Whilst our particular island is not quite the exotic paradise found on the famous TV show Lost, that despite the monsoon and tropical storms, it does have its fair share of lost travellers.

We have exactly one hotel on the island proper but quite a few surrounding it, the one on the island was built just after I came over. There was a bit of a stink about its construction as they pulled down a DDR landmark to build it. The Ahornblatt was a supposed to be a protected building due to its unique design and was even featured on a stamp. It was also a community centre and theatre, but who cares about community when you can get a new shopping centre and hotel right? The hotel is quite popular, I am deliberately not mentioning the name as you can find it easily enough and they haven’t paid to advertise on here.

The local U-Bahn station serving it is the Spittelmarkt. To get to the hotel you come out on the east side and cross the bridge walk 50 metres and the hotel is in front of you on the right. I mention this because it seems that people are having difficulty locating it in true Lost form. I am sure John hasn’t moved our island as the only flashes of light recently have been accompanied by thunder. It doesn’t help that all the street signs on our corner of the island are marked as Fischerinsel, so you get Fischerinsel left and right and straight on as well. It is no wonder the tourists are confused. They have maps but are unable to correlate a canal a bridge and an U-Bahn station to locate the position. or perhaps they use GPS and its being jammed by Others.

This year another hotel has opened again served by the Spittelmarkt station and this one appears to be even harder to locate, even though it is as easy as; East side exit (direction Alex) of U-Bahn turn right walk 50 meters and there it is on the right. But still the maps and jammed GPS plague the weary traveller.
If one were to stand on the bridge and charge 50 cent for each set of directions given one could make enough for a good night out after a hard days directing.

OK I have decide to relent and name the hidden hotels well two at least. They are the Novotel and the Best Western respectively. I do this in fairness to the poor wanderers looking for their bed and breakfast and to save the locals the constant questioning of the their whereabouts.

The heat wave shows no signs of abating, except for the brief cooling the rain brings, but we haven’t had any rain now for days.  The sky is full of threatening clouds but they seem unable to release their watery load, they hover in and out all day in an endless tease of needed coolness.

The people on the island are suffering a little too in the alertness area. A week ago and old woman in her 70′s tripped and fell over the Mound, the mound being a particularly large bubble in our moonscape paths, she lay there for a while as she gathered her senses ,stared at the bump, rubbed her hip and then wobbled on her merry way. I am sure she will have bruises all over for the next week or so.

This week a cyclist decided to attempt to leap the bubble on his bike. Of course not having the right kind of bike and safety equipment resulted in a a very nasty fall and a bloody elbow. He also stared at the mound in disbelieve, funny how when you fall over something you stare at it to check that it really is real and that you didn’t just fall over from lack of muscle control.

The reservoir is shrinking rapidly and if we don’t get rain so the birds will have to resort to drinking from the canal, what is the point of having a natural water source if natural is so unpredictable. Still it looks like it will pour down this weekend so the birds will be happy.

So remember next time you visit the island remember to keep your eyes on the ground lest you tumble and fall in a bruised bloody mess.