I went to Berlin for the weekend with two of my best friends, we met at Uni about 15yrs ago and lived together for two years. We stayed in Prenzlauerberg, a district in the former East. By pure coincidence the weekend we chose to visit was also the weekend of celebrations to mark 25yrs since the Wall came down. One of the main attractions for these celebrations were a line of balloons running the length of the wall, which at night were lit and on Sunday 9th November were released one by one in succession.
Apart from seeing these Balloons and their release we actually didn’t do very much ‘touristy’ stuff. We spent our time walking the streets of Prenzlauerberg, browsing markets and boutique shops, ‘brunch-ing’ in cool cafes, eating in delicious restaurants, drinking beers until the early hours in relaxed quirky bars and generally having a good catch up – it was perfect and Prenzlauerberg is also perfect for this!
It has certainly left me wanting to return to Berlin and do the touristy stuff that we didn’t – my boyfriend will enjoy this – but definitely need longer than 2 days to fit it all in! There is so much to see and do here, and it is all quite spread out, unlike London which is quite compact in comparison.
I decided to take one camera and one lens – my Canon 5Dmkii and 40mm lens (pancake lens) – nice and light and compact. It was very refreshing to be only with one lens and no options, I enjoyed it’s restrictions and also it benefits. I even did a little filming with it – but now I need to work out how to edit/use the film files.
Here is a slightly different view of Berlin to the normal tourist trail
The Entrance to our apartment
We stayed in the top apartment of the pink building
Cafe Anna Blume – recommended to us for breakfast/brunch – a definite winner!!
Saturday was the most beautiful sunny Autumn day 
Trampolines in a public park! 
A man with a wicker basket offered us free apples! 
Photobooths are all over the City! ……. we forgot to use one 
Love this! 
Only access to wifi the entire time! – bliss
BAD!
We tried to book a table for this place – not entirely sure what it was but it looked very cool. Some sort of gypsy cabaret band
There were screens along the length of the Balloon installation showing old footage.
More brunch
Cool car
Brandenberg Gate
Us
The last few images are from my iPhone
