BEING THERE

A really bad time to visit the city is August, most Berliners leave to make room for the tourists - taking most of their culture with them.

Go to Kollwitzplatz in the East to be with the fashionable crowd. There are cafés, bars, restaurants and galleries to suit all taste and most wallets. This was a showcase area during the GDR times and has since been taken over and renovated by the tenants themselves.

Pick up all the bargains and fresh produce you can carry at the market on Weinterfeldplatz (Wednesdays and Saturdays). For serious shopping, KaDeWe at Wittenbergplatz has got everything - or so it claims.

Tacheles on Oranienburger Strasse in the East is an autonomous, free-for-all cultural centre and watering hole. A must for visitors to Berlin.

To view the city from the top of a double-decker bus at a fraction of the cost and humiliation of a normal tourist tour, simply hop on a number 100 bus (from the Zoo) which takes you to the historic East, passing through the Brandenburg Gate. Accredited guests at the Berlinale can ride the entire public transport network free of charge!

Berlin boasts of being 'the largest building site in Europe' and for a sneak preview of what the future holds, check out the Infobox at Potsdamer Platz.