I recently had the pleasure of traveling to Berlin for the excellent Lightning++ event. The event is generally known and appreciated to be very technical but there was only one opportunity to use Lightning directly at the conference, a demo of a paywalled Wi-Fi access point called Tollgate, which lets you pay for internet using ecash tokens obtained ahead of time through Lightning.

However, I did have enough time to do plebwalks around Berlin and sample the local economy. Just as Berlin is highly diverse, so were the businesses I found and the payment solutions I got to try out.

🍕 The first place where I try to pay with Bitcoin is Viale dei Tigli, an Italian restaurant in the touristy area south of Brandenburger Tor. As I sit down and ask about Bitcoin payments I'm told not to get my hope up, but eventually staff locate the person responsible. When it comes to paying I am given an onchain address that I pay with Bluewallet. I'm not sure if the unconfirmed transaction is showing up in the esoteric crypto wallet of the merchant, but I'm told it's all good and that I can expect Lightning payments for my next visit.

🥩 In Berlin Mitte lies Friedel Richter, and incredible restaurant with a beautiful departure board from Vienna airport, retrofitted to display the menu and an occasional "Bitcoin Accepted" sign. Friedel Richter hosts the monthly Bitcoin meetup, and this one falls together with the lightning++ conference. It's absolutely packed and staff have trouble keeping up with all the requests. This restaurant runs its own node, together with an LNbits instance through which they process payments. This works very smoothly and staff tends to be familiar with everything. The menu is short and the food is absolutely fantastic. If you can only go to one place in Berlin, come here. I myself return on a separate occasion, the vibe is very different, the food still amazing, and I'm told that it's rare somebody pays with Bitcoin outside of the meetup.

🦄In the hip district of Kreuzberg lies Fabelhaft bar, just around the block from the infamous but now closed Room 77. They aren't happy with a large group walking in, but I have been warned. We huddle around in a corner and drink the excellent cocktails. When it comes to paying with Bitcoin the bar tender rolls his eyes, which funnily enough I was also warned about. His colleague turns away, mumbling something along the lines of "not wanting to be involved," but the actual payment flow goes smoothly into the bar's Wallet of Satoshi account.

💒 Nearby Fabelhaft lies Vater Bar, where we are more welcome as a group. We are given our own room which is incredibly fun. The owner is happy to have our Bitcoin payments, which he processes into his Wallet of Satoshi.

🍏Along the river in the east lies Holzapfelmarkt, an incredibly hip and well styled maze of small shops and selfie opportunities. Here lies Cafe Holzmarktperle, which hosted the Nostr Hackday shortly after Lightning++. They use the Lipa app to process payments, which sits on a dedicated device right next to the counter.

👽Cbase is an incredible and historic hacker and maker space in Berlin, possibly the oldest of its kind. It has its own fictional backstory and is worth a multi-hour tour, if you can secure one with a member. They host the monthly Bitdevs meetup along countless other events, but whether you can pay with Bitcoin depends on who is staffing the bar. Usually around Bitcoin events you can expect Lightning payments, which in my case are paid into Phoenix through a zero-amount invoice or Bolt11. The cashier tells you the amount, you scan the QR code, type it into your wallet, hit send and hope Phoenix uses a similar conversion rate.

🌶️Just around the corner from Cbase is Zimt and Pfeffer, a specialty store for spices and teas. The owner is very excited to have somebody here who wants to pay with Bitcoin, and he says I'm only the second person this year. He uses a relatively fancy integration with his primary point of sale through the Swiss Bitcoin Pay app. Given the effort, it's quite a shame nobody seems to be paying with sats here, although the integration also doesn't work, the green tick doesn't appear and the invoice is never marked as paid in the system, although it is visible in the transaction history.

🎹Disconnect is a very artsy and personal music and art shop. You can browse their small collection of niche comics, buy originals or prints from their affiliated artists or browse the vinyl section. I rummage through the small used book shelves and find some treasure that I pay for with Lightning into the manager's Muun wallet, which appears to be empty at the time of payment. My book was only three euros, my smallest Lightning payment on this trip.

🍦Chipi Chipi Bombón also runs their own node as part of BTCPay Server. As I ask for Bitcoin payments the staff is at first a bit insecure, but they locate the tablet quickly and type the amount into the BTCPay checkout page. I'm given a BIP21 combination LNURL/Onchain address, but as I try to pay the LNURL I get the error that the server is unavailable to generate a Lightning invoice, something I've seen before on my own BTCPay server. All attempts to explain this to the staff of course are futile, and as far as they can tell the issue is on my end. I end up paying ~5000 sats onchain. Have fun consolidating those utxos, I guess?

👂The most curious place I visited on this trip to Berlin was the pub Drittes Ohr. I cannot tell whether the name (third ear) is a reference to the East German secret police, or simply about music, as the bar is littered with nostalgic references to both the old (east) Berlin, Russian friendship and American music. It must be one of the last few bars in Berlin where you can still smoke, and people seem to come mainly for that. The atmosphere is incredible, and as I pay I am told that we are going to need patience. The Opago terminal is charged but only connects to Wi-Fi on the third booting attempt, but the payment goes through swiftly and the bar tender seems content.

💃In the district of Neukölln, a block away from Syrian restaurants and Kebap stands sits the surprisingly upscale Keith bar with an for this district unusually English-speaking audience. I'm expected to pay right as my drink is served, which gives staff the much needed time to figure out the magic of internet money. The waitress at first insists Bitcoin payments are not possible, but with the help of a colleague a plan is formed to message the owner, who after a while responds to "open Muun, show it to the customer and let them figure it out." Easy! I'm told neither of the three people working there that night have seen anyone paying with Bitcoin in the current year, but to my left I can see a hand drawn image hung on the wall quoting an alien creature telling its friend "they even accept crypto and other fantasy currencies."

🧸Onkel Philip's Spielzeug Werkstatt is a special kind of toy shop, selling everything from historic, nostalgic, used, new and quality toys. You're guaranteed to find something for the children in your life, or even yourself just by stumbling around the tiny and packed place. It's only open on Saturdays, when it extends to the sidewalk. The owner is glad to hear I want to pay with Bitcoin and locates his Wallet of Satoshi. He promptly tells the story of how a Swedish customer signed him up and paid for a large order with Bitcoin, and how it has increased in value but that he is still waiting for an opportunity to spend it.