I may have been there 20 years too early: Berlin Friedrichshain...

Yesterday I begun to study the most interesting districts in Berlin. They say it is Friedrichshain which is now kind of IN.

Guess what, the queue of bars began now almost from my ancient doorstep...???!!! 20 years ago I lived near the commuter train station "Ostkreuz", and it was more or less like dead district then. Which was okay for me, as from "Ostkreuz" you could very convinient reach many directions in Berlin. And for me it was also important that I could easily study the east part of Berlin. Which I have done during the almost 1,5 years of my stay in Berlin...

So to look at what is happening in Friedrichshain now, take a walk from "Ostkreutz" along the "Boxhagener Strasse" to the "Boxhagener Platz". And from there to the commuter train station "Warschauer Strasse". Near Warschauer Strasse you can find a very interesting Cultural centre "Astra" with Raw-Tempel.

There are many other interesting cultural centres in Berlin too, like for example Kulturbrauerei in Prenzlauer Berg or Ufafabrik in Tempelhof.

But do you know what other more or less personally very interesting thing I found near the "Warschauer Strasse". There was a street called "Tamara Danz". You Germans and couple of others may know who Tamara Danz is. She was a member of a famous East German rockband Silly.

I had a possibility to see the band during the year 1995 in "Tränenpalast". Tränenpalast was the former border crossing between West- and East-Berlin.

The other important East German rockband is "Puhdys". Listen to this classic "Alt wie ein Baum". Later you will hear more about some other West German- and East German bands...I have some other favourites too...By the way, 15 years ago I had a course about popular music in German speaking countries at the University of Helsinki.