Jaunted - Tag: Berlin

Berlin: Our Guide To Living Like 'Inglorious Basterds' in Berlin

cmb — 2009-09-04T10:28:09-05:00

For his new movie Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Taratino wanted to make a a spaghetti western that would use World War II iconography and star the world's biggest movie star. And this is how one of the biggest movie debuts of the summer was born.

The movie has all of Tarantino's usual trademarks: quick dialogue, cringe-inducing violence and creative casting, but it was filmed on location somewhere new for the Tarantino crew: one of Jaunted's favorite cities, Berlin. To slake your thirst to live it up just like Brad Pitt no doubt did while he was filming, here's our guide to partying like a rock star, or at least partying like a director who thinks he's a rock star, in Berlin:

Would You Pay For Your Passport Stamps?

JetSetCD — 2009-06-16T09:42:12-05:00

Is it illegal or is it good, clean fun? The stamping of passports for souvenir value seems as old a tradition as buying those horrific gift spoons, and this rampant passport defamation continues today, except now they're charging for it.

In our travels, we've run across the three biggest profiters from this racket: Liechtenstein, San Marino, and Berlin, although the latter is by far the worst of them.

In the picture above, the passport pages bear four fake stamps from the old Allied and Soviet sides of Berlin, stamps which could possibly invalidate the passport. There's even a discussion thread over at Lonely Planet regarding the legality of this tourist stamping, with particular attention to the prevalance of it around Berlin's Checkpoint Charlie. For 2€ each, you have your pick of the stamps, ranging from 4 different US sector versions to 2 Soviet designs, and even a few French thrown in for good measure.

Berlin: Berlin's Wurst Tourist Traps: Alexanderplatz

JetSetCD — 2009-05-29T13:02:02-05:00

Jaunted's assistant editor Cynthia is currently kicking it in Berlin and all this week she'll be telling us what to do and not do in town. Any suggestions or questions? Let us know.

When we were living in Rome, we used to frequent a miniscule, cave-like jazz club named "Alexanderplatz." Knowing that it was named thus because of the historical cabaret district around the Alexanderplatz in Berlin, we suffered from a romanticized idea of the square.

It's been seventy or so years since the cabarets left, fifty-plus years since the Soviet architectural aesthetic converted it into a massive concrete platz anchored by the Fernsehturm (TV tower) and office blocks, and fifteen years since the giant Kaufhof department store emerged as king of the place. And yet, the tourists flood in for more than just access to the transportation hub; the draw being that finally, one is standing in Alexanderplatz.

Aside from the graffiti-covered Friendship fountain, whose proper name is the Brunnen der V�lkerfreundschaft, the biggest attraction is perhaps the straight-up view of the Fernsehturm and the ubiquitousness of cheap wurst vendors in the square—both are pictured above.

Berlin: Berlin's Wurst Tourist Traps: The Reichstag

JetSetCD — 2009-05-28T12:02:02-05:00

Jaunted's assistant editor Cynthia is currently kicking it in Berlin and all this week she'll be telling us what to do and not do in town. Any suggestions or questions? Let us know.

What is with the touristic impulse to ascend every tall, open-to-the-public building in a city? Like New York City's Empire State or London's St. Paul's Cathedral, Berlin boasts of some similarly sky-high sights. The city may be pretty flat, but draws like the Fernsehturm (TV tower), Berliner Dom, and of course the Reichstag keeps the busloads lining up for a glimpse of each landmark from the viewing platform of another.

While the Fernsehturm is the tallest option, the line is longer and the history weightier at the Reichstag, the home of German parliament which burned in 1933 and remained in ruins for decades. When architect Lord Norman Foster's new glass dome crowned the recontruction in 1999, the gawking masses descended on it due to its free and open admission policy.

This is both a blessing and a burden for visitors to the building, as nothing is better than free views of the city and an up-close experience of an architectural triumph, but free means queues long enough to bring about sunstroke.

Berlin: Berlin's Wurst Tourist Traps: Brandenburg Gate and The Wall

JetSetCD — 2009-05-27T10:57:01-05:00

Jaunted's assistant editor Cynthia is currently kicking it in Berlin and all this week she'll be telling us what to do and not do in town. Any suggestions or questions? Let us know.

Dash across the street, in between the double decker tour buses and the school groups more interested in their souvenir purchases than what they are about to see, and you arrive at the Berlin Wall. Rather, you're standing in front of four sections of it, placed just so in Potsdamer Platz where the tourists can best photograph it surrounded by the glass buildings of a modern European capital.

The Berlin Wall, which once divided this city between the allied section and the Soviet quarter for thirty years, remains a huge tourist draw. In fact, it seems as though everyone and their moms can boast of owning a piece of the thing.

Berlin: Air Berlin's Very Own 'Deltalina'

JetSetCD — 2009-05-22T09:31:58-05:00

True to our promise, we've gone and jetted off to Berlin for a week with thoughts of currywurst and cycling over cobblestones dancing in our head.

We safely arrived early this morning to Berlin's Tegel airport via Delta's non-stop flight 78 from New York-JFK, an experience we'd rather not repeat due to a decrepit terminal, mass confusion at the gate, and the horribly cramped seats of an older plane. And remember that jazz about Delta being tops in terms of tarmac waits? They aren't kidding; we had read through our guidebook before even hitting the skies.

Beyond the terminal's hot pretzel stand and the vending machine stocked with Ritter Sport chocolate and Haribo Gummi-B�ren, we spotted this carry-on luggage measuring rack and its image of a perky Air Berlin representative.

Is this frisky-looking lass the German version of Deltalina? Sadly we didn't book the Air Berlin direct from JFK, but next time we just might have to if she promises to help us latch the overhead bins.

Related Stories:
· Delta Takes the Cake for Ridiculous Tarmac Waits [Jaunted]
· Berlin Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

This Weekend in the World: Warhols and Face Painting

JetSetCD — 2009-05-01T16:16:47-05:00

· Paris: It is pretty much a guarantee that at any moment, in some world city, there is a Warhol exhibition taking place. This spring however, the mother of all Warhol shows is taking place beneath the ethereal dome of the Grand Palais. "Andy's Wide World," on display through July, brings together an incredible 140 of his portraits of society figures, actors, and pop royalty like Mick Jagger, Man Ray, Marilyn Monroe (of course) and Giorgio Armani.

Why go this weekend? Simply because this is just about the mid-point of the exhibition, so here's hoping the crowds will be in a lull and you'll have some Warhol gazing space. Check out the press release to read about the drama behind the portrait of designer Yves Saint Laurent.