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Buying the Cheapest Train Tickets in Berlin
The sound of the underground… We arrived in Berlin during the summer – a perfect time to be outdoors cycling or walking. However with only four days in two months without guests, we had no time to wander around our local area, let alone buy bikes. So we did the normal thing you do in London: we bought daily travel cards and discovered this fabulous city. If only we’d known how many options there are for buying train tickets in Berlin – we would have saved so much money and since we love you all so much, we are going to share what we have learnt. Tickets can be used…
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Underground Tours Berlin
The sound of the Underground… We’ve actually been wanting to go on an Underground Tour in Berlin for ages. We picked the subway/ bunker tour and it was amazing. Let me tell you all about it. On the website it says you will have to wait in a queue and it’s first-come-first-served, but we got there ten minutes before the start, grabbed tickets in less than 30 seconds and we were off soon after (it was a weekday in November though…). There was a random door on the street that we opened and down the stairs we went! We started in a WWII bunker that was converted into a bomb…
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Tax doesn't have to be tax-ing in Berlin
Help! I need somebody… Help! Not just anybody… I hate doing taxes. In England it’s bad enough, but having done it now for many years I’ve managed to get it down and finish it in less than ten minutes. Oh yeah!! However, here in Germany it’s full of long German words like Einkommensteuerreformgesetz and Berechnungsvorschriften or Solidaritätszuschlag. Basically, even google can’t explain this stuff to me and now the tax people are nagging us to sort this out, in a big panic we went to an accountant. And it was the best decision we have made since coming to Germany. OMG WHAT A LEGEND. I will give you all his information at…
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Düsseldorf
I’ve been so many places in my life and time… I’m not going to beat around the bush here, there was only one reason why we went to Düsseldorf and that was to try the Japanese food. I’ve always heard everyone rave about it and Japanese people travel specifically to this city to eat. I wish I could say it was so amazing that I will do it again, but alas, it wasn’t. The actual city is super cute though. I’m going to be lazy and just tell you about it all under the photos (I’m still sick so feeling ready to go back to bed and rest again now –…
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The Flu and a Lifetime Achievement!
There is no one else… I’ve mostly been excited about getting my photo on the front page of the BBC – this has been a life goal for me and I made it! It was taken in the lovely little town I lived in for three years and I’ve told everyone there and they are so excited to be featured – next step is to make it a UNESCO site 🙂 In other news… I’m sick. Really badly sick. It’s been going on for almost two weeks now. At first I just pumped myself full with Ibuprofen so it was okay for a week, but just as I was starting…
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Teufelsberg in Berlin
The hills are alive… Autumn this year is just one big sunshine hit. It’s wonderful. Every day it is getting a little colder but the sun blazes through warming us up as we continue to discover the great outdoors of this city. I’ve wanted to go to Teufelsberg [Devil’s Hill] in the West of Berlin for ages now and we finally made it! Although the plan had been to go and check out the whole historical part of the hills, we actually just ended up going on a hike/ walk through the Grunewald to see the view of Berlin. After WWII, 70% of Berlin had been reduced to rubble. This meant there…
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Bad Wilsnack
Under the sea… Autumn is officially here and I’m cold. If you are feeling the chill, I know the perfect place to warm yourselves up. Bad Wilsnack is an hour by train from Berlin, but still in Brandenburg State, so you can get a nice cheap ticket (€23) for yourself and four friends as long as you travel together. [A sneaky insiders tip: sit on the right side of the train and look out of the window just after you leave the main bit of Berlin and you can get a lucky glimpse into the naked world of men who like to wander around without clothing and sunbathe. I was a little shocked…
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Couch to 5k…
Run rabbit, run rabbit, run run run… This year has been affected a lot by my wrist injury. It’s actually getting worse again, even though I barely use it. It also means I’ve not been able to play badminton or dance with Jason. I try not to let it get me down, but it’s very annoying. I’ve noticed that because I can’t do any of the sport activities I actually enjoy, I have gained a lot of weight. Also I can’t cook properly as just peeling potatoes results in hours or days of pain and I want butternut squash soup SO BADLY but I can’t peel that thing without taking…
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Hairdressers in Berlin
Snip snip snip… I am one of those apparently VERY rare specimens of people who don’t enjoy getting my hair cut. At all. I have to put my neck in a weird position while someone I’ve never met touches my head and scrubs my hair. It’s weird. In Japan they give you a towel to put over your head, but here in Berlin and in London I never know what to do with my eyes. Stare at the ceiling? Close my eyes and imagine I’m getting a head massage? It just doesn’t work for me. I don’t want to hear about my hairdressers problems in life. I don’t want to…
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Cocoro Japanese Restaurant
Living on a prayer… You all know how obsessed I am about Japanese food, so I was surprised when a friend suggested we go to a place I’d not even heard of. Cocoro is next to our favourite kebab place Mustafa and the super-famous Currywurst 36. This street has a LOT of good food peeps! I had the chicken teriyaki don (chicken in teriyaki sauce on rice) and I have to say it was delicious. Everything tasted fresh and juicy – the rice was cooked to perfection too, which I find rare outside of Japan. The Genmai Tea was beautiful. Often it is said that because of the differences in the water…