Where do locals actually go in Berlin?

Start in Neukölln. The Maybachufer Türkenmarkt runs along the Landwehrkanal every Tuesday and Friday from 11am to 6:30pm, and it is where Reuterkiez households buy their week of produce. In the last hour, vendors bark 'ein Euro, ein Euro' over crates of tomatoes and herbs, the air carrying gözleme off the griddle and wet cardboard underfoot. From there it is a 20-minute walk south to the Schillerkiez, the grid of streets between Hermannstraße and Tempelhofer Feld. The old airport became a public park in 2010, its runways now filling with skaters, kite-boarders and people drinking Späti beer on the tarmac. In late October the wind across Tempelhofer Feld is raw, the concrete stays cold through your shoes, and the gates lock around dusk. A 4pm walk after a work block beats an evening plan. Klunkerkranich, the rooftop bar on the Neukölln Arcaden parking deck on Karl-Marx-Straße, tends to wrap up its outdoor season around now, so check its page before you climb the car-park ramps.

Kreuzberg's Wrangelkiez has Markthalle Neun at Eisenbahnstraße 42/43, a 19th-century market hall whose Street Food Thursday still runs from 5pm to 10pm. Plates cost roughly €8 to €12, which is about $9 to $13.50 at the 20 October rate of 0.8917 euros to the dollar. The hall is loud, the long wooden tables are sticky by 8pm, and the barbecue smoke clings to your coat. Tour groups found Markthalle Neun years ago. The hall's Friday and Saturday daytime market is the calmer local version. For work, skip the Wrangelkiez cafes: plenty of coffee bars in Kreuzberg and Neukölln put up 'no laptops' signs on Saturdays and Sundays, and a few ban laptops every day. The Amerika-Gedenkbibliothek at Blücherplatz, by Hallesches Tor U-Bahn, is the better desk, with free entry, public wifi on the VÖBB library network, and reading rooms that stay open into the evening on weekdays. Arrive before 10:30am if you want a seat near a socket, because by noon those tables are gone.

Wedding is where Berliners move when Kreuzberg rents push them out, and the Sprengelkiez and Leopoldplatz streets still have more Turkish bakeries than brunch spots. Café Pförtner sits in the old gatehouse of the Uferhallen, a former BVG bus depot at Uferstraße 8-11, and one of its dining rooms is a parked bus. Lunch costs less than it would in Mitte, the espresso is dark and bitter, and the Panke river runs a few metres from the door. Over in Prenzlauer Berg, Prater Garten on Kastanienallee has poured beer since 1837 and claims the title of the city's oldest beer garden. The chestnut-shaded garden closes for the winter, but the wood-panelled restaurant inside keeps serving Schnitzel. Al Hamra, a 15-minute walk away on Helmholtzplatz, runs comedy nights and shisha for neighbourhood regulars. Mauerpark's Sunday flea market is overrated these days: half the crowd is on a walking tour, and the Bearpit karaoke amphitheatre fills up in summer and sits quiet the rest of the year.

Two Berlin habits trip up people staying a month or more. Supermarkets close on Sundays under the city's shop-hours law, so do your big shop on Saturday or use the supermarkets inside Hauptbahnhof, Ostbahnhof and Friedrichstraße stations, which stay open, and Spätis cover milk and beer on a Sunday. Bottles and cans carry a Pfand deposit of 25 cents for cans and plastic and 8 cents for glass beer bottles, and Berliners leave their empties beside the bin for collectors rather than inside it. Many Spätis and Kneipen in Neukölln still take cash only, so keep €20 on you. Berlin scores 7.8/10 for digital-nomad suitability (sourced from TTDI's editorial rubric), and the weekend laptop bans and Sunday closures likely account for most of the lost points. If you stay in one flat for more than three months, you have to register the address (the Anmeldung) within 14 days of moving in. Non-EU visitors on the Schengen allowance of 90 days in any 180 should count their days before extending.