Bergmannkiez, Berlin

Bergmannkiez is one of my favorite neighborhoods in Berlin. If I wasn't so obsessed with Prenzlauerberg, this is where I'd want to live. Everything screams 'EUROPE' when you're strolling along Bergmannstraße, which isn't something you get a lot of in Berlin.

Audrey and I like to plan jam packed Berlin weekends to make it feel like we aren't missing out on the Euro experience because of COVID-19. Thankfully, Berlin handled its outbreak swiftly and was only shut down for a few short weeks before things started opening up again. By mid-April we were eating out, hanging out in parks, and visiting museums again. Largely thanks to the German penchant of following the rules (distancing, wearing masks, etc.).

These pictures are from when Solina came to visit Berlin at the end of May. We spent a lot of our time running around Bergmannkiez, since she lived in the neighborhood while studying abroad in Berlin in 2017.

After working up an appetite jogging, biking, or rollerblading around Tempelhofer Feld make a beeline towards Ruben's Cafe (Mehringdamm 65, 10961 Berlin). This is one of our favorite cafes to people watch on and the waiters never rush you away. We usually start or end our days here, sitting for hours, playing music aloud, and ordering watered down lattes or bananaweizen. The apartment building next door has the best looking tenants in all of Berlin.

We visited Dolden Mädel Braugasthaus (Mehringdamm 80, 10965 Berlin)

but didn't love it and left after 30 mins.

Ending the day on the lawns of Viktoria Park well worth the uphill trek (the view from atop the stairs, not so much).

There's so much more in this neighborhood I love:

- Cheap pad thai from Pagode Thai Kitchen (Bergmannstraße 88, 10961 Berlin)

- Stocking up on Yorkshire Tea from Broken English (Arndtstraße 29, 10965 Berlin)

- The salmon bowl from Huong Que (Bergmannstraße 96, 10961 Berlin)

- Having the sidewalk accordion player serenade me while I eat overpriced pizza from Parlamento Degli Angeli (Bergmannstraße 109, 10961 Berlin)

- The weird cigarette smell the clings to your clothes even after just five minutes inside Clash (Im Mehringhof, Gneisenaustraße 2A, 10961 Berlin)

- Hailed as the best doner in Berlin on multiple TV shows, blogs, and vlogs, Mustafa's Gemüse Kebap (Mehringdamm 32, 10961 Berlin) is delicious and worth waiting in line for. Technically, it's not in Bergmanmkiez but I have to pass by it to take the U-bahn home so it's usually part of my adventure.

- I usually feel pretty awkward pulling out my laptop at cafes in Berlin (so not hip, so not cool, too "rat-race-y for Berlin) but not at cuccuma (Zossener Str. 34, 10961 Berlin).

When in doubt, I go to Bergmannkiez.