BERLIN CITY GUIDE, PHOTO DIARY & VLOG!

WHERE TO STAY

Hotel Catalonia 

So we were kindly put up in Hotel Catalonia
situated in Mitte which was honestly one of the coolest hotels I’ve ever stayed
in. A very industrial, somewhat edgy vibe to the entire place with bare brick,
copper pipes, reclaimed wood and of course Edison light bulbs throughout.
It was a really inspiring place to stay, providing a great space to work and of
course to sleep.
The rooms were bright and airy, with a minimal theme throughout and we woke
every day to the most gorgeous natural light streaming through the window.
I’d highly recommend this hotel, as it’s in an awesome location. Mitte, which I
will go into more detail about later, is a seriously cool part of Berlin and
pretty much every destination we had planned to visit was around a 10-15 minute
taxi ride away, ideal or what!

When it comes to travelling, the most
important thing on my agenda is FOOD! I spend days beforehand scouring the
internet for the best foodie recommendations and I believe I truly
found the perfect restaurants and cafes this way, however we did discover some
gems of our own, that’s for sure.

Berlin is ABSOLUTELY-FLIPPING-GIGANTIC and as someone who doesn’t do too well with European metro/tram/bus services, I opted to go by foot or by taxi. Berlin has Uber which was a little godsend to say the least.

Distrikt

On our first day we hopped in an Uber and
headed to Distrikt, a seriously cute and cosy coffee house, serving delicious
pastries, acai bowls and hot breakfasts.

We sat, super cozily in the warm coffee shop, watching the rain tumble onto the streets around us, rather content with our breakfast. I opted for the famous acai bowls and it was truly delicious and probably the most beautiful and most healthy breakfast I had ever had. George went for a rather interesting breakfast of poached eggs and chicken broth, really strange but really tasty indeed.  This place was the perfect way to start a morning in Berlin and I’d definitely return again, especially as the staff were truly wonderful, providing us with a detailed list of places to visit in the area.  

Monkey Bar & Neni

From the get-go I knew
I wanted to head to Monkey Bar, mainly because of the rooftop setting which
provided a gorgeous view of the city and secondly as I’d seen photos of the
cocktails on offer and was definitely keen to get in on the action.

Monkey Bar had a really cool and contemporary vibe to it, It was
super busy and was operating on a one-in-one-out entry system, however, after just
five minutes of queuing we were in the lift and on our way up to the bar, so the waiting time was no time at all.
We both chose a cocktail from the extensive menu, mine a French Cup, a gin based cocktail with blackberry liqueur and ginger, with George opting for a Whiskey Sour both of
which were delicious and really rather pretty.
The vibe inside was so great, tonnes of young professionals grabbing a drink with friends after work, I could have stayed all night just people
watching, but with tummy’s rumbling it was time to take the short walk to Neni…
Just kidding Neni is actually attached to Monkey Bar so no walking necessary…
WIN!

Okay so Neni is probably the most stunning
restaurant I’ve ever eaten in. On the top floor, similarly to Monkey Bar it has
the most beautiful of views, but this time the whole
restaurant had a botanical gardens vibe to it; Fresh flowers covered the tables
with plants including ivy, littering the walls and ceilings, it was absolutely stunning, the perfect setting for a romantic meal for two.
The menu, at first glance was a bit disappointing to me, and I panicked that we’d
made the wrong choice, however, letting George do the ordering, he came up
trumps and the food was utterly sensational.

The menu is designed for sharing so we ordered quite the hefty selection. I’ll start with what is probably the best steak I have ever had, Entrecote I believe, and oh so tender and juicy. We then ordered, or should I say Gee ordered a meze selection of houmous, tapenade and cous cous, served with warm pitta bread, a wonderful side dish to accompany the steak. In addition to that we opted for scallops on a bed of lentils… And I kid you not I am still salivating over this dish now, the lentils were like nothing else I have ever tasted! And of course a bowl of sweet potato fries with homemade chilli sauce was also thrown into the mix.

I’d really recommend both of these haunts whilst visiting Berlin as it’s the perfect place to spend an entire evening, totally great for groups of friends and couples alike.

Roamers

On day two of our trip to Berlin we visited
Roamers, a seriously gorgeous café with the bloggiest of interiors. This came up a number of
times on my Instagram, so huge thanks to you if you commented, we really
enjoyed our breakfast here.

The breakfast was served on a metal “prison tray”, not my ideal choice of server, but hey, I’m old school like that, but what was on the tray was simply divine! A huge dish of fried eggs, houmous, bacon, tomatoes, toast, avocado and salad, with each mouthful completely delicious.

However, despite the delicious food, we found the staff to be a little impatient and somewhat rude with us waiting for over an hour for our breakfast to arrive … Not good when you’re starving, hungover and are itching to get out and explore, so just bare that in mind when visiting. But, the food is delicious, the coffee spot on and the ambience is truly sensational with awesome décor, the best music and a great young and trendy vibe to it.

Burgermeister

This place, was the most recommended place on
any blog guide, any Instagram post and Facebook status out there, so we just
knew we had to try it out.
Most people talked about the little Burgermeister stand, which we did drive passed, but we
actually visited the sit down restaurant as we just so happened to
stumble upon it en route to Voo Store.
It’s a really low key affair, with an extremely simple menu of burgers and chips, but that most definitely adds to the charm of the place.
We found it to be very reminiscent of Five Guys, Dirty Burger and other trendy
burger joints we have in the UK, however,  I must say I wasn’t overly impressed. It wasn’t
as great as other burgers I’ve had and I felt rather disappointed after all the
hype I’d heard around it… However, it was saved by the cheese fries… like seriously GET IN
MY BELLY!