Ersatz Garden

I have travelled to quite a few places, and somehow I feel Berlin has been the most welcoming city of them all.

Now you’re maybe thinking: What has this guy been smoking? Aren’t Berliners famously blunt and grumpy?

That’s true of course, but when you look up and around you, you notice something else. There are plant lovers everywhere. There are plants climbing up the facades of buildings. There are plants on balconies – or even climbing up from one balcony to the one above it on wires that people have pulled!

Everywhere, I saw people trying to connect to nature, trying to have some plant life around them, even if it’s just a little potted plant sitting outside on a window sill. It doesn’t matter how small the apartment is, or how tiny the balcony, there’s a little ersatz garden.

People who love plants cannot be terrible people! They’re definitely good people.

I think this is why I felt Berlin was so welcoming.

This scene was the view from our B&B. Our B&B didn’t have any plants, the balcony was very bare and dead. But when I looked out, it’s like there was a balcony competition going on! All the neighbours had plants. Some beautiful, some a bit wabi-sabi.

I hope this scene will make you as happy as it made me happy!

Has any place in the world made you feel similarly welcome?

Something a bit old, but the ideas are still new