http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/ Welcome to Been there. Your tips on the places you know - that you love, live in or have just visited - are what make this guide. http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/18324 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/18324 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/14512
It houses many artists' galleries and workspaces where the public are free to wander and these are often turned into venues for impromptu parties.

There is a great outside space dotted with sculptures and beer served from an old VW van in the back and there's a cafe inside serving food from breakfasts to supper and coffees and hot chocolates and also a venue for live music. A wonderful space just to hang out.]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/14512 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/11367
Hamburg is more arty, Munich more fashionable, Frankfurt more successful, Cologne more cultured, Stuttgart richer. Whether in football, ballet, opera, cuisine, nightlife, design or music, the focus in Germany lies elsewhere.

Most non-Berliners regard the city with a mixture of affection and pity; one of the things that surprised me when I got here was just how de-centralised everything is, as I was expecting the capital to be the focus. It is this medieval every-town-has-its-own-brewery aspect of local centres which gives Germany its charm.]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/11367 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/11217
The collection includes European painting and sculpture from the Middle Ages to about 1800.]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/11217 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/11180
As with Prenzlauer Berg before, the property developers have moved in en masse, creating an upsurge in eigentumswohnungen (private flats) which has indirectly impacted upon the previously reasonable rents. The buildings were once "typically East German", but new riches have brought a splash of colour and penthouse flats of which real Friedrichshainers could only dream about.

Moreover, the bars and cafes are almost exclusively of the "Ballermann" package holiday variety (cocktails, palm trees, water-pipes), geared towards German tourists and the easyJet mob. Decent bars and restaurants are few and far between.

If this were not enough, the area around Frankfurter Tor has seen numerous neo-Nazi attacks on tourists and anyone vaguely foreign-looking in recent months (Friedrichshain is edged by the Lichtenberg and Marzahn housing estates where, sad to say, right-wing sentiment is the order of the day for the largely disaffected and unemployed youth).

So, all in all, great if you're wearing blinkers.]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/11180 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/11117
Rents are relatively cheap so it’s the preferred area of students, making it very lively and full of bustling clubs and cafes.]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/11117 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/11116 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/11116 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/3354 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/3354 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/966 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/966 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/65 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/65 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/35 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/35 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/19 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/19 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/10 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/10 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/3355 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/3355 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/1430 www.cafe-bilderbuch.de for further information. There is a huge breakfast buffet on sundays that is worth a try, too!]]> http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/1430 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/2 http://www.ivebeenthere.co.uk/tips/2