Vietnam in Berlin PhilipFriday, 3 January 2014 2 Comments

Hi,
Yesterday Kira (the co-owner of this Blog) and I visited a surrounding in Berlin, which isn't really known. Yeah, it's in the deepest east of Berlin. Many of you may remember the time when Berlin was divided into two parts, West-Berlin and East-Berlin. It's still weird for people from the former West-Berlin to go into the former "DDR", also for both of us although we just know Berlin as one city. Another special thing in the east of Berlin is the tram. There isn't any tram in the west. You may describe East-Berlin with drab, grey and many ugly prefabricated buildings, but if you skip those prejudices you'll see a beautiful sites, like this what I'm writing here about. But I guess you're asking yourself now about what I'm talking... I'm talking about the Don Xuan Center in Lichtenberg, a district of Berlin. It's also called "Little Vietnam", because this is just another world. About approximately 40.000 Vietnamese people are living in Berlin. Many don't know this part of Berlin, even when they was born here. Now I'll finally start with this article.
You can easily reach the Don Xuan Center by the tram M8. If you're coming from the famous Alexanderplatz it just takes you about 20 minutes to get there. Just walk or take the subway (1 station with the U2 in the direction "Pankow") from the Alexanderplatz to the Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz. Right there is the tram, take the M8 in the direction Ahrensfelde. When we entered the tram we were quite surprised about the ticket machine. Okay, we have to admit that we almost never go by tram but never mind. You just had to press a button, insert the money and get the ticket. The other ticket machines in Berlin are equipped with a touchscreen system.

That's the ticket machine in the tram

After about a 15 minute drive we arrived at the station Herzbergstraße/Industriegebiet. It was all very ran down. From the station it's just a one minute walk to the entrance of the centre. It's opened everyday except on Tuesdays from 10am to 8pm. When you come in you see many halls, written on it "Großmarkt" which means wholesale. But you shouldn't be scared of that, because they also love to have individual consumers.

It looks like that when you're leaving the tram

That the view from the entrance of the Don Xuan Center

After entering one of the halls, there is one central gear, from which you can enter every shop on the right or the left. It's an impressive impression that you get. 

That the gear to walk through the centre

The first shop that we've seen was an apparel shop, with many many clothes that were cheap like water. Kira already bought something and yeah since this aren't real shops you can also negotiate which the sellers to get it cheaper. We've also found a lot of toy stores, with everything you want. 

That's Kira in one of the many toy stores

That's one of the many apparel stores

Our next stop was at hall number 2, we've seen a lot of flowers. Yeah, this shop was full of flowers, but the odor of the shop was a bit weird. After looking more accurate we found out that no flowers was real. It was a shop for fake flowers, quite weird for us in Germany. But this shop was amazing, all the colors and so on, you just felt like it's already spring or summer.

That's the fake flowers store

You can find the typical Asian beckoning cat in every shop and not just one. We even found a shop that was just selling those sweet cats.

Many many waving cats

At the beginning and the end of every hall you find walls for advertisements in Vietnamese. You found on them Tenders for Jobs, Advertising for shops and much more, as you can see in the following picture.

That's the wall for advertisements

After leaving the hall 6 we've seen a big blue Bubble Tea factory, on which we unfortunately haven't found any more informations. On the right was an abandoned and dilapidated building. It was the perfect scenery for some pictures which you can see there:

That's the title of the hall 6

That's the bubble tea factory

That's the abandoned building

That's Kira

That's me

No words about that picture

That are Kira and me

Already 4 hours were passed when we finished with that. We both were tired so we sat down in one of the many nice and cozy restaurants. We both ordered a soup for 6€. After five minutes our meal already arrived. It was a big bowl full of chicken, noodles, onions and herbs and it was the best soup that I've ever eaten in my life. But it was too much. I had to give the half full bowl back, because this made so full. We both got a mandarin as a dessert for free. This is a tradition in Vietnam.

That's the entrance of the restaurant were we've eaten

That's our soup with the mandarines

We both enjoyed this day a lot and went back to our tram, to take the journey back home. This day was amazing but also impressive. We discovered a part of Berlin that we haven't known and you can really compare this market a bit to Chinatown in New York. When you're there you feel like you're in Asia and not in the cold Berlin.

That's our tram back home

I hope you've enjoyed this article,
Philip

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Paris in two days PhilipFriday, 20 December 2013 0 Comments

Hi,
this time I wanted to bring Paris closer to you. I visited my former exchange partner there last weekend and took a lot of pictures. I'll tell you why Paris is worth a trip and that also during a weekend.
The picture that you see below shows the inner courtyard of the apartment in which I lived for those two days. The look-like is quite typical for flats in Paris, but unusual for people from Germany for example. When you wake up, while the sun is shining in the room you just get the perfect start into the day. The breakfast that I got was a piece of baguette with salted butter. That was all, which is quite less for German people. But it tastes just perfect and you won't trust me, but you can get full of this little piece of bread! ...and if not, then you'll get full by the lunch. The French persons are eating lunch early that you don’t have to starve.

That's the prospect in the inner courtyard

 Here you see a bus which you can find all around and in Paris. You can easily use your subway ticket for the bus (Just if it isn't validated yet). The bus took my exchange and me to Montparnasse Bienvenüe. This name is quite unusual for Frenchs because of the letter "Ü", but there is an explanation for that. The station got its name from the distance transport station above it, which was named after the engineer Fulgence Bienvenüe.

That's a bus of the line 82 "Luxembourg"

After arriving at this big square we went straight away to the cinema "UGC" and got our tickets for "Le Hobbit" (The Hobbit). In France it’s normal that they have the English movies in cinemas with French subtitles. It's not such a sumptuousness for them there like for us in Germany, that we can watch every movie in cinema in our language. Well, good for me since it's easier for me to understand English than French. The movie was good, but just a bit too long and it contained the latest Hollywood feature. That the movies ends, but the story doesn't. Furthermore is was a bit too long with 2 hours and 41 minutes plus commercials (the seats weren't that comfortable).

That's the cinema of the company UGC

After the cinema the sky was already a bit dark, perfect to take a picture of the Tour Maine-Montparnasse. It's a 210-metre office skyscraper located at Montparnasse. The public just uses the silly expression "black skyscraper". But seriously, is it black? Yeah, indeed it is and it looks just flabbergasting if you stay right in the front of it.

That's the Tour Maine-Montparnasse

The picture of the skyscraper was taken. We went down the stairs to the subway. The gear was just endless to reach the right line and track, but fortunately they placed some flat escalators into them. The entire ceiling full with iPhone commercials, as you can see in the picture below this text.

The "runway" in the subways station when you change the line

We had luck, none of our private property was stolen. Why do I say this? You have to be very careful in the subways in Paris. Those thieves are very clever so I'd suggest you, to put them close to your body and also not visible. It's very full there so it's easy for them. We had to wait 10 minutes after arriving to get up on the street. It was just too full. Now you're asking yourself where we went. We went to the Avenue Champs Elysees in order to see the Christmas decoration and market there. In the picture below is a typical Christmas market stand.

That's one of the many Christmas market stand

If you're in Paris, doesn't matter in which season, then go to the Avenue des Champs-Élysées! It's worth at least to be seen. If you want to buy expensive things like Louis Vuitton, then you're right there too. In the pictures below you can see an overview of the avenue, the Christmas decoration and the Abercrombie & Fitch store, which was unfortunately closed due to a fire.

That's an overview of the Champs-Élysées

That's the Christmas decoration, that you found in every corner at the Champs-Élysées

That's the splendid Abercrombie & Fitch store

Here you can see the Arc de Triomphe. It's a monument that was built during the 19th century. It's the emblem of Paris besides of the Eiffel tower. It's a huge impression if you stand under it, especially if you read everything that is written in the walls.

That's the Arc de Triomphe

On the next day my exchange and I went to the Opera with the subway. The opera of Paris is a very beautiful building and we had luck, it was a perfect weather to take a picture. From the opera we went straight away to the famous Galeries Lafayette, which you can compare with the KaDeWe in Berlin and with Harrods in London. In the pictures you can see the front of the opera and the Lafayette.

That's the opera

That's the Galeries Lafayette

The Galeries Lafayette if just perfect if you plan to spend some of your money, especially in the Christmas time. They placed a big Christmas tree on the roof of the Chanel cosmetic shop. Around the tree were stuffed animals that turned around the tree, they even moved their body parts. The Christmas tree itself was lighted part by part with lights, it seemed like it’s turning on part by part every minute as you’ll see on the following picture. The dome of the Gallery is also very nice. You can see both, the tree and the dome in those pictures:

That's the big Christmas tree on the top of Chanel

That's the dome of the Lafayette

As you can see on the next picture, the subways in Paris are a bit special. They’re driving with car tires. It looks quite weird but interesting. In the past they really had problems with the cooling system of the tires, because they got very warm.

That's how the subways in Paris looks like

There is not much to say about the next picture. My exchange took it while we were waiting for the next subway. I haven’t even noticed it until I reviewed all my pictures from the travel.

That's me waiting for the subway

That building that you see there just looked so nice because of the sun that I had to take that picture.

That's a quite nice building

I took this picture, because I wanted to show you all, that not just the Germans are drinking beer. But there is one difference to Germany. The cans were all well-ordered, which was a bit surprising, but well, if you live on the street, then you have a lot of time.

As you can see, not just the Germans are drinking a lot of beer

The following three pictures were taken in Le Marais, the part of Paris where you can go shopping in small sweet streets. We had a wonderful sunset there. The little guy that you can see in the second picture is a street campaign there. You can find him on almost every wall there in Le Marais. I would suggest this place, if you want to see chic & expensive stores, but also if you want to see street wear and second-hand shops. Between those shops you can find Jewish restaurants and so on, it’s really nice to rest there at the end of the day.

A beautiful sunset in Le Marais

That's the guy, that is on many house walls

That are some shops in the sweet streets of Le Marais

After Le Marais we went to the famous Louvre by subway, where this picture was taken (right at the station). You can see me and my exchange on that picture. Just above the subway station was a very beautiful scenery of which I had to take this picture. It just flabbergasted me. Then we turned to the left and there was it, the famous and well-known Louvre. The popular pyramid made of glass. While I was petrified with this beautiful scenery, my exchange took a picture of me in the moment I looked to him. I crossed the street and took a picture of the glass pyramid alone, it’s just awesome!

That's me and my exchange in the subway station

A nice building near the Louvre

There you can see the entire complex of the Louvre

That's me there

That's the glass pyramid of the Louvre

The day was almost over and we had to leave in order to get my flight back to Berlin, but on the way home I had to take a picture of the most famous landmark of Paris, the Eiffel tower. It blinked with tiny lights, it looked fabulous. That was it. That were two days in Paris. I hope that you liked this post and that it wasn’t too much to read.

That's the famous Eiffel tower, sorry for the bad quality

xoxo Philip

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