Schmapping Copenhagen

The folks over at Schmap have been adding virtual travel guides for North American and European cities like there's no tomorrow. I wonder when they'll do Asia (they have Australia and New Zealand so far). Again, I'm lending them one of my photos. This time, it's of the Glyptoteket in Copenhagen. So if you're swinging by the Danish capital, take a look at Schmap's Copenhagen guide. My photo is part of the Town Hall Square and Tivoli virtual tour and filed under Museums and Top Attractions. I just have to say that their description of Roskilde is so funny.

Food trip: BER

German beer? I prefer water, thanks.

Our first dinner in Berlin was at an Italian resto at Hackescher Markt, which is touristy by all standards but doing brisk business. A couple of times, we tried looking for the restos recommended by New Berlin magazine, but they were all non-existent.

For a cheap fix, there's currywurst (sausage sprinkled with curry powder) everywhere. I prefer the bread kiosk near Warschauer station though, because it has a good assortment of pastries and pizzas for hardly anything.

I find German and Danish food similar: herring, rye bread, potato salad, meatballs. Not really our thing, having to deal with that assortment everyday, so we opted for Asian. Our splurge dinner was at Silberstein, which, despite its name, serves Japanese everything. To continue our tradition of drinking something local in every city, We matched our meals with Berliner Weisse, beer with syrup. I got one with raspberry while Indi had hers with woodruff.


Then we kept eating Asian food (sorry, Germany). The good: Asiagourmet at Berlin Hbf has big, fresh (and authentic Asian) meals at low prices. The bad: Villa Culinaria at Budapesterstraße. I thought the menu looked good enough. Turns out they everything is microwaved from the box.

We didn't eat here, but the first time we saw this, we thought the word lumpia was Filipino. Apparently we don't have a monopoly on it.

Markt, museum, park 1

No typo there--it's German.

Visited an antiques market near Tiergarten station. You could say we were expecting a different kind of market...

The 3-day museum pass is the best! For €7.50, as student can visit dozens of museums. Another great thing is that there are clusters of museums, such as those at Kulturforum and Museuminsel (Museum Island, a World Heritage Site), so you need not go far to go from one museum to the next for most major museums.

It's too time-consuming to go into the specifics of each site, so let the photos do the talking. I just need to point out the Jewish Museum for its unconventional (and disorienting) structure, which is truly noteworthy.

Reichstag

This is currently my desktop wallpaper. The cupola of the Reichstag was designed by Sir Norman Foster and Partners, who also designed 30 St Mary Axe (the Gherkin), City Hall and the Millennium Bridge, all in London.

Reichstag + Sponge Bob =?

So we queued two hours and spent 45 minutes up there. But can you complain when it's free?

Architecture in Berlin

The city of cool, cheap (relative to the rest of Europe) and cute (think Knut the polar bear or the bear mascot that symbolizes the city).

There's something young about Berlin despite its significance in the grim days of the 20th century. This chapter, while it overshadows much of its history, is balanced by the freshness of the architecture. Now if only they could do something about the sewer smell in some areas.