Just Döner... oder was?

Can there be any more fulfilling moment in life than tucking into a Döner Kebab late at night? Well, I'm pretty sure there can be. Your wedding day for example, or the birth of your first child. Perhaps even your first century opening the batting.

Those things are all great obviously - but can you have them with three types of sauce? Don't answer that. In Berlin Döner joints there are three standard toppings you see - yoghurt, garlic and spicy. Everyone has their favourite. I'm a yoghurt man myself, but I can see the appeal of combining garlic and spicy.

The meteoric rise to fame of the shawarma has made me have second thoughts though... It's in pita bread you see, and the meat seems to be a little more, well, meat-like. But one thing you don't get in a shawarma shop is that crazy Döner atmosphere. Just check out the number of guys behind the counter at Prime Kebab at Ostbahnhof.

Spring is in the air.

I try not to talk about the weather in Berlin, it always seems so irrelevant to the inhabitants. Whereas your average Englishman could start 20+ conversations in one day with a remark about the weather, most Berliners tend to find such comments useless and interpret it as an attempt to ask for money. But, anyway, the fact is inescapable: the snow is now apparently gone for good. And that deserves a mention.

The people are outside, the dogs are pooing on the pavement and the parking police are out booking cars again. In fact, some guy in Wedding was so excited about it all, he decided to just bust out and take his couch out to the tram stop. Whether he actually spent time sitting there waiting for the tram or whether it was just a good-natured gesture to the people of Berlin, we will never know. Either way, it's definitely my number one spring time photo.

Of Polar Bears and Albatrosses

So, Hertha Berlin's fans like a bit of rough and tumble. Tell us something we didn't know already. But while football fans are destroying the Olympic Stadium in sheer frustration, there are other sports teams in the capital just busy winning games.

Look at the Eisbären for instance. The two-time defending champions are now leading the Deutsche Eishockey Liga again - this time by 25 points. Wow. Now, I find ice hockey a bit dull to be honest, but this team really is without doubt, the best in the country.

Alba Berlin is another top sporting team from the capital. Despite the disappointment of missing out on Europe's top basketball competition, the Euroleague, the Albatrosses are top of the BBL table and also doing well in the second-tier Eurocup.

Both teams play in 02 world - a brand-new stadium built in the area that used to be death strip behind the Berlin wall. It's small, but packs in a lot of people. Which makes you wonder: if Hertha started playing in there, could they perhaps avoid relegation this season?

Food for the ears

Berlin radio stations are generally pretty down with their music. Some of them focus on new stuff (Fritz) while others just prefer to rock your socks off (Motor FM). I also have a soft spot for all those channels with the Diana Ross music, for example Jam FM.

But if you head out of Berlin, and get on to the A9 to Munich, listening to the radio quickly turns into a very depressing affair. The music is so mainstream, if you switch the dial fast enough you can hear the same song on three different channels at once. The situation gets particularly bad when you hit the state of Bavaria. It seems that here, radio station music directors aren't just mainstream, they're stuck in the 1970s aswell. In Munich, cool people listen to FM4 from Austria.

But today I stumbled upon a pretty cool channel hiding away in the centre of Germany, a channel prepared to try to do something a bit new. Radio Sputnik, from MDR, is where it is at ladies and gentlemen. So grab your ears, turn on the radio and enjoy!

Hanging at the Post Office

You've got to give it to the Deutsche Post: when it comes to long queues, they really are the number one. Today, the man in front of me in the line made four separate detailed business calls while he was waiting. Now that's pretty impressive.

It's like a VCR player on pause in there. You go in so full of cheer and bounce, then you see the line, then you wait. Then you sit on one of the tables, then you lose the will to live.

But what I particularly love about my local Post Office is that when I finally do get to the counter after my thirty minute wait, they insist on trying to sell me one of their many superb banking products. Now, that's what I call old school!