vegatarian restaurants through google .

http://maps.google.ca/maps?rlz=1T4GGLJ_enCA233CA233&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=berlin+vegetarisches+restaurant&fb=1&gl=ca&hq=vegetarisches+restaurant&hnear=Berlin,+Germany&view=text&ei=O9FETLfZFuHsnQf0lOm_Cw&sa=X&oi=local_group&ct=more-results&resnum=1&ved=0CCwQtQMwAA

sorry , don't know how to post a " clean " web-address .

mctag :
did you enjoy some currywurst in berlin ?
i understand walter in really is in love with currywurst - BURP , BURP ...

Lol! It's my friend who is going to be a nightmare, food wise.

No gluten, no dairy, has to be organic.....

Hell, I am easy...I eat seafood, chicken, dairy....

Thank you!

Complaints about high strata fees, this that and the other thing but you're flitting around the globe, spending money like a Murdoch.

That's my experience in italy, and I've been 'approached' several times.

Anyone remember my ugly long worn black travel suit? it had zippered interior pockets. I tended to carry otherwise a small bag with nothing much in it, in other words, loseable, or just a plastic bag with a book and or camera, in major cities. Even though I grew less obviously a visiting american over the years, I still was hit up once on my last trip, and spit on, or at least hissed at.

A friend handled this question by sewing her own strange pockets in skirts or slacks.

Sadly, that same friend held on to her shoulder bag when being pursesnatched in Firenze, and wrenched her shoulder forevermore.
My answer, natch, is make your purse loseable.

I happen to loathe the neck string things and loathe even more the waist band hideaways, which is why I bought the damned suit (w two pairs of slacks, all washable) for my last trip. So Kr's idea of one's own sewn in hidey pockets sounds reasonable to me now.

Hiss, Jtt, the gurl loves to travel and she has not for lots of years. She finally is going for it, and you mock her for expenses that scare her.

If I finally got to travel again and you went after me, you'd have trouble on your hands.

Assuming that I went after the gurl.

Yeah, I hate the neck things too...but sounds like I need one. I can't recall where the one I used last time I travelled is...but it sucked anyway.

That's happening way more here, too. There never used to be beggars....now they are common in the areas I move around in.

I actually felt a bit threatened on Sunday, as some of the streets were almost deserted as I was going home ion Sunday evening, and there were quite large groups of very drunk Aboriginal people who were very verbally aggressive.

I'm happy to give money, but I don't like getting my wallet out when I am surrounded by a large group of very unpredictable people in case they grab it.

I've probably been surrounded four times, maybe five... enough to gear up in major cities.

It's one of the reasons I'm chary of backpacks as I don't like the concept of defending my back. I'd wear it as non back pack in some places. I never lost anything, and had a sobering moment, even laugh, about the time when I was desperately trying to find a bathroom on the via corso in rome, bleeding down my leg from a fribroid, and surrounded by a woman in chiffon and her kids. In that time, I carried what is now a signal, a fanny pack, but it only had tampax and film in it, and the group was disgusted and floated away.

I later grew more sympathy for them, but that's another story.

Really, Krista's (I'll identify her now) little pockets get more interesting to me.

Sweaty tummy bands, ugh. And the neck thing, they can tell, often.

As far as I know (and remember) you can get any type of food in Berlin, and at a quite reasonable price. (It isn't cheap here, but certainly places like Paris, London, Rome ... aren't cheap either.)

I do think that Berlin is as 'dangerous' as the above named cities. Or Albuquerque.

I don't take Berlin as dangerous. I've no idea how silly or serious this kind of worry is there.

But, tourist looking people are attractants.. at least those of us who don't travel in hordes. I take it that japanese tourists are potential victims in Los Angeles. I'm glad that on the four times I was surrounded, my credit card and passport weren't in my 'purse'. As I said, I got less tourist looking over the years, as italians asked me for directions or just to stop and talk. Still.


On albuquerque, relatively tame to me, but then, naturlich.

All I know about Albuquerque is from Breaking Bad.

Looks terrifying!!!

I never saw Walter eat currywurst. He eats cream cakes.

Dlowan, I mentioned the river trips in Berlin. The city has a surprising number of canals and navigable rivers, not too large, and you can go for miles. A calm and restful way of seeing some of the sights of the city from an unusual angle.

I made one misleading statement, above. The beer garden/ outdoor restaurant in the Tiergarten is not easily reachable from the other things I mentioned, on foot. The Tiergarten is huge. But the public transport is excellent. Get a day or a weekly ticket you can use and re-use as often as you like.

The friends we will be staying with for some of the time in England have mentioned staying/touring on barges in Berlin. I googled, but found nothing at all for barges.

I'll search some Berlin specific sites.