Why I love Eurovision

Having only discovered the song contest in 2007, I don't have the same preconceptions as Europeans.

I headed back to Brussels after a great weekend in Vienna for the Eurovision Song Contest Final. It was my fourth time attending the show and this time was undoubtedly the best.

Vienna went all out, decking out the whole city and setting up not one, but two Euroclubs for fans. The organisation was smooth (more than I can say for Copenhagen and Dusseldorf). I was there as press and was very lucky to be given a VIP ticket, so I had an amazing view. Maybe that explains my effusive praise for Vienna's hosting, but it really was objectively very good. A shame that they were rewarded by the public with nul points! Austria really didn't deserve that.

I'm settling in Schöneberg

After some flirtation with the East, I've decided that my first home in Berlin will be in the West.

It's been an intense few days of apartment-hunting here in Berlin. By this afternoon I had it narrowed-down to two places - a two-month sublet in Prenzlauerberg, or a 7-month lease in Kreuzberg.

Neither apartment really thrilled me. The one in Prenzlauerberg was a bit short for the lease period, and it felt very far away. While walking around the neighbourhood, I couldn't shake the feeling that it was the Berlin equivalent of Park Slope in Brooklyn. There were a tonne of children, everywhere. It apparently has the highest concentration of children of any location in Germany. It was nice, but didn't really excite me.

Teutonic telecommunications troubles

As I've been discovering this week, German prepaid mobile plans leave much to be desired.

In 1999, when I moved from Boston to New York in order to transfer to a different university, there were a lot of logistical hassles along the way. I remember that one of the worst was changing my mobile phone.

Back then in the US, our mobile phone plans still had 'home ranges' outside of which you would pay a roaming surcharge to use your phone. This range was usually your state, or maybe a zone of three states. My mobile phone with a Massachusetts number would have been roaming in New York. So I had to change my phone plan. I also had to change my Massachusetts phone number to a New York one so that when people called me in New York they wouldn't be charged for a long-distance call.

So Dave, what's all this about you moving to Berlin?

Today begins a new chapter in my life as I search for an apartment in a new city.

I've arrived in Berlin for the first day of my German adventure. I'm here to cover a climate conference and then look for apartments, getting ready for the big move here next month.

I'm a journalist, originally from outside New York City, and I've been covering EU politics in Brussels for the past six years. It's been a great experience, but after so many years in the 'Brussels bubble' I realised I needed to get out and really see what's going on in Europe. The European elections last year really drove that message home to me. I've been trapped in the bubble too long and have lost touch with what 'real Europeans' are thinking.

And...we're back!

I've decided to burst out of the Brussels bubble and head for Berlin. I would say this calls for reviving the blog!

One year ago I put my blog Gulf Stream Blues into retirement. Today I can announce some exciting news, I'm moving to Berlin!

More details to come, but for now I'm taking the ol' blog out of retirement and relaunching it as 'From Brussels to Berlin'. The reason is that I will be based between both cities.

I'm very excited! Watch this space.

Gulf Stream Interrupted

Gulf Stream Blues is going into retirement, while I concentrate on launching the new EuropeanVoice.com.

Regular readers may have noticed that my blog entries have been few and far between over the past months. Last year I was promoted to being editor of EuropeanVoice.com, the web site of the newspaper of the same name which was launched by The Economist 20 years ago.

It's an intense time, as we work to relaunch the web site and prepare for coverage of the European elections this month. I have to face facts and acknowledge that I just don't have time to write in this blog any more.

I launched this blog in 2006 while living in New York, in preparation as I struggled to find some way to get to Europe. I had been consumed by an interest in the European Union since reading a book called The European Dream by former New York Times reporter Jeremy Rifkin.