It’s been quite a while since I wanted to write this post. Since we moved to Neukölln in February we discovered that we were surrounded by parks. One thing that I learned here is that the Berliners really enjoy a day at the park, with friends, family or even by yourself…..and let’s not forget the sun of course! I love the fact that Berlin is a really green city, everywhere you go there is a park or playground for the children and countless trees. This does not happen very often in Brazil, in São Paulo (the concrete city), where I used to live, there are not so many, I didn’t even live close by one…and neighbourhood playgrounds? You can forget about that (unfortunately).

Tempelhofer Feld actually was an airport (yes, you did not read wrong!). It was constructed in 1927 and widely used by the Nazi government, actually it was one of Europe’s three iconic pre-World War II airports. During the cold war, Tempelhof was the main terminal for American military transport aircraft accessing West Berlin. After the fall of the Berlin wall and the reunification of Germany, the airport was used for commercial purposes.

In 2008, Tempelhof airport closed all its operations, our landlord told us that at the time Berlin held a referendum for the people to decide its future: construct something in its place or use it as a recreational space for the people? You can guess what they chose by the beginning of the post…hahahaha If something like this were to happen in Brazil, in my opinion the people wouldn’t think twice to build a new shopping mall… 😦 Today it’s also a place for events, like Lollapalooza, electronic music festivals, FIA Formula and many others.

I love going to Tempelhof to walk, ride a bike or to spend an afternoon with friends under the sun, every time I go there I am so happy, there are some good vibes and energy over there. I like to see the happy people grilling, reading a book, playing guitar, practising yoga, skating, kite skateboarding (really popular thing around here), playing with their dog and children….who doesn’t?!

Some green areas are closed in the summer so that people can’t disturb the habitat of several birds, plants and insects.

Happy german students, we were supposed to study, but that didn’t happen….hahahaha

The last three pictures were taking a while back, in the beginning of spring.