Feel like a kid in the explorer candy shop that is Berlin by tapping into the current experiential trend
If you are travelling solo to a destination where you have already seen the main sights, what do you do and who do you do it with? Next level exploring taps into the current experiential trend and an increasingly popular option is Airbnb Experiences. Started in November 2012, it introduces travellers to locals to discover the destination through their eyes, skills and passions. You’ll feel like a kid in an explorer candy shop; case in point, Berlin.
Paint your own graffiti
This wonderfully gritty city is full of graffiti, and soon your iPhone will be too. Go a step further and join alternative tours that will take you to the streets of Berlin and maybe part of the Berlin Wall for a DIY graffiti lesson. Street artists will coach you through sketching a three-letter word or acronym on paper, giving advice on your design, then demo their own, constructing shape, filling, background and outline on the wall. You will start shaking the cans and first tentatively, then more confidently, spraying your section of wall, layer by layer, colour by colour, building your own fun, spontaneous, temporary piece of personal art. You will never look at graffiti the same way again.
iPhone video goes pro
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Steeve Austin, originally from Belgium, evolves your iPhone videos from ho-hum to way-more-pro in three hours, starting with advice on composition, movement, transitions and storytelling. After a quick lesson in the basics, he takes you out and about to shoot a series of 10-second clips, focusing on colours, textures and details. Tips; incorporate fast blurs and out-of-focus starts and ends to facilitate transitions, and vary video speed for smoother footage. With clips covering a mix of general intro, favourite spots and up-close details, then it’s on to a crash course in editing to knit the footage into a mini-movie. It’s challenging, intense and worth every second.
DIY clubbing outfit
Imagine designing and making your own outfit to wear at a Berlin club. California-born artist, sculptor and designer Anna Reutinger’s flat is full of her work, as well as piles of fabric and accessories. First you will sort through the various colours and textures, choosing the ones that catch your eye, then discuss the style you want with her, before sketching it out. Then you get straight to work cutting, pinning and foot down on the sewing machine. She guides and helps sew, rescuing bodged bits where necessary, all the while chatting about the city’s clubbing scene. It’s creative, practical and empowering all at once.
Blue Hour Photography
Mixing sightseeing with photography, German architect-turned-photographer Fabian Pfitzinger, founder of TravelPixelz, knows all the best angles for shooting the Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag Building, Memorial Park, German Chancellery and Potsdamer Platz, among others. Bring your SLR or point-and-shoot and he’ll attach it to his tripod and up your game, advising on composition, time versus aperture (for smoothing water and stretching the traffic’s lights) and the rule of thirds. As the light fades from the day, ‘blue hour’ dusts everything with magic and the shots glow. It’s just the inspiration you need to take your photography more seriously.
DIY outfit goes clubbing
Have you actually been to Berlin if you haven’t been clubbing? Renowned for the coolest clubs with the most ferocious doormen, how do you even get in? Adrian Meyer and Martin Bastian of Partyhard.Berlin are a German and Australian duo who love, and live, Berlin’s clubbing scene. On Saturday nights the plan is often Kit Kat, a club that mixes sexual fetish with fantasy and freedom. The boys help you get in past the bouncers and introduce you to one of the world’s most infamous clubs. Everyone is in black, bondage or birthday suit. Multiple rooms and dark corners, techno tunes and people watching – from barely conventional to off-the-charts, it’s a celebration of being human in the most beautiful and most basic of ways.
Note – This story was originally published on SCMP and has been republished on this website
