What I ate, bought, and saw in Berlin, Copenhagen, and Vienna
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After graduation, my friends and I went on a trip across Europe. The first leg was a week and a half in Berlin, Copenhagen, and Vienna. Here is everywhere I dined, shopped, and visited. Apparently this post is too long for email, so I recommend reading it in your browser!
BERLIN
The Airbnb we were staying in looked like commercial real estate. It sat between a Thai restaurant and a convenience store. The floor-length windows of the bedroom looked out onto the sidewalk. From the outside, the surface was mirrored. As people checked out their reflections as they passed by, it looked like they were studying us.
Every city has their Instagram-famous pastry counter. In New York, it’s Radio Bakery. In Mexico City, it’s Panaderia Rosetta. In Berlin, it’s SOFI Bakery in the Mitte district. My favorite item was the lemon poppyseed loaf (I thought the croissants were a bit too greasy). When I saw the shelves of tinned fish and artisanal vinegars, I realized that shoppy-shops are an international phenom.
My parents told me that I had to get Doner Kebab, the modern, portable sandwich that Turkish immigrants brought to Berlin in the early 1970s. I found a place next to the Brandenburg Gate aptly called Gate Kebap, where the chicken doner shocked me by its balance of flavors and textures (creamy garlic sauce, pickled vegetables, fluffy and crunchy bread).
We had an incredible meal at Duc Anh Vietnamese Street Food, where I had the crispiest orange duck that I still think about. The people here were so kind, and each dish was around 10 euros.
I tried Yemeni food for the first time at Jemenitisches. I was obsessed with their Malawach, a flakey, buttery flatbread that I dipped in babaganoush and yogurt sauce.
Highly recommend walking along the Landwehkanal on Maybachufer street for pretty views of the canal, street vendors selling produce and jewelry, and the best schnitzel from a cart that I’ve ever had.
For a homey, slightly-elevated German meal, we went to Peter Schlemihl in Kreuzberg. I got to try German pasta (spaetzle), German sausage (currywurst), and many kinds of German beer (including non-alcoholic!).
Haribo was founded in Germany, so I got some peach frogs and gummy bears (one for
) to try. Zack told me that high fructose corn syrup is banned in Europe, and the gummies actually did taste more natural.
VOO Store was like a German Dover Street Market, or if SSENSE had a physical location. I fawned over these Prada shoes.
The vintage stores we went to were YUMMY vintage, Joe Vintage, Sing Blackbird Vintage, and Sander 22 Vintage, all in Reuterkiez. None of us found anything we liked. There is also Humana, which is a a chain kind of like the European Goodwill. Schuhbar had cute socks and leather boots.
Museum Island houses five different museums built under Prussian rulers, all within walking distance. We capitalized on the fact that our Yale IDs do not have expiration dates and bought student tickets that granted us admission to all of them. My favorite pieces were the marble sculptures in the Alte Nationalgalerie. The Neues Museum has the bust of Queen Nefertiti, the beautiful wife of the pharaoh Amenhotep IV. I tried to take a photo of her and was chastised by security.
We also went to the the Jewish Museum, which is ginormous (the largest Jewish museum in Europe) and comprehensive in its permanent exhibition on the history of Jews in Germany, starting in the Middle Ages. We also visited the Berlin Wall Memorial, where I thought I could see the mural of the Socialist Fraternal kiss between Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker, but it turned out to be a 45-minute walk away. The Reichstag building is where the Federal Convention elects the President. You have to show your passport and walk through metal detectors in order to walk up a glass dome that is reminiscent of The Vessel in Hudson Yards (though much cooler).
COPENHAGEN
Copenhagen is where I realized that I need to incorporate bread, butter, and cheese into my morning routine at home. There is no better beginning.
A Danish breakfast is composed of sourdough bread, a soft boiled egg, whipped butter, jam, flaky salt, and Comte cheese. Atelier September is where the TikTok girls get it (…we were not above waiting in that line). But you can find it everywhere. The best bun, butter, and Comte sandwich I had was at Juno the Bakery, where the bread was chewy and soft and warm, the cheese perfectly salty and tangy, and the butter applied in generous amounts. They also make the best cardamom bun in the game.
Our first dinner was at Posh Jah, a Japanese-Scandinavian izakaya that we walked to in the pouring rain. Everything was simple and good, but lacked depth. Though the dishes were aesthetically beautiful, they tasted like food that has been so removed from its source that it forgot its purpose. The salmon roe was so mild and abundant and perfectly spherical that it could have been produced by a machine.
The fanciest dinner of the trip was at Høst, a restaurant I had gone to with my family in August 2022. It’s a tasting menu with either 3 or 5 courses, but they sprinkle in little “surprises” in between, like crudités with farmer’s cheese and an ice cream filled wafer with a butterfly-shaped sugar crystal on top. Copenhagen has my favorite food scene in the world (maybe tied with Tokyo and Seoul) because of its focus on seasonality and letting ingredients shine. It possesses meticulous attention to detail while retaining themes of art and play.
Bæst Pizza was recommended by my friend Jude and a number of restaurant lists. I usually am a margarita truther, but my favorite pie was surprisingly one with tomato sofrito, kale, mozzarella, and parmesan. It had funk and spice. Before our meal, we had glasses of orange wine at Pompette, where we met a couple who sent us a Vienna city guide (our next stop!) that they co-wrote on Google docs.
On Whit Monday, all of the stores were closed. Luckily, the Louisiana Museum (which is normally closed on Mondays) had special holiday hours to give people something to do. It’s a 40 minute train ride out of the city to a town that feels remote in a I-could-raise-sheep-here kind of way. I had an adverse reaction to the Kaari Epson show, but I adored the selection of works on paper by various artists. The medium of drawing is inherently intimate, focused, and often reflects thought processes behind ideation and experimentation. It made me want to buy a sketchbook.
On our last day, we went to the Danish Architecture Center, where their permanent exhibition called “So Danish!” takes you through centuries of Danish architectural history. I was moved by the way that commitments to social outcomes (affordable housing, preservation of childhood fun and safety, a greener city) were reflected in the housing, parks, and public buildings in Denmark. The physical environment enables/reinforces the social one, and vice versa.
On Tuesday, the shops were back open. I struck gold at Chamoi Vintage, located in a neighborhood studded with vintage stores. I found a gorgeous ankle-length metallic dress that fit me perfectly, and a sheer brown blouse that my friends said was so “Arden-coded.” We started joking afterward that I’d had such good luck that now everyone else deserved to find their own Chamoi. At Another Nue, I bought a pair of black boxers that I plan to sleep in and also wear outside when it’s hot in New York and I want to wear the thinnest fabric possible. They had my favorite brand for basics, Flore Flore, in stock, which I never see in person. I picked up a pair of white linen pants at Arket, along with some colorful socks. Stine Goya used to be my favorite for knitwear, but their recent collection is a bit too costume-y for me.
For home goods, HAY House is the best of the best. I found two pastel acrylic glass spoons at Studio Arhoj, where you can see the glass-blowers and ceramists making the objects in the store. I loved touching the towels and sheets at Tekla.
The most gorgeous park we visited was King’s Garden. I felt like I was in a fairytale.
VIENNA
Coming off the high of the Danish breakfast plate, I ordered a Viennese breakfast at Cafe Jelinek, a traditional spot near our Airbnb to see how the Austrians did it (more ham, two kinds of cheese). I also got an espresso with milk and barely-sweetened whipped cream. Halfway through the meal, I started feeling a tingly, itching sensation in my throat. My body was warning me that I had just consumed NUTS!!! Lauren blessed me with Zyrtec, and I avoided disaster.
I was still fighting my allergic reaction when we pulled up to the Belvedere Museum, which houses all of the Gustav Klimt paintings. After staring at my red, glassy eyes in the bathroom mirror for way too long, I rallied myself upstairs to see The Kiss, his most famous work. I went home afterward and laid in bed all day. But my friends said the rest of the museum was spectacular.
I had recovered by the time we went to Saint George Bar, which had the most delicious snack mix in the world (Ritz-y crackers in the shape of teddy bears and stars). I ordered a Bologna Highball, which had amaro, cynar, ginger beer, and an olive. The bartender/owner said he loved New York bars like Double Chicken Please, Dame, and Atoboy, which checked out.
The next day, we visited the Freud Museum, where Sigmund Freud worked and lived with his family. Some of the rooms have been preserved to look like they did when he was an active psychoanalyst practitioner. The waiting room was eerie.
We were only in Vienna for two full days, and one of them happened to be the date of the Summer Night Concert, where thousands of people gather in the park of the Schönbrunn Palace to listen to the Vienna Philharmonic, conducted by Maestro Tugan Sokhiev, for an hour and a half.
On our last day, we went into a crystal shop to get our energy up. I held a piece of rose quartz in my palm, and after a few minutes, my hand was buzzing. I never feel any kind of cosmic or spiritual sensations, so I took it as a sign and bought it for two euros.
The End.
I flew to meet my mom in Zurich on the morning of June 14th. Swiss Air gave me a Lindt chocolate truffle, which I ate while reading The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera.
Talk soon!
Copenhagen really is the best!! I visited in March and loved it so much! And now I am fully convinced I need to visit Berlin -- it looks amazing!!
Dreamy itinerary, lovely pictures. So thoughtful. (But as a French person I must state that there is no such thing as a croissant that’s too greasy 🫣)