Melodic ambience » Starbucks

Balzac becomes smokefree

Dietmar — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 00:47:13 +0000

The main competitor against Starbucks in Berlin is Balzac Coffee. Wherever there is a place where a lot of people come by, one of those cafes will be in the neighbourhood. Now, the world as we know it at the moment looks like this: People who care about a smokefree environment while enjoying their coffee and cake are going to Starbucks, the others, those that don’t care to sit in cancerous clouds – or actually produce them – go to Balzac Coffee. The few times I went to Balzac to take an admittingly delicous looking piece of cake with me it often stank like cigarettes. Now, this will all change on April 1st.. Balzac Coffee is announcing at the doors of their cafes, that they will be completely smokefree from then on. Considering, that other cafes became smokefree too in recent times (I just saw one Meyerbeer Coffee house being smokefree now) this is a good development here in Berlin and it delivers more variety.

Berlin for free

Dietmar — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 01:23:43 +0000

Berlin does not have the reputation of being an expensive city. Nevertheless there are some things you can do for free or for just a small amount of money while you visit this city – and they are pretty enjoyable. Here are some that I noticed since I moved here, this list might get longer as times goes on.

Museumnights on thursdays:
The museums belonging to the “Staatliche Museen zu Berlin” – members are for instance the Alte Nationalgalerie or the Kulturforum – offer free entrance in the last 4 hours of their opening times.
Many of these museums are even open until 10 pm on thursdays.

Skate nights:
Taking part in the weekly skating nights is for free. They usually happen from may until august on every sunday if the weather allows it. They offer a chance to skate around without any traffic on the main streets of Berlin.

Watching Hackescher Markt:
Take a seat in one of the comfortable chairs at the 2nd level of Starbucks , Rosenthaler Straße. Admittingly this isn’t for free but for maybe a piece of cake or a cup of coffee you can enjoy your view of the surrounding buildings, the street cars passing by and all the bustling going on at one of the busiest plazas of downtown Berlin.

Getting an overview:
If you wanna have a look at Berlin from above, you don’t need to go up the big tv tower – which does cost money – you just go to the german parliament building, move up the elevator and enjoy the view of Berlin from the roof.

Parisian atmosphere:
Between Alte Nationalgalerie and Berliner Dom there is sometimes an accordion player playing on the Friedrich bridge. The whole atmosphere with the river flowing, the buildings and the music might let you get the idea you are at the Seine in Paris. And if you give the street musician some money he probably even wants to play some more.

Animals in Berlin:
You might not have the time or money left for going to the zoos of Berlin. That does not exclude you from watching at least some birds. There is basically two interesting places to do that: The courtyard of the Neues Kranzler Eck, a big office and shop building near the Kurfüstendamm is home to two big aviaries with many different birds residing in them. And at the Alte Potsdamer Straße you can watch many crows in the old trees there.

wohin sonst?

Dietmar — Sun, 16 Oct 2005 00:21:04 +0000

Da kann es noch so viele Leute geben, die über Starbucks meckern – es sei ja so teuer dort und überhaupt, das sei ja keine Kaffeehauskultur mehr, was einem dort präsentiert wird. Ehrlich gesagt – es interessiert mich nicht, denn Starbucks gehört immer noch die goldene Medaille überreicht, weil es einer der ganz wenigen gastronomischen Orte ist, an denen das komplette Rauchverbot herrscht. Wenn der unternehmungswillige, gegenüber der Gesundheitsschädigung durch Zigarettenqualm nicht tolerante Nichtraucher also zum Beispiel samstag abends mal raus will um sich an einem Ort ausserhalb seiner Wohnung/seines Hauses zu vergnügen und etwas zu essen und zu trinken, sind die Starbucks Cafes eine von ganz wenigen Optionen. Gottseidank gibt es in Berlin auch eine Filiale, in der man dies auch am späteren Abend noch kann.

Und zum Preis: Ich bezahle gerne ein paar Cent mehr für einen Cafe und vor allem ein Stück Kuchen das zig mal besser schmeckt, als ideenlose, traurige Einheitskuchen, die einem in vielen Bäckereiketten angeboten werden.