Friedrichshain is east of Mitte, across the river from Kreuzberg, and southeast of Prenzlauer Berg. Wide streets such as the Karl-Marx-Allee and plentiful open spaces have kept the former blue-collar neighborhood from achieving the population density of Kreuzberg.
Prenzlauer Berg's gentrification is slowly bleeding past the Volkspark across Karl-Marx-Allee into Friedrichshain, and while unsavory parts of the district are available to those seeking them, pessimistic defiers of the establishment will mournfully tell you that their days are numbered. Even so, the gentry taking root in the neighborhood tend to consist more of students and artists than full-on young urban professionals, and the nightlife still has plenty of kick to it.
Clubs near the Oberbaumbrücke and Ostbahnhof are among Berlin's hottest, and for years Simon-Dach-Strasse and surrounds have defiantly remained edgy-hip (as opposed to trendy-hip — the gamut of Berlin scenes necessitates a flexible and hyphen-intensive vocabulary).
Aspiring DJs, which is to say more or less everyone, raid the area's many cheap vinyl stores on a regular basis. Low-cost and vintage clothing stores are also a dime a dozen, and the density of authentic little Middle Eastern and Indian eateries rivals Kreuzberg's.
— Courtesy of Brewer's Berlin Tours (check out their walking tours)
