Childhood freedom

The good thing about those first couple of months in a different country is that you really notice the cultural differences. I took this picture looking down from my sister's balcony this afternoon. The kids downstairs were about 4 years old and were playing on the public square outside their little nursery, sweeping away the autumn leaves.

After 7 years in Britain, I found this to be a really refreshing sight - in Edinburgh, this would never have happened. Mainly due to the media I think everyone is so paranoid about paedophiles/kidnappers/baddies in general that they don't let their kids play outside anymore (at least not in a city).

It was just nice to see the kids play like that, without the shadow of fear hanging over them quite so constantly, and I really hope that for once, Germany doesn't step into America's/Britain's footsteps and continues to let its kids out!