Words: Stacy Dorgan Bentz (Berlin), William Thirteen (Budapest), Chris Mohney (Prague), Claire Oldman (London)

This month the web’s smartest travel blog considers Berlin’s rebranding, Prague’s beer map, and where to buy glossy fashion mags in grimy old London

“SEI Stadt, sei Wandel, sei Berlin”, or “be city, be change, be Berlin”. Does Berlin’s new tagline symbolise the end of an era, the death of Europe’s beloved urban, semi-socialist bohemia? The German capital is getting rid of the spontaneous “poor but sexy” tagline for a more formal, planned approach to selling itself.

“SEI Stadt, sei Wandel, sei Berlin”, or “be city, be change, be Berlin”. Does Berlin’s new tagline symbolise the end of an era, the death of Europe’s beloved urban, semi-socialist bohemia? The German capital is getting rid of the spontaneous “poor but sexy” tagline for a more formal, planned approach to selling itself.

For more fast-disappearing boho outposts, try Budapest’s Jewish quarter. Having survived the twin terrors of 20th-century Budapest – the Nazi occupation and then 40 years of communism – the antique buildings and narrow streets of District VII’s historic Jewish quarter are now facing a more modern, but no less destructive, force — real estate development. Built up in the 19th and 20th centuries as Budapest’s Jewish community shared in the economic expansion of the Austro-Hungarian empire, the area contains dozens of beautiful art nouveau structures, many still impressive despite often crumbling facades. For untouched patches of Yiddish culture, try Fröhlich Confectionery (Dob utca 22). The area’s last kosher sweet shop (a kosher cukrászda in Hungarian) is still owned by Fröhlichs and carries a wide selection of cakes and cookies. Grab yourself a “flodni” and coffee, and prepare for the sweet decadence of the old world.

For more Eastern Bloc inside knowledge, check out this map and detailed guide to beer prices in Prague: www.nelso.com/beer-price-map-ofprague. Costs are given for each venue and the map even has a shaded layer to indicate pricing trends city-wide.

Finally, if you want to at least take a look at a little luxury, try one of London’s many wideranging magazine outlets. There are so many magazines out there, yet most newsagents only stock a tiny percentage of them. When it comes to fashion magazines, if you don’t want to buy Grazia or Vogue, you need to know where to go, even in very central London. Try Compton News (48 Old Compton Street, W1). This shop, which looks ordinary from the outside, is definitely a good bet if you’re looking for less avant-garde but still hard-to-find foreign magazines. You’ll also find a reasonable amount of international newspapers for sale.

It’s not really a browse the afternoon away kind of place, being so small. You’ll just have to buy something. Save cash using the beer map, and you can probably afford, oh, at least one glossy international fashion biannual.

FOR MAPS AND MORE, VISITWWW.GRIDSKIPPER.COM

This entry was posted on Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 3:17 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.