Ocasionally, something bad can lead to something good. Görlitzer Park in Kreuzberg, Berlin is a good example of this. The centre of this wonderful park is a large bomb-crater. An act of destruction has unconsciously created a happy place (not right away I can imagine, but in the long run anyway).

It is an excellent place for relaxing, enjoying the sunshine, reading and writing, having picnics and people-watching. As I was near the end of my trip, I spent a fair bit of time here, thinking about everything - what I wanted to do once I got back home, what had been the most worthwhile experiences of this trip, how I felt about it being almost over.

As Kreuzberg has a large Turkish population, as well as a fair number of punks (though most of them live in Friedrichshain nowadays), there is a good mixture of cultures and sub-cultures in Görlitzer Park, which makes people-watching all the more enjoyable. There are families with children, people of all ages throwing frisbees in the middle of the crater, young people talking, playing music or just hanging out.

Görlitzer Park is a place that sums up the unique spirit of Berlin and why I like it so much rather well. If I had to make a list of must-see spots in Berlin, it would be much higher than most of the major well-known landmarks in the city. Yet it's largely ignored by the guidebooks. Who writes these things anyway?