There are lots of ways to fall in love with Berlin, but for me it was when I happened upon Kleingartenverein Kissingen, it's one of Berlin's Gartenkolonien. These are supersized public gardens where residents don't just keep plots for kitchen gardens, but build out little cabins with outdoor picnic areas often with hammocks strung between trees. Officially they're Kleingärten, "small gardens," and Berlin has something like 71,000 of them. They're a holdover from the city's nineteenth-century Armengärten movement "gardens for the poor" meant to feed everyone, no matter how little they had. Over time the plots clustered into what became known as Laubenkolonien, colonies of garden huts.

The people I met there told me gardens allotments are coveted with long waiting lists and often passed down within families. Even though many have little houses people are strictly forbidden from living there full-time — they're for weekends and long summer evenings only. Wander in on a weekend, and they're part social club, part ecological refuge, part time travel.

If you find yourself in Berlin, go seek them out, you won’t be sad.