Being a single mum, nightclubbing is pretty much a closed chapter in my life, but I love bars where you can arrive in the early evening, have a great time with friends, and still make it home before the babysitter has emptied all the food reserves.

My two favourite bars are both located on Helmholtzplatz (nickname Helmi) in Prenzlauerberg, former East Berlin.

EKA 

EKA is situated on the Dunckerstrasse side of the rectangular square of Helmi, a small Portuguese bar, where the atmosphere is always chilled and the drinks always made with true dedication. Music nine out of ten times is cool, and I love that you can always order ham and melted cheese sandwiches, or the wonderful small Portuguese custard tarts called Pastéis de nata.

 A really cool place to hang out with friends before going to the nightclubs (this is the part where I go home to pull the babysitter out of the candy cupboard).

Bar EKA, Dunckerstraße 9, Berlin

Wohnzimmer

Photo by CDrewing

The other bar on Helmi is called 'Wohnzimmer' (Living room). It is a big corner apartment, converted into a bar furnished with soft armchairs and couches. There are chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and smoking is forbidden between 10 A.M. and 6 P.M. When the weather is good, which it often is during the summer, there is a great atmosphere outside this lively, well decorated, and in a way, typical Berlin bar.

Wohnzimmer, Lettestraße 6, Berlin

Deriving its name from the personal hobby of architect Victor Horta (psychedelic mushrooms), De Ultieme Hallucinatie is indeed a fanciful place. No tie-dye or oversize peace signs here, just plenty of swirling art nouveau details and a “step back in time” feeling that comes as soon as you’ve crossed the threshold of this restored 19th century house.

We were greeted just inside the front door by a period piano, a marble staircase, and signature Nouveau adornments everywhere. It was silent here and we delighted in the time warp feeling for a moment before passing on through to the second room.

A polished wood table was lit by Tiffany lamps and surrounded by wall cupboards and tapestried sofas. We wondered if it was the original dining room of Paul Hamesse, the architect who redecorated this house in 1904 in the contemporary style. It was beautiful but felt like a museum, so we continued on to the next room and found - Bingo! - the bar.

One of the prettiest bars I've seen, it was a long marble counter framed by a series of carved wooden "windows" overhead, with natural light pouring through stained glass above. I could have spent an entire afternoon here exploring the beer list, but this was a rare sunny day and the action was on the terrace.

The fourth and final room at De Ultieme Hallucinatie is a patio, filled with greenery and (slightly stagnant) pools of water. We took a table in the sun and ordered up some croquettes, the nothing-fancy bar staple of Brussels. They grey shrimp variety was tasty, but the cheese croquettes were like glue and required lots of cold beer to wash them down. Lucky for us, there was plenty of that around. But the trippy stone walls looked as if they were melting long before we had taken our first sip.

Although the food isn't anything to write home about, De Ultieme Hallucinatie is worth a stop for anyone interested in architecture. Learning about the turn-of-the-century style is especially fun with a tall beer in hand. And Art Nouveau or no Nouveau, the sunny patio and stylish bar make an excellent stop before a concert at the nearby Botanique.

De Ultieme Hallucinatie; 16 rue Royale, 1210 Brussels (St-Josse)

Jet2.com will launch a new route from its base at Blackpool Airport to the sunny destination of Mahon in Spain. The route will be operated on a weekly basis from June 15, 2009. In other news, they will double the number of weekly flights on the route between Leeds Bradford and Malaga.

At the risk of revealing my advanced age, I pose the question: When are those cool sixties styles I loved when I was a boy – Peter Max ceramics, Merimekko bedsheets and avocado or burnt orange stoves and refrigerators – ever going to be in fashion again? Haven’t they become classics at long last?

If, like me, your idea of perfection is the animation of the Beatle’s Yellow Submarine movie, you should get your ass over to Skeppsholmen and the gardens and parks outside of Moderna Museet, Stockholm’s museum of modern art. In an oblong of grass on a hill stands a set of polychrome statues – all breasts and eyes and beaks and trunks and thick legs – outsized and childlike creatures from the imagination of sixties icon Niki de Saint Phalle.

The nine beasts are accompanied by seven rusty constructions of wheels and water spouts (by Saint Phalle’s husband, Yves Tinguely), all living together as if in some kind of symbiotic sixties groovy relationship – the piece is called The Fantastic Paradise. I’ve probably walked past this particular hill fifty times, and each time I have to stop and admire and ponder. Can something this big be considered whimsical? And how come I’m the only one ever looking at these pieces?

If Picasso is more your style, there’s another garden tucked away to the far right of the entrance of the museum. Inside, Pablo’s own larger-than-life sculptural version of Luncheon on the Grass awaits – and in his version, both the women and the men are naked. Yowza! You can even sit on the terrace with a glass of wine from the café if you find yourself in need of sustenance after all that walking and admiring and pondering.

(As long as you’ve made it this far, you also may as well make the extra effort to check out Moderna Museet. It does have, after all, Sweden’s best collection of art. Go ahead, you can do it.)

Visitors to London will probably be amazed by the number of kebab shops there are here. They will wonder at the huge grey piece of meat that slowly turns in the windows and wonder who would dare eat such a thing. Then they will look at the drunken hordes around them and find their question answered. Kebabs are to be avoided then? Not necessarily. . . .

Beity

Amongst all the dross there are a few places that marinate their own meat and make it up into donner kebabs. What to look for is instead of it being a mass of homogenous grey matter it instead looks like roughly chopped up roast lamb pressed together.

Beity

Where will I find these delicious creatures? Good hunting grounds are amongst the Turkish and Kurdish areas of Camden, Hackney and Finsbury Park.
Also good are some Syrian joints but the best tend to be Lebanese. You must head West and look for the word Shawarma.
Baalbak

Edgware Road where there are hundreds of Lebanese restaurants is the obvious place also Queensway, Notting Hill and along the Harrow Road. There are also a few places in central London, Chelsea and further West.

Baalbak

I love Beity on 92 Queensway not least for its gleaming interior but my absolute favourite is Baalbak on 91 Golborne Road in Notting Hill. The lamb is usually beautifully tender, charred on the outside and slightly pink in the middle and flavoured with lemon, garlic and rosemary. Wrapped up in a flat bread with some pickles, chilli and garlic sauces – it is a heavenly snack.

Good Turkish kebabs:

Anatolia; 253 Mare Street, Hackney

Woody Grill, 1 Camden Road, Camden

Go further: Read here where in Istanbul Adventureist eats giant kebabs.