I’ve been in Berlin for almost two weeks now - it feels like a lot longer but I’m not sure that’s caused by the city. It’s been positive - having a desk has kept me productive and I’ve turned a corner in learning Ruby on Rails. I’m working on a webapp that’s a marketing dashboard - emailing, SMS, social media - all in one place and designed to make it easy for non-technical people, or even technical but non-social-media types. I am also trying to finish off How to Use Torrents, which is a wizard to get non-techs up and running with torrents.

Myth: Berlin is cheap

Berlin is not cheap. It is around 15% cheaper than London, and considerably more expensive for some things. 5 stops on the bus costs €2.30 (admittedly this takes you anywhere for two hours, but if you only need 5 stops then that's what you're paying). A weekly travel card is my best option at €27 a week - surely the same as London.

Food is the same price, restaurants are slightly cheaper. I have just paid €440 for a one-bedroom studio for 19 days.

Fact: Berlin is sleepy

I roll out of bed around 10am most days. And this seems pretty standard. The streets are deserted even at 9am on a weekday - no-one seems to do anything until 10am. This is a sleepy city.

Fact: Berlin is nice

Berlin is very similar to Budapest. So much so that I'm wondering why I'm here paying double the rent to be here. There's a nice mix of concrete soviet-era blocks, 1900s redbrick buildings, industry and modern architecture. It's a very arty city and creativity leaps out at you everywhere. People are distinctive looking, trendy and unique. This is far from a city of sheep.

Crime seems virtually non-existent, there are plenty of parks and green spaces, traffic isn't crazy at any point. There are canals all over the place which make nice walks and runs.

Overall, this is a good place to live. I was equally impressed by Hamburg. Germany seems to have a viable balance of tat-merchants, service businesses, public sector and industry.