I came up with this music venue long time ago, I think through a blog in 2009. I used to check every week the concerts they had at that time at the very beginning when the West Germany avenue was still underground and almost unknown. I like it here because I always discover new music bands and of course because of the venue itself which is located in a former doctor’s office.

One of my favorite sophisticated-but-casual places in Berlin. Everything is delicious and the restaurant is cozy and minimal at the same time. It is the right place to have a wonderful dinner with somebody special without being too anxious about the dress code :)

Cemetery of the Dreifaltigkeitsgemeinde (Dreifaltigkeitsfriedhof) in Kreuzburg on Mehringdamm 22, between Zossener Strasse and Blücherstrasse. The grandson of German-Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, is musician Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn who was born in Hamburg and lived in Berlin from age two. Felix Mendelssohn and his family are buried in the middle of Kreuzburg at the Cemetery of the Dreifaltigkeitsgemeinde. Today it is administered together with its 5 neighbouring Protestant cemeteries by the cemetery administration St. Jacobi number I.

A green oasis wedged between the continuous blocks of apartments, this Cemetery provides a place to be alone or take sleeping kids. I love how from the front it looks slightly macabre and a rigid with it's iron gate. But if you dare to enter its a fantastic place to escape and think. There's a battle going on locally about adding a building inside the ground to help fund the archive and maintenance of the site. The Chair Anke Reuther feels the park is being disrespected with children playing on the headstones and people using it as a place for picnics. Whilst i don't know the in's and out's I love seeing this beautiful 'life cycle' playing out under the trees (which have probably seen it all before). I love that people use a cemetery for living and in our ever crowded cities a green space is being claimed by the community. I do feel there is a hushed respect that i don't see in other parks which gives the place a reflective mood. Personally another building would ruin the magic of the place. Perhaps some more input from the people who use it could be the key? Or even a re-examination of the inscription above the gate: Make life good and beautiful here, no other world is, no resurrection.

The typical Berlin winter is biting cold and grey. In combination with the hardness of the city and the angry natives, it feels like a hostile area. Why it's worth experiencing it? Because that's the way this city is.