My favourite shop is the Zozoville Gallery [Mainzerstr. 12 10247] located in Kreuzberg and Neukölln. Johan Potma and Mateo Dineen are great artists. In their galleries they sell prints of their art which everybody can afford. The art is critical, surreal and superfunny. My other favourite shop is TO.mTO Berlin [Torstraße 22]. It is a corset manufactory where the diplom-fashiondesigner Tonia Merz designs, sews and sells her corsets with a team of powerwomen since 2002. I had the great opportunity to make my school internship in this inspiring environment.
The best place to buy craft supplies is definitely the saturday market at Maybachufer [Maybachufer]. The have a lot of fabric and sewing supplies plus low prices.
The place to sell your handmade items is definitely the sunday market at Mauerpark [Gleimstraße 55, 10437] in Prenzlauer Berg. I am sure it is very hard to get a stand there, but in Berlin we love to cheat a little, you can just take a blanket and put your own illegal stand close to the market - problem solved. This is how we do it. There is also a big, great karaoke party every sunday afternoon.
My favorite place for lunch and dinner is the Hasina Eatery [Ofener Straße 2] in Wedding which serves a mix of Indian and Mexican food. It is close to where I live and the owner is the nicest guy in the world. When we first went there we ate and drank a lot - then we realized we both forgot our wallets (really!) and the man just said: "Okay, you just pay next time. Sometimes we need to trust."
If you want to grab a a sweet treat or cafe, you have a lot of good opportunities. The best calory and tastebomb you get at Wonder Waffel [Adalbertstraße 88]. There you can buy a waffle and choose your extras from a big selection of fruits, chocolates and other sugary stuff. It is just incredible.
Hops & Barley [Wühlischstraße 22-23] is a Berlin brewery. I come from bavaria and I couldn't believe there will be such a amazing brewery in a town like Berlin. Just try for yourself!
We have a lot of different parks which are awesome to sit and craft. My favourite is the Tempelhofer Field [] - a shut down airport where you can just sit, hang around or do sports on the old landing strips. It is one of the rare places in Berlin where you can watch the sunset while sitting on grass.
If you really wanna do a special trip go to "Gärten der Welt" (Gardens of the World [Eisenacher Straße 99]) in Marzahn. The illusion of being surrounded by gardens is nearly perfect, but sometimes you see a top of a panelbuilding behind a tree. Marzahn is a part of Berlin where most of berliners never set a foot in. It is only panelbuildings and big empty streets, but it has this little paradise island. I'd say this picture [Sleep is commercial] shows most of the berliners attitude of life. But not mine, hihi. I love sleeping...
Good souvenirs would be a part of the Berlin wall (you can buy it!), a special treat from Other Nature [Mehringdamm 79] - a queer-feminist, alternative Sexshop or one piece of a expensive German chocolate or cheese.
Inspiration... Berlin is pure Inspiration. Normally I always found it by just walking through the streets. I could write a book about that. Really. "Gorillas at Ratibor Theater" - I took a course at a improvisation theatre, named "Ratibor Theater". The guys who are performing there nearly every evening "The gorilllas" are the funniest and best improvisation group I've ever seen. You will laugh your pretty ass off. Viktoriapark [] - You can get a great view over Berlin at the Kreuzberg, which is both a hill and a park.
My favourite top non-craft related attraction is a live talkshow called "Kiezsofa" organized by my multi-talented friend Simon Akstinat and his versatile friend Nadine Kleifges once a month. They change where they perform every single time and only invite guests who live in this area to sit on their sofa to get interviewed and we are watch while sitting in our favourite bar or cafe. It is like a normal talk-show, but it is real life and away from our daily displays.
A great place to take photos is the East Side Gallery [Muehlen St, 10243]. It is a really long part of the original Berlin wall, but painted by artists from all over the world. You also have to go to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe [Cora-] for the Jews who died by German fault in World War II. If you walk through it, you'll see the ground is wavy. There are huge and small stones, and I think this us to show the different ages of the people who died. It is horribly touching - just like the Jewish Museum Berlin [Linden St 9-14, 10969] built by the architect "Daniel Libeskind". The expression of the way the architecture is made is stunning. It has so-called "void rooms" which express the absence of the people who died in the concentration camps. The axis of the void rooms ends in the holocaust tower. It is a incredible high, dark and cold room and there is just a little split in an upper corner in the wall where daylight can enter - so far away and impossible to reach. Even though I went to MoMA, this is still my favourite museum in the world.