Hidden gems – Haubentaucher Berlin

Rumor has it that there is a new pool in town, and I went this Tuesday to check it out. Rumors were right, but not only were they true, but to do this place justice you have to go and witness it yourself. This place is beyond great! It opened last Friday, and I predict this place to become very, very popular, and very, very crowded during the hot days this summer.

Haubentaucher is (besides being a great crested grebe according to the English/German dictionary) also the name of a new urban pool, sundeck, garden, lounge, and bar, which is literally how Haubentaucher describes itself on their website and business cards.

Behind the big, old brick walls that used to be the place where the trams of Berlin came to be repaired,  you can now pay 3 euros and then be able to enjoy best hang out spot Berlin now offers. For the 3 euros entrance fee, you will be able to go in and out for a whole day, you simply get a stamp when you pay, and you just show that to the doorman if you want to leave and come back.Haubentaucher offers, besides from the cool (and heated!) pool, amazing sun beds, lounge chairs, good music, a bar that serves alcohol and refreshening drinks for the hot summer days, and healthy smoothies from Berlin brand Proviant. Haubentaucher also has food to fill up the hungry audience, if they are not to busy swimming, chilling, or tanning. The food is simple and good – burgers (pulled pork, beef, or halloumi), salad, curry wurst (don’t forget – we are in Germany, even though it surely doesn’t feel like it inside of Haubentaucher). Haubentaucher allows the audience to just relax, swim, lay on the sun beds, tan, chill, and simply enjoy life. My boyfriend and I agreed that being in Haubentaucher felt like going on a mini vacation, which is totally what Berlin or more precisely what Friedrichshain needs, being a very party and crazy neighborhood at times.

I spent all of my Tuesday at Haubentaucher. I was tired – and a bit hungover from the night before, and I couldn’t imagine a better place to spend and hang out for a whole day. It is like a perfect, hidden oasis, and it is weird and unthinkable that busy Warschauerstrasse filled with tons of people is just a few steps away from here. When we left Haubentaucher after countless hours, it was almost freaky to walk back to the street, because it felt like being on a real vacation inside of the new urban pool.

Haubentaucher is more exactly located inside of RAW – which actually stands for Reichbahnausbesserungswerk, even though most tourist pronounce it like raw, in the “Warschauerstrasse – end”. Friedrichshain is blooming, and is definitely not just a relic of the GDR past. Almost everyday it seems like something hip and cool is opening in Friedrichshain, last year the street food market and culture place Neue Heimat opened (also located in RAW), The Bowl (a clean eating, vegan restaurant) just opened last week, and now we can look forward to hot summer days spent at Haubentaucher, you will for sure know where to find me at least!