Conference non hacking Entertainment
Here some suggestions for entertainment in Berlin for during the conference. Add your name if you have somebody coming who would like to join the non-hacking!
Go to Mauerpark on Sunday, really. website Sunday, Mauerpark is teaming with life. There is a big flee market, loads of street artists and musicians do their thing, even open air plays are performed. There's barbecuing, beer gardening, dog- and children walking, all intermingled. A great way of spending the day! But remember: only on Sunday.
Really cool, see the website It starts everyday at 11am, 1pm and 3pm at the TV Tower at Alexanderplatz, meeting point is next to Starbucks. It is tip-based, in English and takes roughly 3-4 hours. You will see the cool spots, learn about subculture and street art. What you will not see there is the usual boring stuff as Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag and the other bold tourist places.
Similarly exciting are tours through underground Berlin. They have different types, cost 10-13 € each but cannot be pre-booked (first come first serve). The starting point is close to (S) Gesundbrunnen, for more information see this calendar
For a Hipster experience take your Macbook and go to Sankt Oberholz or Betahaus Cafe. Both have Wifi, drinks, and food. The Betahaus guys think location information on their website is so much Unhipster that you need to look it up on your favorite maps application.
(credit to Arthur Schiwon for the tips)
If you're more into Prada and the likes, check out Kurfürstendamm. That street is very close to the University, our conference venue (walking distance). Potsdammer Platz is also OK.
A nice walk is to start at Frankfurther Allee and go in the direction of Kreuzberg, to the oberbaumbrücke and the East Side Gallery. You can see the famous wall with its drawings. Crossing the Oberbaumbrucke and following the U-Bahn, you will have a nice walk. At the 2nd stop after the bridge (Gorlitzer Bahnhof) is Hannibal, totally hipster compatible (awesome weekend brunches). And if you go across the street into Oranienstrasse you've found Hipster Berlin at its best (the mentioned Betahaus is close by now). After a walk you come to Morritzplatz where, hidden on the left, the Prinzessinnengarten (princess garden) has some cool stuff, including interesting, daily changing vegan food and nice beers. This makes for a nice day's worth of entertainment.
Alternative to above, from the East Side Gallery you can continue to walk past the river towards the TV tower at Alexander platz. From there it is easy to find your way to Unter der Linden, passing by the Museum Island and ending up at the Brandenburger Tor. Museum Island has 4 very cool Museums on it and a few other nice ones near by. A favorite is the Pergamon Museum, with, among other things, a huge model of the Ishtar gate from ye olde Babylon, lots of beautiful Greek artifacts and more. A day is nothing on Museum Island!
You can of course also get there from the University, walking through Tierpark, via the Brandenburger Tor to Alexander Platz. Just walk to the TV tower ;-)
Put your name below if you're interested in finding somebody to do one of the above or other things with or discuss on the (dev) mailing list or IRC.
- Efstathios Iosifidis: I would like to go to [Computerspielemuseum] (http://www.computerspielemuseum.de/1210_Home.htm)