For only a couple of years a new trend has started to emerge, the so-called escape games have brought a new way to have fun in Berlin. Yes, they are not cheap and they take only one or maybe two hours. Nevertheless, the fun that they provide is worth it. I tried myself and It was just awesome!

But what is a escape game after all?

Escape games came actually from software games, but as this was not real enough, people decided to create real rooms where you can experience the same emotions. Based on the definition on Wikipedia a escape game, room escape or scape the room is a game which requires a player to escape from imprisonment by exploiting their surroundings. The room usually consists of a locked door, objects to manipulate, and hidden clues or secret compartments. The player must use the objects to interact with other items in the room to reveal a way to escape.

Where can you find these games in Berlin? Here is a list with some options:

The Room - Live Escape Game Berlin

www.the-room-berlin.com/en/the-room
Number of People: From 2 to 5
Price range: From 66 to 99€ per Room
Address: Ruschestr. 64-66, Lichtenberg
Phone:+49 (0) 30 373 065 11 
E-mail: info@the-room-berlin.com

Years ago I did a small post about yoga in Berlin. Today I make another one with new links based on feedback found on internet.

Doing again the same and the same?  What about trying something different? Here is a list of 7 activities that might make you love Berlin even more!

Two years ago I wrote a list of tech events and tech meetings in Berlin. This year I'll make the same with  fresh new and updated links. Here is the full list:

Place	Price	Time in hours for visiting	Price / Time
Fat Tire Bike Tours	24	4.5	5.4
Berlin Bus Tour	17	2	8.5
Insider Walking Tours	15	4	3.75
Hamburger Bahnhof	14	2	7
Checkpoint Charlie Museum	12.5	2	6.25
Pergamon Museum	12	2	6
Egyptian Museum Berlin	12	2	6
Neues Museum	12	2	6
Middle Eastern Museum	12	2	6
Museum of Pre-History and Early History	12	2	6
Museum of Islamic Art	12	2	6
Berlin River Cruise	11.5	2	5.75
Bode Museum	10	2	5
Altes Museum	10	2	5
Scharf-Gerstenberg Collection	10	2	5
Neue National Gallery	10	2	5
Gemalde Gallery	10	2	5
Alte National Gallery	10	2	5
Berlinische Gallery	10	2	5
Berggruen Museum	10	2	5
Photography Museum	10	2	5
Dahlem Museum	8	2	4
Ethnological Museum	8	2	4
Museum of Asian Art	8	2	4
Kunstbibliothek	8	2	4
Jewish Museum Berlin	7	2	3.5
Berlin Film Museum	7	2	3.5
Bauhaus Archive	7	2	3.5
Berliner Dom	7	2	3.5
Deutscher Dom	7	2	3.5
Ephraim Palais Berlin	7	2	3.5
Olympiastadion Berlin	7	2	3.5
Natural History Museum	6	2	3
Medical History Museum	6	2	3
Museum of Decorative Arts	6	2	3
Schwules Museum	6	2	3
Musical Instrument Museum	6	2	3
Berlin Botanical Museum	6	2	3
Georg Kolbe Museum	5	2	2.5
Brücke Museum	5	2	2.5
Stasi Museum	5	2	2.5
Anne Frank Centre	5	2	2.5
Berlin History Museum	5	2	2.5
Märkisches Museum	5	2	2.5
Church of St. Nicholas	5	2	2.5
German Technology Museum	4.5	2	2.25
Labyrinth Children’s Museum	4.5	2	2.25
MACHmit! Museum	4.5	2	2.25
Communication Museum	4	2	2
German Guggenheim	4	2	2
Art Forum at Berliner Volksbank	4	2	2
Humboldt Box	4	2	2
Childhood and Youth Collection	2	2	1
Düppel Museum Village	2	2	1
Anti Kriegs Museum	0	2	0
Alliierten Museum	0	2	0

Following this table and unless you have a good reason you don't want to go to Anti Kriegs Museum because it is free but you should go to the Berlin Bus Tour,  the price/time relation is the biggest one... almost twice than 4.4€!

There are more factors that could be taken into consideration for example the distance between one place and the other but since you have a traveling card for free then you are really not wasting money only time.Which could be also maximized but this could be the topic for another post.  Also I didn't considered the topics, the lunch breaks and most important your style.  

To summarize you could use this method if you have really problems to decide where to go. A factor to make a decision sometimes is making the most of your money. I'm sure there are more and better methods to do  it but this one was the one I found interesting.   At the end the most important thing is that you enjoy your visit in Berlin.

Have fun!

Berlin is considered one of the cheapest cities in Germany and because of that there are many ways to conveniently find beautiful, original and not expensive clothes.

If you just want to walk and see around, you can go to  Karl-Marx-Straße. This is a street full of  clothes shops. You can find really cool stuff for  even 5 €. Even shoes!

If your budget is limited then you would like to go to some flea markets, there are many in Berlin and you can find original clothes.



If you are into buying online, I can also recommend Asos. Many people buy there frequently. Otherwise, Zalando  but you will not find bargains. Some times, for a certain quality you must also be willing to pay a little bit more ...

H&M is another store that people in Berlin really like and if you can go on a sales period then it will be really cheap. They offer decent clothes for a fairly reasonable price. I would say they are at the limit, there are others discount stores like New York were the clothes have sometimes in my opinion very poor quality.

Other recommended sites are Fashion.de which offers a great selection and good prices but I haven't try it yet.

Shopping in Berlin is a fun activity and can be done with a few bucks!. What about you? Do you have a particular favorite shop?

A great option for entertainment and fun while staying healthy during this summer is to make some fitness training.  Visiting a fitness studio in Berlin is a good option to endurance training, muscle training and bodybuilding.

If you are not sure about how to do it correctly, most of the fitness centers offer personal trainers. In addition to  personal training there are often  courses in sports such as aerobics or pilates. There are also some gyms that are for women only.

Here is a list of some alternatives:

One of the most famous is McFit, you can find it all around Berlin and the prices are relative cheap, the only small problem is that you need to make a contract of at least one year. 

Super Fit and Fitness First are also two of the most loved ones in Berlin. There are some complains about them but I think this depends on your own luck.


Do you know about a better training place that you would like to recommend?

:-)

Board games are great for unlocking your creativity and promote healthy brain function. If you are interested in buying or playing them, you should check out this places:

http://www.spielbrett-berlin.de   They have hundreds of games and they offer also game nights. I've never visited them but the pictures look promising. They have different stores around Berlin.

http://www.der-andere-spieleladen.com. You can come to this place and play some of your favorite games like Magic or yu-gi-oh. They are located in Prenzlauer alle.

http://www.spielwiese-berlin.de/. This is one of my favourites. They meet every monday at 19:00 and they play for many hours until midnight. You pay a small fee to play but you can stay as long as you want. They have a huge collection of games that you can also buy. It is located in the beautiful Simon-Dach area of the Friedrichshain district.

Going around Berlin by bike is a nice alternative. It could be a little bit dangerous if you are not used to but it is also a lot of fun. Besides reducing some calories after eating some famous "curry wurst" ;-)

The standard tourist price is 10€ but you can find them for less. Here are some options: You usually need to leave your id card or passport for the rent.

https://www.facebook.com/RentABike44/info

http://www.berlinfahrradverleih.com/

http://www.helloworldberlin.com/

http://www.bike-rent-berlin.de/

Since many people request a one day plan to see the most of Berlin I summarized some activities that you could do:


- Start with the free tour of whole Berlin at 11:00 ( Cost approx. 5 €) New berlin tours

- You will be left at the garden "Lust Garten", from there you will have one hour or maybe two to visit one of the most exciting museums in Berlin: Pergamon Museum If you have enough luck to be on thursday the museum closes at 20:00

- Try some real German food at this great restaurant located in the S-bahn Tier Garten: TiergartenQuelle

-  If you are not already tired  and you are on the weekend you can go dancing: Dancing in Berlin
 

For all those architects around there, here is a list of sites with architecture events in Berlin:

• http://www.architectureinberlin.com/
• http://www.world-architects.com/en/agendas/ (all the world)
• http://www.bustler.net/index.php/events/ (all the world)
• http://www.architecturelist.com/category/events-and-exhibitions/ (old links but maybe they will update them soon)
• http://www.bangbangberlin.com/en/ (more art related)

Here is a list of links to tech events in Berlin, most of them are free:

• http://startupdigest.com/berlin/
• http://berlinwebweek.de/kalender/
• http://siliconallee.com/category/events
• http://berlinjs.org/
• http://up.front.ug/
• http://berlincreativemornings.eventbrite.com/
• http://webmontag-berlin.de/
• http://www.meetup.com/start-up-berlin/

What can be more special than coming to Berlin and drinking a nice cold beer?. Well in Berlin you can find in almost every corner a "späti" (small store which opens sometimes 24 hours)  where you can different options.

If you are more interested in bars. There is a Bar in Mitte, called Aufsturz, where they serve more than 100 different beers (not too expensive): http://aufsturz.de/

There is another placed called Eschenbräu, a small brewery with many but many beers. But I can not say a lot about it since I have never been there. :-)

 
For the last years there has been an important number of films that were either created in Berlin or the story takes places in the city.  The following is a list of those films.

Sonnenallee
Hamburg
King of Kebab
Soul Kitchen
Die Fetten Jahre sind vorbei
Sommer vorm Balkon
Berlin Alexanderplatz, Fassbinder
Kuhle Wampe, Slatan Dudow
the last days of the WWII:
Ich war neunzehn, Konrad Wolf
Berlin, Yuri Raizman (Documentary)
Die Mörder sind unter uns, Wolfgang Staudte
Im Himmel,
Unter der Erde (jewish cemetary Weissensee)
The Big Eden (about a playboy legend of the old Westberlin)
Vaterlandsverräter (about a Stasi spy and his crazy life)
Berlin Callling.
Foreign Affair, an American comedy film directed by Austro-Hungarian Billy Wilder,
Faith Like Potatoes(2006)
21 grams
Delicatessen (highly recommended)
Was tun wenn's brennt?
Boxhagener Platz
Der Schwarzfahrer" (The fare dodger, short movie, 1992)
Am Wannsee ist die Hölle los"
36boys
Technocity (1993)
Lychener 64" (2010) - Documentary about gentrification in Prenzlberg
Das Leben der Anderen by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse and Metropolis by Fritz Lang
Good Bye, Lenin! by Wolfgang Becker
The Marriage of Maria Braun by Rainer Werner Fassbinder
The Good German by Steven Soderbergh
Cabaret by Bob Fosse
A Foreign Affair by Billy Wilder
Possession by Andrzej Zulawski
Germany Year Zero by Roberto Rossellini…

Searching for information online or just bored?

Here are some random links that you could use if you don't know what to do and you want to waste your time, the same way I did it when I found them :-) enjoy!

Searching for information online

Bored in front of your computer

How to model in Maya

Some useful phrases for every day

 Food and drinks.

Drinking in Berlin, wine not expensive for few bucks

Eat and drink wine for few bucks!

Eating in Berlin, restaurant list

Ultimate list of restaurant in Berlin

  Shops in Berlin?

If you have been living in Berlin for long time maybe you are interested in some inside information about shops in Berlin.  I divided it in three lists to make it easier for everyone:

Copies, scan, fax shops

Coffee shops with internet, wlan

Repair shops, computers, mac iPod

Dancing and going bar hopping during the night is a tradition in Berlin, dont expect to return home before 3 or 4 a.m.  There are parties everywhere and you can switch the whole night to enjoy different rythms and practice your best moves. Here are some links that can help you decide:

Dancing, moving your body going to clubs

Something more relaxing: music, classic events

There are so many things to do in Berlin, if you are so lucky to live here you will not regret it. Let me put some example. Indoor, daylight and night activities, all is possible in this great city.

Indoor activities in Berlin

Daylight activities in Berlin

Night activities in Berlin