I’m currently sat on the Eurostar to Paris for the week with Danny, so I thought what better time to continue the world adventures series. Today we’ll be flashing back to February when we were in Berlin. I love Berlin. If I could live anywhere in the world it would be Liverpool, Dublin, Berlin or New York. I’ve always felt an unusual affinity with Berlin and I have no idea why. Before I ever went there I knew I’d feel at home. And since going in twentyseventeen I’ve been rushing back whenever I can. One of my favourite parts of Berlin is the insanely good and varied vegan food as well as the relaxed, alternative nightlife. We only popped over for a quick couple of days this time but we managed to fit in some delicious food and, of course, unlimited bier. Okay, let’s get going!

Dada Falafel

My sister recommended this to us and as we arrived at our Airbnb in the early evening we were famished! I got a falafel platter and it was amazing. Gigantic, crunchy falafel balls as well as hummus’, salads and pittas. Beware: there was an insanely hot sauce on this plate that looked like an innocent tomato sauce, don’t be fooled! Not solely vegan but very tasty and lovely staff who were happy to politely take the piss out of two English dickheads trying to use German fresh off the plane.

Die Bar

This little bar is in Prenzlauer Berg right by our apartment. It’s small and cosy with very low atmospheric lighting. Table service when it’s not rammed. This gin bar has over forty different gins as well as good beers and moorish cocktails. One thing to note about Berlin is it’s still legal to smoke indoors. If that’s something that might bother you then just be careful where you go. This place had a very cave-like ambiance that we really enjoyed but it meant smoke was very much in your lungs the entire time!

Samadhi

After spending a morning touristing around the Reichstag Dome and the Tiergarten we were ready for some delicious food. After a quick look on HappyCow we saw this little southeast Asian place just past the Jewish memorial. And man, are we glad we found it! It was delicious. They’re fully veggie but more than happy to make most of their dishes vegan. I had a tofu fried rice which just makes anything you cook at home taste like utter garbage. We also had a beer there that was like a German Guinness type thing. Was tasty.

Brammibals Donuts

Need I say more? This is a fully vegan donut shop! Really cute interior and friendly staff. We had oat milk lattes and too many donuts. They seem to switch the donuts around a lot however if the chocolate peanut butter one is there, get it! So good.

Soulcat

This bar is a lovely cosy venue with bright red walls that plays only vinyl records selected by the bartender. Very welcoming and great music choices. The Liverpool/Bayern Munich game was being shown when we were there (we tried to keep our scouse voices on the down low, turns out most of the people were actually Liverpool fans since Munich is obviously a Berlin rival) but we just sat in a little nook away from the big screen and it was perfectly pleasant. Another thing to note about Berlin is a heck of a lot of the bars are still cash only so don’t be caught out!

Lerchen&Eulen

This is hands down my favourite place in Berlin. What I love most about the Berlin nightlife is the fact you don’t have to go to the pub then come one am go off to some horrendous club and dance. A lot of bars are open til five and six am but they just stay as relaxed, causal, cosy places to sit and drink wine by candlelight. Literally so calming and fun. I first stumbled across this place a couple of years ago when I was with my sister and her boyfriend. She wanted to go in cos they had lots of nice plants outside! So glad we went in and now it’s a cosy bar I’ll head to every time I’m there.

Street Angels

This place, man, this place I had the most disgusting burger of my life. Zero exaggeration. I was so feeling just like a really good veggie burger and then we found this place on HappyCow so headed over. I don’t want to slate the venue itself because the place was nice, very quiet but it had just opened, and the staff were very friendly. But under no circumstances do I want anyone reading this to ever eat that burger! So I had to warn you. It was all kinds of wrong. Had like potato in, looked so crispy and good on the outside but then was just like a weird mushy fiasco inside. Tasted of nothing. Don’t do it. On the plus side, for any meat eaters, Danny had a schnitzel and said it was very good!

Bämeräng

On our last night we went to this vegan rock bar and boy, we were not disappointed. We had some nachos and garlic bread and some really weird Berlin delicacy which was just like dense bread with thick butter on and crispy onion bits (we were not a fan). We also had some huge steins of beer, cos, Germany. It was a small little place and we didn’t want to take up space for too long but the guy was really friendly and when he brought us another beer he brought some pretzels. Then he convinced us to try the tiramisu and I was easily convinced because I love tiramisu but have never had a vegan one. It was incredible. Next thing we know the guy puts a shot down on our table and we’re thinking errr we didn’t order those and then he said it’s a peppermint liqueur that’s very popular in Berlin. Oh, and it was free. It was delicious and we left feeling completely satisfied but also happy about how fucking lovely the service had been. Feels intimidating at first because it’s so small but we would definitely go back!

Hunger – Of Monsters and Men