Berlin: Kastanienallee X Oderberger Strasse | Prenzlauer Berg
'my' cross road in Prenzlauer Berg: this is where Oderberger Strasse and Kastanienallee
meet, but also Tram and Taxi, pedestrians and bicyclists, ambulance and perambulators,
people going out, people going to work: a crossroad where you basically won't
get bored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
And even if you find yourself alone one day - and maybe you even dare to cross
the cross road diagonally, than this is also quite a special occasion
Both streets are considered to be rather wide streets - and comfortable for walking
next to each other - which you might find a curiosity if you're used to walking
down other cities' rather narrow streets as seen in New York, Helsinki or Tokyo.
Walking 'down' Kastanienallee will lead you directly to Mitte. If you continue
walking after crossing the Fehrbelliner Strasse, the 'Kastanienalle' changes to
'Weinbergsweg' (which means 'wine hill way') - the 'highway to Mitte', next to
the park called 'Weinbergspark' (which means 'wine hill park') - a 'ramp' that
comes handy if your're going 'down' to Mitte on a bike, but easiely might also
get on your nerves on the way 'up' to Prenzlauer Berg - 'Berg' means something
like 'mountain' (in the north of Germany every landscape rising higher than 3
meters may be called 'mountain').
Walking down Oderberger Strasse from Schönhauser Allee / Choriner Strasse
towards Bernauer Strasse will lead you directly to a park called 'Mauerpark' -
which stands for 'Wall Park' - and which is built on the ground, where the Berlin
Wall used to devide the City.
Nowadays the 'Mauerpark' is a favourite hang out not for people from this neighbourhood,
but also for 'tourists' from Mitte, Friedrichshain or from elsewheres. In the
summer time you people love to sit here for hours, pretend it was a beach, watch
the sunset over West Berlin (Wedding), play plane spotting, have a grill party,
throw a frisbee, have a beer (drinking in public places is totally ok in Berlin,
as long as you don't start yelling, peeing or missbehaving in other ways!) or
go to one of the bars that can be found around the corner, down the street.
Of course, just like everywhere, a lot has changed in this neighbourhood - and
will probably keep changing: backyard parties in the summer time seem to be not
'the thing' anymore like they used to be (but still can be found accidentally).
Instead people are having a quite good time in the numerous cafes, fast food stands,
bars, or simply on the sidewalk almost all day and all of the night. New shops,
restaurants, cafes and bars are opened every now and then, old shops, restaurants,
cafes and bars vanish, change, or mutate into something completely different.
