The flea market was pretty interesting, there were so many books and so much soviet memorabilia for sale! This specific flea market, whether because it was Saturday or because of its location, seemed to be a little touristy, but it still had some really great stuff! I fell in love with all of the vintage cameras and typewriters. There was also some beautiful jewelry too. I almost bought some for people back home, but I think it’s a little too early in my trip to start buying presents for people! Here’s a couple pictures of the gorgeous things they had:
Such gorgeous cameras. I almost bought the one on the left, but it was too expensive
Amazing typewriter! I probably would have bought it if getting it home wasn’t such an issue…
When we got to the end of the flea market, we decided to just wander around and head towards Alexanderplatz, as L had never adventured around there before! We also wanted to check out the Neue Synagogue and the Jewish Cemetery. We were able to find the Synagogue, but because it was Saturday, it was closed L It’s the most gorgeous building though! And I will definitely be heading back there soon to check out the inside! There were guards standing behind a rail going around the whole building to protect it from neo-Nazis, which was rather intimidating, but also an incredible experience to see the city actively fighting against any more persecution and desecration of the Jews and their property.
Such a beautiful building.
As we continued down, trying to find the cemetery and failing miserably, we stumbled into a kind of high fashion district. Some of the stores were from Berlin-based designers, which was insanely cool. The prices, however, were not that great. I feel in love with a pair of jeans and a dress, but both were about 70 Euro, and therefore not worth the money. We also found a cool, kitchy basement souvenir shop that had a whole bunch of interesting and funny things. L got super excited because there was a family speaking Hebrew in there! I was excited by all the crazy stuff.
The entrance to the store
We continued along, and found ourselves in a park across the Spree from Museum Island. I think the most exciting part about this, besides the absolutely glorious weather, was finding an Ampelmann café! We are determined to go back there one day when we’re actually hungry. For those of you who don’t know, and I didn’t before I went on the history tour, Ampelmann is one of the only relics of Eastern Berlin. He’s the “walk” sign man, and is the cutest thing in the world. When he’s indicating for you to “walk,” it looks like his hat is about to fly off his head! He’s now a sort of pop icon in Berlin, and there are a few stores that sell everything from bags to sponges with the iconic image embossed on them.
Ampelmann!
We then made our way all the way down to Alexanderplatz, where we strolled around, acting like tourists, and trying to find clothing stores that had cheap, but quality, stuff. When we were determined that that was just not going to happen, we decided to stop and eat at Back-Factory, a bakery. It was delicious, and so cheap! I got an amazing salami sandwich and a drink for only 2 Euro! I’m slowly beginning to learn that delicious food is insanely inexpensive in this town. The best part about my sandwich was that it wasn’t in a regular roll, but the roll was made out of pretzel dough. SO tasty! Oh, I forgot to mention this in another post, but after an excursion with my German class, we all got Falafel from this place called Dada Falafel. It was the most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten! They fry up the falafel right after you order it, and put so many delicious veggies in. It’s incredible! If you’re ever in Berlin, get off to S-bahn at Friedrich Strasse, turn left and keep going until you hit it!
Anyway, back to the real story. After lunch, we were going to go home, but got distracted by the store C&A, which has really cute clothes for super cheap. I ended up buying some tights because I didn’t bring any with me, and while the weather has been beautiful lately, it’s quite chilly and wearing skirts or dresses without tights is just out of the question! Overall it was a great day! And it was so nice to do something with only one other person. Lately the eternal stream of people who go out together has become tiresome. It’s hard to have a good time when everyone is trying to figure out what to do, and no one wants to make a decision. I’m a much bigger fan of doing things in smaller, little groups than huge groups! It was a nice break from that group mentality. Another great part about the day is that when I got home, about 5 minutes after walking in the door, and huge rainstorm started! It was the most I’ve seen it rain here since I got here! I was so happy to have completely avoided the storm J
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