Welcome home to East Berlin

Take a one-time, virtual, Third World zone and inject piles of money so that yesterday's crumbling and downtrodden quarters become today's groovy bars and clubs - yes, East Berlin is similar to Dublin in many ways. In particular, there's the preponderance of cranes on the skyline, although, as a ripe scene for development, even Dublin's docklands can't match the vast tracts of valuable land that opened once the Wall came down. The city was the setting for software company Lotus's annual European convention last week, and the Lotus Irish contingent flew the home flag by dragging a large crowd of employees and corporate partners to - what else? - an Irish pub. With four of the drinking establishments in the city centre and the cranes hovering in the distance, Irish expats need never feel homesick. And, like their trendier counterparts back home, the pubs even serve German beer.