A Slice of Berlin, Germany!

Hi, I´m Hilka from Berlin/Germany. I am 28 years old and love the arts, music, intercultural life and experiences this town offers for me. I have a blog written in German and a flickr, too!.

I've wanted to live in this city forever and finally moved here four and a half year ago. Berlin has 3.4 million inhabitants and is, as you might know, Germanys biggest town. But don't think Berlin really has much of a metropolitan-flair because it doesn't have many skyscrapers; instead it has various parks and can therefore be called kind of a "green city."


I love that the people here use the parks as their gardens during the summer. You see sunbathers everywhere, and there are loads of barbecues, flea markets and many many parties! Now that the Airport Tempelhof is closed, there is a huge park in the middle of the city. It´s perfect for running, inline-skating, flying kites or just enjoying to see so so much of the sky in the middle of a big city!


One thing I had in mind when I decided to move here is the art scene. I love street art as well as the historic museums, art gallerys or art fairs, and there is such a variety and constant development in Berlins art scene, which is the most interesting thing to me about this city.




But also the alternative life in the streets plays a big role in “my” Berlin. There are many solidarity events, like “myfest” on May 1st, which is a labor movement-holiday. “myfest” is a street festival in Kreuzberg, a district which is characterized by Turkish migrants, and is attended by more than 10.000 people. You can see live music, buy snacks and drinks, sit in the streets, dance around - and wait for the riots to start by the end of the day… but before it turns too political and violent, it really is a nice intercultural party.


I also love visiting the typical tourist places of the city – but only when I have friends or family over to show them the city.


Next to wandering through the city, I enjoy the intense cultural life here. Going to the theatre has become one of my favorite hobbies. I know, you might not know many (good) German actors, but they hide in the theatres and that’s why they are not known in the cinema-world. ;)


One thing I also love about Berlin is the rich offer of vegetarian or vegan food. For example, there is a restaurant in Friedrichshain called “Vöner," where you can get vegan döner (kebab). In my neighborhood there are a lot of shops that sell local, organic and ecological food and the prices in bars and restaurants are mostly very cheap. That’s why I eat out very often, but I also like just sitting on a train-bridge, have a little picnic and watch the day go by…


If you like to know more about this city you can always contact me if you are ever visiting Berlin- http://www.couchsurfing.org/people/lalatika!

See you!

Hilka*