The missing link

In the last month I was very busy editing, gathering and writing many information about Berlin: places to go, restaurants to try and events to don't miss. Hence, the relative scarcity of blog posts lately.

The experience in itself was very interesting experience and I hope to continue in the next months the step-by-step discovery of the city (without any chance to a full and definitive coverage). Actually, in the last weeks I found so many hidden treasures and heard so many interesting stories about the city. And me, I thought that after two years of intensive well-planed exploration, I was almost an expert. Nothing by far.

Gathering information for further - mostly - touristic use is a complex approach and you need to be careful with lots of practical aspects: opening hours, locations, transportation etc. You have the story, but you need to offer also the data. Many places I knew before starting this project, but was unaware of their coordinates. Others were just discovered - sometimes on the spot - or recommended by my friends. Again, I needed to connect the reader to a couple of details necessary to be taken into consideration in the planning of a trip, sometimes over a limited amount of time. For a 2-3-day trip, you can't see the whole city and before making the choice of a restaurant, for example, you need to have in mind where this place - even worldfamous - could fit your limited amount of time.

Anyway, one of the most frequent problems I faced lately is the lack of information on restaurants' websites about the opening hours. Some Internet pages don't look too preoccupied, in general, with offering many information about the location, or the menu (plus prices), or to create a certain motivation for the reader to include the place on the priority list. But, still, the opening time is very important - both for locals and tourists. I tried to find more infos on qype, but here the problem was the inaccuracy of information. This is why in many cases I went to ask by myself. 

Good to know, just in case that you'll wonder why the doors to your culinary pleasure are closed.