Spring Break in Berlin: a Photo Diary

For all of my expectations about spring break in Berlin, I never imagined I would fall in love with the city as much as I did.

I stayed in Mitte, the SoHo of Berlin (if SoHo wasn’t packed with tourists and still felt like a neighborhood). I spent a lot of time meandering down Augustraße and Mulackstraße, selecting stationary from RSVP and devouring every international magazine I could ever want from Do You Read Me?! (That’s the store’s punctuation, not mine.) By the end of the first week I’d gotten my bearings and could lead myself through most (ok, some) of Mitte and Kreuzberg without panicking about WiFi to access Google maps.

I became obsessed with the cinnamon rolls at Zeit för Brot (translation: Time For Bread). The massive buns come in a range of flavors — my favorite was marzipan — and the shop became my nut milk oasis.

The streets were oddly empty, leaving the big city to feel instead like an intimate, graffiti-filled village. Old Soviet warehouses, abandoned buildings and hidden, indoor pools were our midnight playgrounds — this place was Neverland. I’m usually not one for clubbing, but Berlin, where everyone wears shoes for dancing rather than hobbling, is a whole other pie.

This wasn’t the purpose of my trip, I swear. I was there with my senior thesis class to meet artists and see Berlin artwork and get inspired by a new environment. And the art in Berlin is amazing. It felt like a breath of fresh air after seeing the same visual aids in New York for the past four years, but the best parts of the trip were hands down exploring on my own and making new friends.

Now that I’m back I can’t shut up about it. I want to tell everyone about this magical fairyland where the people are pretty and the food is good and the subways are lined in shades of pastel.

But it wouldn’t be right if I did all the talking. So, tell me about your spring break — even if you just stayed on your couch. Anything’s better than working, right? Especially anything involving cinnamon rolls.

Photos by Krista Anna Lewis.

Feature Image: Porto Maggiano Horizontal, Massimo Vitali, 2011