When in Berlin I sought out the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. It was something I knew little about, but I’d seen enough photos to know that it was something I wanted to experience firsthand. It’s a short walk from Potsdamer Platz and it just sort of sneaks up on you. Here’s what it feels like to walk through:

I’m back on Island soil again. Man was it ever a long travel day yesterday: I left Berlin at 8:00 a.m. local time and arrived in Charlottetown at 11:30 p.m. local time. I think this means it took me almost 24 hours to get home. It sure felt like it.

Berlin’s Tegel Airport was great: no check-in wait, one security line per gate, good coffee. The flight to Zurich on Swiss was on time and everyone received chocolate before take-off. Transfer in Zurich was a little hectic as I had to change terminals and find a secret transfer desk to get an onward boarding pass for the flight to Montreal; I figured it all out, though, and boarded with what ended up being plenty of time to spare.

Despite sitting beside a man who insisted on full recline of his seat for most of the flight, and a seat-back video system designed with a 1970s sensibility, the 8 hour flight west was actually rather pleasant: food was good, flight attendants very efficient and kind. We arrived in Montreal a little early and I was out, through customs and in the Air Canada lounge for a 5 hour layover in about 30 minutes.

By the time I was on the plane to Charlottetown at 8:00 p.m. — it was the milk-run on the Dash 8 that takes an hour longer — I was nearing complete catatonia. I managed to keep my eyes open, though — barely — and was out the door in Charlottetown and in a cab home in about 10 minutes.

Needless to say, I fell immediately to sleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. I didn’t wake at all until 6:30 a.m. when [[Oliver]] came in to welcome me home and tell me about the new Backyardigans DVD he’d bought. We three got up and came here to Café Diem for breakfast. Which is not quite like Europe, but is a pretty good approximation. Especially now that they have a uber seating on the balcony.

It’s good to be home.

I took some time during my 5-hour layover here at Trudeau Airport to update the sidebar here on ruk.ca to use Plazes (instead of Jaiku) to provide the “What am I up to?” This is just a test to see how it works out — the “status” line is a new feature of Plazes, part of the major upgrade that rolled out last week. It’s not as mature as Jaiku’s presence management — you can’t attach comments, for example — but it is well-integrated with locations, and that’s a good thing. It’s also nice to be able to use one tool to update the where and the what.

I love going to the movies. And if the location is interesting, I love it even more. Which is why I loved last night a lot.

Despite a heat-stroke peppered day, I decided to finish out my trip to Berlin with a visit to the open-air cinema Freiluftkino Kreuzberg to see The Lives of Others under the stars.

Could there be a better movie-going experience than sitting outside on a deck chair on a warm spring night drinking beer and eating popcorn watching a movie about 1984 East Berlin just a few blocks from where the Berlin Wall once stood? (The answer is no).

The setup is amazing: the screen, which is enormous, sits in the middle of a courtyard lined with trees and is fronted by a large grassy space. There’s a pile of deck chairs by the entrance; you pick one up on your way in. There’s a concession that serving sodas, beer, popcorn and other snacks. The projector sits in the window on the 4th floor of a window of a neighbouring building. The picture quality is excellent.

Oh, and the movie itself was pretty good too.

And long. By the time it let out it was after midnight, and by the time I caught the U-Bahn and tram back to my hotel it was after 1:00 p.m. But any tiredness I feel on my long journey back to Canada today as a result (note to self) will be more than worth it. If you’re in Berlin in the summer I can’t think of a better way to spent an evening.

Man is it ever hot out there today. Actually, it’s not all that hot. It’s just that I am dressed for spring in PEI — heavy shirt, fleece jacket — when I should be dressed for the heat of spring in Berlin. Which I am not. So, for the moment, I’m hiding out here in easyInternetCafe on Kurfurstendamm letting my body temperature adjust downwards. I have a feeling, after lunch outside and a lot of walking around, that I have successfully developed a borderline sunburn. Oh well … I should have such problems.

Last night after leaving Plazes HQ I hung out at a wifi-enabled bar near my hotel called State O’ Maine. (Apparently I drink beer now.) Around 9:30 p.m. I headed south by foot to rendezvous with Stefan to enjoy some Italian food. Stefan was an excellent host and guided me through the complexities of ordering beer (did I mentioned that I apparently drink beer now?) and pasta in German. The pasta part of that involved an attempted translation of the German word for “sage.” For a time I was led to believe, by a seemingly helpful man at the next table, that I was ordering gnocchi with frankincense. I’m not sure what that would have been like, but I was delighted enough by the prospect to go ahead and order. I was sort of disappointed — although the pasta was very good — that it was simply sage.

After a good long supper, we emerged into the Berlin night and walked up the street into a bizarre sort of private club — Stefan had to show a secret gold card to get us admitted in the front door. Inside was a very pleasant setup, an adoringly pleasant barkeep, and vast arrays of luxurious seating that, it being a slow night, we had to ourselves. We nursed gin and tonics (apparently I drink gin and tonics now too) for a few hours and then parted company. I walked through the dark — and utterly silent — streets of East Berlin, located a night-tram, and was at my hotel and in bed by 2:00 a.m. Apparently I stay up to all hours now too.

This morning I ramped up slowly and didn’t make it out of the hotel until after 10:00 a.m. Following Stefan’s suggestions, I headed across to West Berlin (although at the time I thought it was East Berlin — I will never keep this straight) into the area known as Little Istanbul. Lots of energy there and a totally different feel than Mitte and over here in the more-high-falootin part of the west. I grabbed a cappuccino, paid 20 cents at an Internet cafe to check email, and then caught the S-train up to Plazes HQ.

Rendezvoused with Felix there and we had a good Thai-flavoured lunch in an outside courtyard around the corner and talked shop (lots of interesting developments there that I’ll discuss soon) and got a cook’s tour of l’affaire Felix that’s been playing out in TechCrunch et al this week (and completely passed me by …).

Once I’ve got my groove back, I’m going to wend my way back to my hotel, pack up for the flight back to Canada tomorrow, and either fall straight to sleep or screw up my energy and catch an outdoor screening, in German with subtitles, of The Lives of Others tonight. No doubt the next time you hear from me I’ll be cooling my heels in some airport somewhere.

19h02: Well, that was great. I think all web companies should invite their users over to play from time to time. Good for users to meet (and watch) developers, good for developers to meet (and encounter the “why isn’t this working?!” wrath of) users. Thanks to the Plazes crew for being such kind hosts. I’m off.

18h35: SMS issues dealt with, we move on to the API. Turns out that the API that I thought had “disappeared” has, in fact, appeared again from the ether. Indeed even the old-school WhereAmI API is back. So you will notice that the “Where is Peter?” thingy in the sidebar at ruk.ca is back!

18h21: I decided to seize the bull by the horns, so to speak, and see if I could help fix the bugs afflicting Plazes-by-SMS. And it turns out that they weren’t bugs at all, but a quirky set of “exceptional use cases” related to the fact then when I stepped off the plane in Zurich last week I sent my first Plazes SMS from my European SIM card without first registering my new mobile number on Plazes.com. This resulted in a new account being created for me (good behaviour, in theory), and so it was that new “anonymous” account — something like “mobile12345” — that was having its Plaze updated, not “me.” Problem now solved — by texting login reinvented password to Plazes (where “password” is my Plazes password). This has the effect of reconnecting my mobile number with me.

17h36: Just got a great overview of the new Plazes back-end, and in the process learned a lot about how large-scale Ruby applications work. There is no doubt that there are a lot of smart people in this room.

17h22: The new site begets new URLs. So I am now plazes.com/users/1185. Which means, I think, that I am user number 1185. I am also plazes.com/users/reinvented.

17h17: Because the New Improved Plazes went live while I was in the air over the Atlantic, and I’ve been scurrying around ever since, sitting here at Plazes has given me my first opportunity to actually take the new site out for a ride. I like the fact that it’s much simpler: functionality has been rearranged and, especially if you rip the old muscle memory out of your mind, the new site glides much more easily. Of course some of the old school functionality has gone away, at least for now (everyone tells me to hold my breath, and that treasured features may indeed return). And for those of us who took delight in Plazes API fiddling, we have to hold our collective breath too.

16h52: Eavesdropping on a conversation about a Plazes bug that I’m actually experiencing at the same time. It’s like overhearing Han Solo talking to Chewy about the busted engines.

16h48: Here’s a quick 360 degree look at the new Plazes space:

16h25: Oops — forgot to put the phone on VibroSilent. Got a Jaiku beep (Mark’s first Jaiku from his new MacBook). VibroSilent now engaged.

16h20: In the old world one of big challenges of moving into a new office (as Plazes did last week) would be wiring everyone up with a telephone. But nobody here has a telephone on their desk. It’s weird. I suppose anyone they need to talk to is either (a) online or (b) across the room.

16h17: Hey, something exciting happened: Sean Treadway came to the office. He’s sitting in front of me as I type.

16h15: Okay, so there’s lots of work happening here, but short of packet-sniffing I’ve no idea what it actually is that everyone’s doing. So go look at my Flickr photos from this morning while you’re waiting for something Really Exciting to happen.

16h00: Here’s what’s in the middle of the room:

15h56: I suppose that if You Out There have any questions for the Plazes Crew, now is that time to ask them. IM me at reinventedpei on AIM.

15h52: Everyone is Very Serious here. I’ve never been in a room full of coders coding (it’s a largely solitary process for me), so this is interesting to watch. There’s an occasional face-to-face meeting around a workstation (in German, so I’m not sure whether it’s “shall we change the logo to pink” or “yes, I know everything’s going to hell, but what am I supposed to do about it?”). But otherwise everyone is focused on their widescreen display busy making Plazes.

15h45: Visit began with a round of introductions. I’ve promptly forgotten all the names now. I am introduced as “a longtime Plazes user” here (my introduction from ye olde deprecated-by-new-release Plazes screencasts). The office here is one big space. White walls. Parquet floors. Semi-circular with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Monbijouplatz. Ironically, I can’t seem to get my Mac Plazer to work. I’m not sure whether I should jump up and shout this out loudly (if not now, when?), or quietly keep it to myself. Perhaps this could be my new job here: live bug reports from the “user in residence.”

15h34: Okay, so I’ve been installed with my own work surface here at Plazes HQ in Berlin. This is my first visit to a real live web company. At least one that’s not sequestered inside a Victorian house in Charlottetown. Apparently desks are Web 1.0 and these days it’s all about the Big White Tables. Big White Tables at the Correct Typing Height.

My friends at [[Plazes]] have been in the midst of an extended-play relaunch of their service for the past week. They decided to simultaneously release a complete re-write of the underlying code, a complete re-cast of the UI, move their offices across town and, for good measure, to send the two founders to Copenhagen in the midst of all this.

Among the functionality casualties of all this upgrading, at least for the moment, are the ability to reliably “Plaze one’s self” by SMS using a mobile phone. Which is the way that I tend to use Plazes most.

Hence the irony of arriving in Berlin, all ready to experience the heady joys of being drenched in geotaggalicuous Plazes goodness only to find it all just frustratingly beyond my grasp.

It Will All Get Better soon, they tell me. Perhaps just in time for my departure ;-)

I’ll no doubt have more to report once I’m inside the mothership later today.

Met up with Stefan from [[Plazes]] for beer and pizza and got a short intro to the city layout. Tomorrow I’ll do some exploring, and then visit the Plazes mothership. Good night!

Got to Berlin in one piece. Spent the leg from Hamburg to Berlin trapped in a hot compartment with an evil-eyed 9 year old who resented that I stole his cool double-wide seat setup with my reservation. Emerged into the chaos of the new railway station and managed, through magic and luck, to navigate my way by S-train and tram, to my hotel. Where I promptly fell asleep. I am now out on the town, trying to work around the different position of the “Z” on the German keyboard and looking for fun.

After a delightful day, I’m eking out the last few MB of wifi getting the 411 on Berlin — how to get there, how to get from train to hotel, where to find the new Plazes HQ, etc. I’m heading out tomorrow morning on the early train (yes, train trumped air!), and will arrive mid-afternoon. I’m excited to be discovering a new city, and experiencing the Plazes Crew firsthand in their native environment.

Today was another in the series “great last days in Copenhagen” (see 2006 and 2005).

Started off the day at Louisiana where I eventually hooked up with [[Henriette]], [[Thomas]], [[Penny]], [[Pedro]], [[Patricia]] and [[Dannie]], rebooteros all. We ended up spending more time eating and rolling down grassy hills than appreciating art, but that was much more fun anyway.

After saying farewells-til-next-year and leaving Pedro and Patricia at the train north, I headed back into the city where I hooked up with [[Olle]] and headed into his ‘hood for dinner.

Our destination was an anarchic nameless bistro with a defiant attitude (“you must be seated to receive your bill!”) and simple vegan-friendly fare (their Guava juice was to die for). [[Luisa]] biked in at just the right time, and we got out just before the true hard-edged chaos ensued. Once out the door we immediately ran into Sean, who I will see again at Plazes in Berlin shortly (Copenhagen is a village, it seems).

For post-dinner plotting and scheming we headed across the way to what amount to the best bar I’ve ever been to (or at least one that equals Café de la Grave in its excellentness) where I enjoyed beer and then hot chocolate (“the consistency of pudding” as Luisa said).

Part-fodder for our scheming and plotting was Olle and Luisa’s upcoming “Artist in Residence” project in Charlottetown, now penciled in for Spring 2008. Many other issues were covered in addition, and a good and merry time was had by all.

We left Luisa and Olle and I headed to bike up his bike and get me on the train south. Which dumped me at Central Station. A short walk to Cab Inn City and here I am. It’s getting late, and I’ve got to back and sort and fiddle. So good night. See you in Berlin.