This blog post is part of Wander & Listen by The VFD Collective.
Dieser Blogpost enthält Werbung (unbezahlt).

It’s winter time, real winter time. Already broke a new year resolution? Oh yes I did. Everyday life has caught up again. The sky, dark and gray, just like yesterday. And today. Probably tomorrow. On my way, in search of some sparks during the darkest days of the year, I created a playlist that are meant to encourage and inspire in a gentle and sincere way. It’s called Little Lights. For me, winter time is city travel time, because during these days, the city lights always shine the brightest (and I’m not a ski person). So in this Wander & Listen I'm happy to share a little list of places I loved to go to and thought were absolutely worth sharing. Let’s get started!

1 Oderberger Strasse & Kastanienallee

Kastanienalle and Oderberger Straße are, oh wonder, not places, but streets of Prenzlauer Berg. Streets to start writing your stories. Lots of my stories start here. Birthdays, driving school hours, heartbreaks, photoshoots... and oh, even the user manual of Fluorescence is printed in Kastanienallee.

Thoughts for the Weltenbummler

Start at the station of U8 Rosenthaler Platz, and walk uphill. Either walk until the Eberswalder Straße crossing and back or directly turn left onto Oderberger Straße, a more laid back, but just as colorful street directly connecting to Mauerpark. What’s the most chaotic street sign full of stickers you can find?

Towards the end I always found that the fire department and the carlessness makes up one hell of a backdrop for good looking photos. On a sunny Sunday morning in summer, go early and there's still plenty of time left for Mauerpark shopping (or after Mauerpark shopping in the morning). On a rainy winter day, look out for cute book stores and sit down for a hot chocolate.

2 Kaffee Ingwer

Here’s how you travel

I like to take the S Bahn to Ostkreuz and walk up Sonntagstraße, which connects this place diagonally. There’s always plenty to do on the way and even more to check out in that area. On a Sunday, be sure not to miss the RAW flea market.

3 Cafeteria TU BERLIN Skyline

This one is a true local insider, and this one’s for you. I’m always surprised by how unknown it actually is bearing in mind how cool it is. So the Telefunken-Hochhaus partly belongs to the Technical University of Berlin. A sensational thing is that they made the highest floor of the 22 story high rise (yeah, that’s much in Berlin) into a student canteen (with amazing food at student prices). Going up is, of course, free and you will enjoy an impressive view over ‘City-West’ all the way to the Fernsehturm and Teufelsberg on the other side, whether it’s a snowy, cold winter day or a warm morning in summer.

How to find it

Take the U2 subway line to Ernst-Reuter-Platz and you won’t miss it. Beware that, as it is a student canteen, it’s only open weekdays.

4 Alte Schönhauser Strasse & Hackescher Markt

In a warm summer night in August, a friend of mine and I were roaming the streets of Hackescher Markt. In that night, or morning, whatever time you call 4 am, we saw lights, people in the lights. We stepped closer to look. And they hold their little promise in Times New Roman they put on every white paper bag: They were busily making sure people in the morning wonder where the wonderful smell is coming from:

Check out these places

For the little triangle consisting of Alte Schönhauser Straße, Rosenthaler Straße and Mulackstraße, feel free to discover these following places I think you might enjoy: Zeit für Brot (where the aroma comes from), Paper & Tea, Five Elephant Coffee, Swing Kitchen, Granit, Schee, Schönhauser Design. FOTOIMPEX, Macchina Caffe.

5 St. Oberholz

St. Oberholz is the infamous name of a cafe where notable German start ups came to life. It’s more ‘introverted’ and intimate version located at Zehdenicker Straße 1 is a true gem and the ideal place for great coffee and to get some work done. For those who take the term ‘work’ more seriously, it’s actually a co-working space. As I just lived a few blocks away, I spent countless days in that cafe. On a summer Sunday afternoon, I remember showing the design of TheVFDCollective.com to a friend.

Here comes the playlist