What I will miss about Berlin

Almost five years have passed since I wrote about joining foodpanda in Berlin. During those five years, so many incredible things have happened. I now have two kids, I moved from Prague mostly focused on writing code and now I am leaving Berlin as a full-time manager. I've also had the lucky pick of choosing one of the most exciting industries in Berlin. Already in 2015 we felt last-mile delivery would explode and the challenging nature of it kept me in Berlin for far longer than I originally anticipated.

Since June I'm already travelling back and forth between the two cities. Seeing the contrast and difference twice a week highlights all the things we've grown to love in Berlin with my wife.

In the spring we've went for a short vacation to the Baltic and stayed mostly in Denmark. There we realized it has even more of what we appreciate about Berlin. It's the focus on quality of life. Ecology is such a no brainer, the food in supermarkets is always of great quality, city planning optimizes for common happiness. I see it more and more as a core German trait (a recent one, perhaps?). Not meticulousness, not love of order, not puncutality, the common stereotypes. Copenhagen and the Danish are then on a whole other level. But hopefully Prague as well is slowly rising up on this north-south axis, coming closer to the other two year after year.