Berlin Travel Forum

I have been entertaining the idea of going to Berlin for five days in the upcoming months to see a Hertha Berlin (I'm a massive football fan) game and stay at a hostel during my stay.
My first question is would it be difficult to find one ticket to the Olympiastadion for a game? The time I'm looking at they are playing Borussia Gladbach at home if that helps. Also if I am going by myself should I try to find tickets in a certain section?
Second, since I am traveling myself I want to stay in a hostel so I can meet some other travelers and possibly explore the city with some other people. Is this a good plan or am I overestimating the social & community experience of hosteling? Thanks for any help that can be provided.

Here is the website where you can buy your ticket for the game online - it also allows you to chose the seat.
http://www.eventim.de/cgi-bin/TINFO.DLL?fun=TDetailB&id=EVG_NO_SESSION&doc=funktion/fun_deb_sta&key=258194$540824

Berlin has a great and unusual hostel "The Generator" (http://www.generatorhostels.com/en/berlin). How much contact you have with the people depends on you openess to socialize. I have never had any problems to chat with people in hostels.

Have fun!

In addition to the previous post:

I'd suggest to stay at the Circus Hostel. It's a 5* hostel so to speak and better located.

http://www.circus-berlin.de/

As for purchasing a ticket for a certain section: Hertha fans will populate "Ostkurve", while the other fans will occupy "Westkurve". Both are standing room only, if I'm not mistaken.

I understand flights are cheaper in winter, but February can be very cold in Berlin. To stand or sit for almost two hours in the cold can be a very unpleasing experience.

Ahem, with "football" you hopefully mean "soccer"? Otherwise the rules may baffle you a bit.

Regarding the football tickets:

Since 2004 Olympiastadion has seats only, no standing areas anymore (this is a Fifa requirement and was requested for the World Cup in Germany), in total 74,500 seats. Normally games in Berlin do not sell out against opponents like Borussia Mönchengladbach. But, of course, if you buy the tickets online you can make sure to get a seat exactly in the area you want. Just check out how you get the tickets. Some clubs do not send them into foreign countries but would deposit them at the ticket kiosks in front of the stadium.

Info for Turtleshell:
The USA is the only country where football is soccer. Even in NZ they have renamed the former soccer federation into football federation. And Hertha BSC has no American Football team, so no worries for the football fan ;-)

> Since 2004 Olympiastadion has seats only, no standing areas anymore

Oh, ok, the only time I was inside the Olympic Stadium was when my brother dragged me to a Rolling Stones concert.

> Info for Turtleshell:
> The USA is the only country where football is soccer.

Yeah, I know, but the thread-starter is from Chicago .... :-)

Yes I mean soccer, but I understand it is called differently in most of the world. I know it will be cold, but I do not mind, I can't imagine it is any worse than my hometown, Chicago, where it is normal to go below zero degrees Fahrenheit in the winter.

For something completely different: Could anyone enlighten me why the nav-bar reads:

Germany» Land Schleswig-Holstein» Berlin ?

Last time I checked, Berlin was a state of its own and not located in Schleswig-Holstein.

// --- snip -----

Ok, there's a Berlin in Schleswig-Holstein ... funny ...
http://www.geonames.org/2950158/berlin.html

Funny thing about Berlin :-)))

>> Yeah, I know, but the thread-starter is from Chicago .... :-) <<

You are right. But if he had meant American football he would not be irritated by the rules... ;-) But I am proud of the poster that he uses the term correctly. BTW Some weeks ago I met a US football (soccer LOL) national team, and they all used the term football and not soccer.

Berlin - Schleswig-Holstein? Have a look at some of the VT pages about Berlin, the one in Land Schleswig-Holstein, and you'll see how confusing this can be.

Christine,
A while back I mentioned it in the Tech-Forum, but I was the only one who considered it an issue.

According to this page ...

http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Europe/Germany/Land_Schleswig_Holstein/TravelGuide-Land_Schleswig_Holstein.html

... Berlin, Schleswig-Holstein is the second most popular destination only after Luebeck. And there you find another "Top 5 Pages About Berlin" - the capital that is.

And it's not only Berlin. There are other large cities that have smaller nameskes. I still believe this should be addressed - I mean a tourist and travel guide that claims Berlin was a village with 300 citizens and 5 dogs situated in Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg was a fuel station and a barn in Hesse or so ... jeez.

I know. I suppose it's just too much work to set straight the whole, huge VT database. I don't know how many places there are listed there, but surely some thousands, if not more.

I 100 % agree with turtle: confusion should be avoided ! When you look at the Berlin/Schleswig-Holstein-Site you can se that the members who know a lot about the "big city berlin" don`t answer

This one about East Berlin (Connecticut) is great...
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/2f68e/b936c/1/