Suspension of Disbelief

“Incompetent amateurs have given prostitution a bad name”

Camille Pagli

I first came across the term “Suspension of Disbelief” in the movie “Basic Instinct” with Sharon Stone and Michael Douglas by Dutch director Paul Verhoeven. According to Wikipedia, it was coined by the poet and aesthetic philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who suggested that if a writer could infuse a “human interest and a semblance of truth” into a fantastic tale, the person who reads it would suspend their judgement with regards to the implausibility of the narrative.

As a young man, I was fascinated by the movie because of Sharon Stone starring as femme fatale. I even admit that I went to see the picture twice in a row. Who doesn’t remember the mythic moment during the interrogation at the police station, where she crosses her legs to reveal she has no underwear? She has been dining on that scene ever since. Less well known is the rumour that Sharon used to be a high-class prostitute. Commanding 1000 $ per hour. Michael Douglas allegedly discovered her when she paid him a visit as an escort if some American sites are to be believed.

Online, you can also read how the set of Basic Instinct was turned into a brothel for the day. Since we know that you would never sink so low as to read gossip, I sacrificed myself quite happily, dear reader. Mike decided that the non-orgasmic Sharon needed to get the hang of it. The infamous sex scene was apparently for real. Afterwards, Michael invited the producer and director to join in on the fun. Sharon allegedly was very fond of the bondage scene which ensued. She was screwed by Mike for half an hour whilst the two men held her down. Reportedly never had sex like that in her life and couldn´t get enough of it. Six orgasms that day and paid an extra 10.000 $ for that little encounter. Se non è vero, è ben trovato…

But let’s get back to the subject of this article, being the suspension of disbelief. For me a good session is when I forget I paid for it and believe the escort also enjoys it or at least has such good acting skills that I believe she is into it. You could compare it to a trancelike state where daily worries and social demands fade away. Do I fool myself? Is it a fantasy? Probably from time to time but on the other hand when you visit a theatre and get carried away by the spectacle, it is also an illusion…

Or do you prefer apathetic and cold professionals? On the rare occasion where I had a bad experience, that was the reason. Those amateurs give prostitution a bad name!

La garçonnière

“Hypocrisy is a homage that vice pays to virtue”
Francois de La Rochefoucauld
 
 
We sometimes receive inquiries asking whether we have an in-call location. The answer is “no” and will remain negative for the near future. The main one is that we only act as a broker for quality time. A second one is that it would be economically unviable, considering that such requests are relatively rare. Another one is the new Prostitution Protection Act from 01.07.2017, which would make it such an administrative nightmare, that it isn´t worth the hassle.
For a start, you need an official permit to run an escort agency or model flat. Daphne´s is a Berlin-based, law-abiding German GmbH (Ltd.) It goes without saying that we applied accordingly for our license and should get it in soon. If we were to offer our clients as a service a garçonnière (aka bachelor flat), we would have needed to include it in the business model we provided the authorities. Besides, we are only the contact person for pleasant hours…

Before we go back to our garçonnière, let´s take a small excursion into said legislation. Prior to issuing a concession, the administration wants to make sure the person is of good character and can be relied upon to run a prostitution business. In case of a model flat, the legal regulations are even more stringent since construction law comes into play. There must be an alarm installed etc.
In case short-term accommodation is needed, we advise our customers to have a look at Dayuse.de. The site saw the light of day in 2010 and was the first of its kind. According to their webpage, one of the founders (a director within large Parisian hotel groups) was often asked about daytime bookings. Hence Dayuse was founded.
Its mission is to provide guests the possibility to enjoy not only the hotel room but also the other services available to overnight bookings in the daytime. And that at the best possible price for a couple of hours. They mention that people can now benefit from hotel spaces to work, for a break or even what they like to call a “daycation”, meaning enjoying the luxuries of high-end hotels at an affordable price (deluxe rooms, room service, spa…). In addition to this, there is no need for a credit card and the cancellation is free.
The site offers value for money although Berlin´s top hotels don´t participate and probably never will. Nevertheless, I was able to find a hotel room in a five-star lodging (Titanic Berlin Gendarmenmarkt) for 80 Euros. That offered a time slot from 10 am to 2 pm or from 2 pm to 6 pm. There is also the Amano group, which offers decent rooms for a couple of hours. The rooms will set you back 50 Euros, are newish and the hotels centrally located with a nice bar. Not listed but offering excellent value for money is the Motel One Upper West. It has 19 floors and offers a great panorama view of Berlin. One of the escorts concurred. She made love on the upper floors in a position which enabled her to savor the Berlin skyline.
But enough, back to Dayuse.de. For sure, every start-up needs a good founding myth, but I am not so certain high demand for working space during the day is the reason for the site´s creation. Probably closer to the truth is that the Gallic founder was inspired by the infamous “cinq à sept”. According to Wikipedia, this is a French term for activities taking place after work and before having dinner (roughly between 5 and 7 p.m.). It´s also commonly spelled out as 5 à 7 or 5@7. Originally, the term referred to a time for a tryst, and is consequently a metonymy for a visit to one’s mistress or lover. It derived from the time of day French men made such a visit. It is still considered today as the moment of the day to meet one’s paramour or inamorata, and the term implies sexual content.
 It´s therefore the height of hypocrisy that Daphne´s couldn´t open an account with Dayuse since escort services don´t stroke with their code of conduct… Or how the age old saying “hypocrisy is a homage that vice pays to virtue” is still valid!

Helmut Newton

A while ago, I went to visit the exhibition “Pages from the Glossies” by the bad boy of photography Helmut Newton at his namesake foundation. The native Berliner established himself in the museum, for which he was granted unlimited use of the former military casino in Berlin-Charlottenburg (Landwehrkasino) by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation (Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz).
 
The exhibition presents the visitor pictures which appeared over more than four decades in Vogue, Elle, Stern, etc. Newton was regularly commissioned by publishers and editors from renowned magazines from all over the globe to shoot contemporary fashion. This continuity was an exception in the fashion world and the current exposition offers a good overview.
 
The entrance of the museum is in the Jebensstrasse, at the back of the Zoo station. This street was immortalized in the movie “We children of Bahnhof Zoo” with Christiane F. It was there that the rich punters were looking for young male junkies. Those were the times when Berlin wasn’t tamed yet by capitalism. Nowadays you can find a syringe dispenser in aforementioned street.
 
I don’t know whether it is true but a friend who lives in the area told me that the luxury hotel “Waldorf-Astoria” demanded for the bums to be expelled before committing. The sex video cabins adjacent to the station also made place for a new building. I remember not so long ago when the station was populated with low-lifes. I even spent some time with one, whom I met while he was begging. Admitting the money was for beer, my drinking partner and I invited him to a dive bar nearby. To this day I remember we were talking about Serge Gainsbourg and which song was on when we entered the bar?
 
Back to Helmut. Although I don’t really consider photography a fine art, I visit occasionally exhibitions in order to get some inspiration for the pictures of the escorts. Helmut has without doubt a signature style. His women were strong, dangerous and in charge of their sexuality.
 
The women obviously can’t afford to invest in such sophisticated pictures. Also, some girls quit when they meet someone or the one (really darling? I don’t understand why your boyfriend doesn’t agree with this job.) There was one competing agency with superb sed-cards but they required 3.000 Euros from the escort and used Photoshop extensively. At Daphne’s, we hardly resort to it except to cover e.g. bags under the eyes or stretch marks.
 
It took us ages though, before we came across a photographer we liked. If the first two we met, were as good as they said they were with their work, we could have stopped our search immediately. The third one was too busy, the next one we liked but he was situated in the middle of nowhere…

Daria

In the previous blog entry I wrote about the emerging high life in the German capital. Berlin was always better known though for its low life. When I arrived, rents were cheap and living costs very affordable. Hence lots of people were able to live the good life without working too hard. One of them was Daria, who reminded me of the dancer Anita Berber but without her artistic qualities.

Anita was the bad girl of the twenties- tearing down boundaries with her androgyny and total nudity during her public appearances. Daria on the other hand, was working in a Berlin brothel when I met her. She was actually the first girl I had paid for sex in Berlin, where prostitution is kept out of the public eye except for the street-walkers around the Kurfürstenstrasse. Conservatives prefer it like that for the sake of appearances and to avoid scandal. I can’t really disagree with them.

Daria was blessed with an amazing body. After a while- I started calling her “the body” after the Australian Model “Elle Macpherson”. I thought prostitutes didn’t kiss but she made it clear she wouldn’t mind. She also confessed that her boyfriend didn’t know about her extracurricular activity since it was her little secret. She brushed it off with such detachment and lightness that made me blush. Maybe that’s why some people find women not immoral but amoral.

It wasn’t the first time that I heard that working girls choose not to tell their partner. In Amsterdam’s red-light district, every once in a while a guy is strolling along window-shopping with friends and all of a sudden his eye fall on say his fiancé.

Daria was enrolled at the University of Potsdam, where she read nutrition, but her diet consisted mainly of cocaine in abundance. Now that I remember- I had met already a girl studying at that institution who worked as a dominatrix and another one who was just enrolled there since she needed health insurance. My university wasn’t blessed with such characters like Potsdam, that’s for sure.

Daria wasn’t the most reliable worker the profession had seen. If it wasn’t the in-house parrot who bit her tit, it was her broken leg that kept her away from work. If she wasn’t late for work, she left early since she felt the end of her shift would be slow anyway. But what she lacked in work ethics, she more than compensated with her acrobatics, hyper-sexuality and beautiful pudenda. She once even complained that it was frustrating to get laid so often and hardly ever to come.

She also had the emotional maturity of an adolescent. When she told me, she would move town since she found love, I gave her a stuffed animal. I first hesitated if it was a good idea to give an adult woman a stuffed animal but she really was over the moon even though- she was already 33 years old. Her love story didn’t last forever and soon she was back on the game but not for long. Apparently, she got married to a guy she met in rehab. Daria- I wish you all the best. I will miss you!

S&M

Occasionally, clients enquire if we also offer S&M escort sessions. If the request pertains to hard-core stuff, with a chance of permanent harm and were sometimes a contract is signed between both parties, the answer is a straight no. It also doesn´t fit with our “Girlfriend Experience” philosophy. S&M is legal though in Germany. In 2004, the German Federal Court ruled that sado-masochistically motivated physical injuries are not per se indecent and punishable.

And why not, we live in a free country. Just as an aside, no one less than the Nobel Prize winner for economics Milton Friedman was against forbidding drugs and prostitution.

For softer play, we might consider the request but since we don´t want to disappoint the customer with a mediocre, amateur dominatrix and vulgar equipment, we don´t really encourage it.

Or maybe you like to walk around in Louboutin pumps and need some punishment or education. In Berlin, there is not only an agency which gives expert advice when you want to become a sex worker; there are also seminars if you prefer to become a professional dominatrix. The curriculum involves not only classical bondage, needling techniques and catheters but includes e.g. also some marketing tips.

Since the release of “Fifty shades of grey”, more and more people are interested in the subject. We got approached by someone who offered us a commission for every customer we passed on for personal coaching seminars in BDSM. He promised that he could bring clients in exclusive networks, get them in touch with people with the same inclinations etc… He mentioned as a matter of fact that he was in club which allegedly was started by no other than the Marquis de Sade in person.

I was not convinced. Maybe I made a mistake and should have insisted on attending one of his seminars and if Daphne´s clients wanted an introduction into the BDSM world, our escorts could have mentioned him.

I would like to point out that I am absolutely no expert in BDSM (a portmanteau acronym for bondage, dominance and submission, sadomasochism) but if you have a request pertaining to S&M, go ahead and ask and we will try to accommodate your request or give you a couple of addresses.

To conclude, something feminists probably won´t like to read. Most women like to be dominated in bed, even when they don´t admit it or pretend not. In a well-known Berlin brothel, the girls were grouped in three categories: devote girls, switchers or ones with dominant inclinations. No prize for who guesses which category was best represented…

Scarface

“What you lookin’ at? You all a bunch of fuckin’ assholes. You know why? You don’t have the guts to be what you wanna be? You need people like me. You need people like me so you can point your fuckin’ fingers and say, “That’s the bad guy.” So… what that make you? Good? You’re not good. You just know how to hide, how to lie. Me, I don’t have that problem“.

Tony Montano

You are sitting at the bar and a woman strikes up a conversation. “Hi, how are you? What are you doing for a living?”. Do you tell her you are running an escort service or not? To be or not to be? Idem but this time your mother asks you what your new activity you have been talking of a lot lately consists of?

Also in the 21st century, although is it completely legal in Germany, prostitution is a service which exists but apparently nobody uses. There is still a taboo and most people are very disparaging and judgmental. Even or especially if they are clueless about the subject. It goes without saying that walking the cold, dark streets at night and servicing johns in a car for 30 Euros a pop is hardly my idea of fun. In the upper echelons of the profession though, for women who are made for it, the benefits can be rewarding. I am not talking about the women at Daphne´s since they only escort on the side and are hence not loaded.

“Well, you would, wouldn´t you”, I hear you saying. Ok, let´s look at the phenomenon from different angles. High-class prostitution offers women the possibility to earn good money whilst working flexible, short hours. Frequently, they get pampered by interesting men in nice hotels in Berlin who put them on pedestals, which is beneficial to their self-esteem. I have known some working girls who go on extended breaks once they have some money on the side. Which other profession allows that? On the downside, contrary to what you might think, the danger of STD´s or violent clients is negligible.

As mentioned before, managing an escort agency is legal in Germany, which has as a consequence that more and more “respectable” people decide to try their luck. Tax-wise, also the state takes it share of course. Daphne´s pays only 7% VAT since the girls are considered Berlin artists whereas the normal rate is 19% VAT. On a serious note, some countries forbid prostitution; others tolerate or legalize the activity. In different times, the statute has often changed. All that just to show that it is impossible for moralists to claim the high ground.

Let´s get back to Tony Montano. According to me, the main issue escorts encounter is that prostitution is not socially accepted.  Society forces you to lie to your parents, your family, your co-workers in your regular job etc… about your hidden life. You just have no choice, especially if you are a mother and don´t want your children to be teased at school. That´s at least how most people in the business see it. I personally find people who enter the world of paid-sex brave and strong. You have to be very open and a free-thinker in order to make the first step and contact an escort agency in order to apply for a job. You have to be even stronger to stay the course if friends find out and try to talk you out of it. So hail the brave women. Down with the hypocrites who look down on prostitutes but use their services. Thanks Germany for being pragmatic.

Adam and Eve

“Not every woman is a prostitute, but prostitution is the natural apotheosis of the feminine attitude”

Georges Bataille

When Eva presented Adam the apple, both got expelled from the Garden of Eden and from that point onwards, men always found a way to inculpate women one way or another. We evolved from witch burning but we still have “good girls don´t…” or “when a man is assertive, it´s a sign of his masculinity but when a woman does the same, she´s a bitch”.

Prostitution has been called the oldest profession and I must admit that I admire successful prostitutes since they are able to exercise their profession where and when they feel like it, make their money without extra´s like an office, etc… Once the goddesses make a small pile, they are free to vacation as often as they like. I am not necessarily talking here about real courtesans, who have maybe three clients and are rewarded handsomely for their time. For sure, it also shouldn´t be an FKK club. It was in such a nude club that a friend of mine encountered a working girl with the tattoo “my provider” on her pubic mound. Just for the record, the Daphne´s girls only escort on the side and have less dates than people imagine. But we are digressing.  The male equivalent of that carefree life a successful call-girl has, would probably be a writer but his chances of monetary success are slimmer.

Most people view sex workers as an aberration of what a woman is and does. The percentage of women in the relax industry is indeed not high but I sincerely believe that that number would be much higher if a couple of conditions were to be met. I don´t pretend that all women are capable of turning tricks. I am pretty sure though that on a spectrum from virgin to whore, under the right circumstances more women would tend to the right than you would imagine.

I make no secret out of the fact that the man who most impressed me was Nietzsche. He believed in different human types and I also believe that some women were born to give their body to the world. That´s at least the response a friend of mine received when he asked a lady of the evening why she had chosen that particular profession. Back to Nietzsche. I am pretty sure that Freud got inspired by him when he developed his ideas about instincts. The drive to be desired and dominated is pre-eminent in women.  I will never forget that a long time ago, I was making love to my then girlfriend and when I asked her what she was thinking of, she replied that she imagined herself being a whore. I haven´t asked that question a second time.

I think that women who decide to make that decision for real aren´t easily disgusted, a bit like nurses. Secondly, they are not repressed by what society tells them to do. Finally, they are able to be intimate with someone and forget him immediately, a bit like men if you want. If those three conditions were to be met more frequently, the number of working girls would explode. Even then they would of course be to blame if men stray. How do I know? At least according to a priest in Berlin. His paramour had to confess to him after the deed since she has seduced him again…

 

The new prostitution law

“Abolishing prostitution means kicking away one of the pillars of the social order. It means making marriage impossible. Prostitution serves as a corrective to marriage, and without it, marriage will go under — along with the family and the whole of society. Abolishing prostitution: for European societies, that’s just suicide…”

Michel Houellebecq

At Daphne´s, we don´t consider paid sex, at least in the higher strata of the profession, immoral. When I decided to start Daphne´ s with my business partner, what bothered me more was whether legalized prostitution was a sign of a decadent society and if yes, if I should contribute to the further erosion of the nation´s morals.

According to me, there is no doubt that Europe is in the grip of decadence with the possible exception of Germany. A healthy libido for me on the other hand, is a sign of vitality. Since time immemorial, powerful men have made use of concubines, mistresses and temporary lovers. Prostitution will always exist as long as people age. It´s a well-known fact that older men prefer much younger women. Who doesn´t want to relive his youth? What it boils down to it the exchange of money against juvenescence and beauty and there will always be a market for that, not only on the demand side as some feminists would like you to believe.

Aren´t men allowed to have some fun if this keeps the marriage together and doesn´t enrich the divorce lawyers. Isn´t it beneficial for the off-spring if frequenting escorts from time to time keeps the family together? Hence my verdict that paying for companionship is actually healthy for society.

So why on earth the state is trying to eradicate prostitution is beyond me. Should society really collapse? The official aim of the new prostitution legislation is the protection of the prostitutes and gender equality but I fear that it is the first step on the way to prohibit pay-sex. The world is turning more conservative and feminine at the same time. The state doesn´t like the fact that men use women for paid sex. Sure, some clients abuse the women. A larger number of prostitutes though are cold and business-like. Don´t they abuse the punters? The legislator also must be aware that there is a vast army of male prostitutes. Granted, they cater more to homosexual men than women. Finally, might female prostitution not be innate?

In prostitution, one can speak of a “class society”. On the one hand, at the high end of the scale, where Daphne´s is positioned, this can be quite lucrative and interesting. A much better alternative than a mediocre job. Those sex workers, the elite, resist the imposed protection and regulation, because they have no need for help. On the other hand, you have the disadvantaged, who generally cannot fend for themselves, and consequently need some form of protection.

To say the industry needed some regulation, is admittedly an understatement. What the government paper didn´t mention though was why Germany had become an Eldorado for prostitution. Could it be that things went downhill the moment the EU enlarged to include unprosperous eastern European neighbor countries? Large-scale migration is also a reason why prices for sex-work are falling or at least haven´t risen since years.

But we are diverging. Let´s start on a positive note with regards to the new regulations. Sex-workers will have to attend a medical consultation but no medical. For educated escorts, there will be nothing new under the sun. A godsend though for some catholic Romanian or Bulgarian street workers who believe that it suffices to use some soap to stave off std´s. Sex without condom will be punishable. This also includes fellatio although the risk for HIV is almost non-existent and one must be unlucky to catch eg. gonorrhea.

Brothel owners and escort agencies will have to get a permit. I think that it goes without saying that somebody who got sentenced for trafficking or attempted murder, doesn´t get a licence. But what about flat-rate brothels and gang-bang parties. For sure, the former are demeaning for the women working there but the lawmakers didn´t take into account women´s self-determination? Doesn´t the constitution allows for freedom of profession? Here we see what the real intent of the law is, namely to forbid the objectification of women. Sexual consent is only valid within prescribed behavioural norms sanctioned by the state. What next, your high-class escort agency resembles too much a female dog show. Down with Daphne´s, your old perv Greg!

Depending on your point of view, negative for the women is without doubt the registration. This means that they will be officially listed as prostitutes. Some women will of course go underground. If one wanted further proof that the world is turning reactionary, in Bayern women already must register and uncovered blowjobs are against the law.

In monetary terms, the government will not only raise taxes, but will also benefit trough lower unemployment rates since working girls must decide whether to claim benefits or register. That the state claims its share is fair enough. But why be hypocritical and not admit that another aim of the new prostitution law is combatting tax-evasion? It´s no secret that the German state handed over the tax details of Hungarian prostitutes to their home country. Closer to home, the state will also try to eradicate black money e.g. by forcing operators to issue an invoice at the end of each day. Also, understandable but what will be the next step? Clients who can only pay with credit cards? The abolition of cash?

We don´t mind the state becoming the master pimp. It maintains its monopoly on the use of force as a matter of fact and through the grapevine I heard that a license to operate might set you back 2.500 Euros. For sure, some of Daphne´s escorts will probably retire since they all work or study and don´t want to be registered but please dear legislator, leave it at that and don´t forbid prostitution. With the refugees’ crisis, you occupied already the high moral ground. The new prostitution law suffices. If the next step is the abolition of prostitution, Europe commits suicide…

The myth of heterosexual HIV

I am not a fan of Charlie Sheen neither well acquainted with his movies and sit-coms. I do like him though since he admitted using the services of the infamous Hollywood Madam Heidi Fleiss. Especially in America, where prostitution is illegal, it takes balls to admit as a public figure that you frequent escorts. As far as I know, he was the only celebrity to admit having been a naughty boy.

When news broke that he was HIV-positive, some people immediately blamed it on his promiscuous life-style. I am not so sure since it is really difficult to contract the virus as a heterosexual guy. I presume Charlie might have taken a walk on the wild side and that´s how he got it.

Recently, I got tested for HIV at a famous Berlin hospital and as expected, the result was negative. I just mention this since it was the first doctor who confirmed me that it is indeed really difficult to contract HIV if you are a straight man. He told me the chance for a male to become infected from vaginal intercourse was around 1/2000. Nowadays it´s also not a death-sentence any more but rather a chronic disease where you have to take your daily medication rigorously.

In the beginning of the epidemic though, there were people committing suicide by jumping out of the window upon hearing the test result. Needless to say, the clinic moved their premises from the third floor to the ground floor. Also, whole families were exterminated with partners infecting one another. There was a girl who got contaminated by her first boyfriend. Eight years before they met, he’d sporadically injected drugs…

Years ago, I asked two doctors at HIV-clinics if it was true that it was really difficult for hetero-sexuals to catch HIV. Also, how about the odds of getting HIV trough intercourse and they were both reluctant to discuss it. In 1998 it was already clear though that HIV wasn’t going to rage in the general population but would be restricted to high-risk groups, mainly to intravenous drug users and gay people.

Instead of being treated as an STD, “Aids” was turned into a moral crusade. The state tried to police people´s sexual lives. The same will happen again with the soon-to-come prostitution laws, where the girls will have to register as a prostitute in the near future. Another reason for this public health scare, was the fact that a lot of jobs depended on letting the public believe they were at risk. Think of it as the “Aids” industry.

Finally, there was political correctness. In order not to stigmatize the homosexual community, everybody should be equally at risk. Last night, when I walked home, I was exposed to a poster of the German Aids-relief Association picturing a woman of at least 60 years…

The high life

Last year, there appeared an article in the New York Times covering Berlin´s emerging high life. The author had as mission to spend $ 2,000 in 24 hours in Germany´s capital, known for its vibrant night-life and art scene but less for its culinary highlights. By now everyone has heard the old saw “ poor but sexy” in relation to Berlin. With that slogan the flamboyant ex-major Klaus Wowereit tried to lure creative types to the burgeoning start-up scene.

In the article, the journalist Charly Wilder correctly points out that a decade ago, it was difficult to splurge even if you tried. I remember that a couple of venues tried to go up-market but failed quickly since there was no money or interest for such kind of establishments. When I arrived in Berlin, I was living in a flat with coal-heating. Fine if my girl-friend happened to be there, otherwise I had to wait almost two hours before the flat was warm and cozy. Those days are now long gone.

For your info, the writer stayed in the Soho House , the group of private members’ clubs aimed primarily at those in the arts and media but in order to book a room you don’t have to be a member. In Berlin the rules might be a bit less strict than in London eg. if you know that my local hairdresser is a member. She also splurged on a spa treatment in the Hotel de Rome, part of the Rocco Forte group. Even after several taxis and clubbing, she inevitably fell short of spending her whole allotment.

So let’s give her some tips for next time. At Daphne´s, we are enamoured with “Das Stue Hotel” and its cosy bar, adjacent to the Zoo. It used to be the Danish Embassy. If money is no objection, why bother with taxis if for 400 Euros per day, you can cruise the city in a pearl black BMW 5. For a culinary experience, look no further than Borchardt near Gendarmenmarkt. It is probably Berlin´s most famous restaurant without being overly formal though.

With regards to the night life, a couple of clubs sprung up who cater for wannabes and therefore we prefer not to give recommendations. If you passed the age for the world-famous Berghain, why not skip clubbing altogether and instead settle for the Victoria Bar where the staff really merit the title of “mixologist”.

In the future, when the New York Times journalist writes another feature about Berlin, she could mention the Daphne´s escorts if she has trouble spending her money. In Berlin, contrary to the USA, except for the state of Nevada, prostitution is legal. If she were to look at Daphne´s rather as a recruitment agency or head-hunters, who knows we might get mentioned. If you are a model, people who get you assignments are not called pimps… That´s also not how we see us at Daphne´s!

Hotel Soho House: www.sohohouseberlin.com

Spa Hotel de Rome: www.roccofortehotels.com/hotels-and-resorts/hotel-de-rome

Hotel Das Stue: www.das-stue.com

Restaurant Borchardt: www.borchardt-restaurant.de

Cocktail bar: www.victoriabar.de

Limousine: www.mydriver.com