It seems as though Berliners love a market. Art, design, craft, flea, farmer, slow food, Turkish, book, sweet food, ‘voodoo’.. every weekend offers the prospect of a different market to explore. Being in Berlin for months at a time has allowed us to sample all the different markets usually held on each weekend, so here is a sampling of some we have visited.

Mauer Park Flea Market
We started our marketeering at the famous Mauer Park flea market in Prenzlauer Berg. To be honest, it’s overrun with tourists and it’s extremely hard to navigate through the stalls. We went in August, so the whole market space was heaving with people. Instead of stopping and sorting through all that was on offer, we had no choice but to go along with the flow of people traffic moving through the narrow walkways.

mauer park flea market

mauer park flea market

Boxhagener Platz Weekend Markets
Boxhangener Platz in Friedrichshain offers a much more pleasant market experience, as the market stalls are formed around one square rather than sprawling across a large area. On Saturdays you can experience the farmers market, which offers high quality fresh produce, flowers, good coffee from the mobile Passenger Espresso, fresh juice, turkish food, bruschetta… you get the idea! The perfect way to spend some of your Saturday. The flea market operates on Sunday, with the goods on offer being a lot more “curated” than Mauer Park (ie. instead of mountains of crap, only mounds of crap that are easier to sift through). There are a lot of restaurants and cafes that proclaim they are famous for Sunday brunch, so you’re bound to have a pleasant day in Friedrichshain.

boxhagener platz farmers' market

boxhagener platz farmers' market

boxhagener platz farmers' market

boxhagener platz flea market

boxhagener platz flea market

The Turkish Market in Kreuzberg
The Turkish Market along Maybachufer cannot come more recommended from friends and other bloggers and when we finally managed to explore what was on offer, we can see why. Fresh produce at cheap prices, piles of Aladdin shoes and materials, fresh pita wraps, cheeses, and most importantly, 1kg bags of olives for 3 euros!

turkish markets in kreuzberg

turkish markets in kreuzberg

turkish markets in kreuzberg

Markthalle Neun
The lovely old Markthalle Neun in Kreuzberg usually caters for specialty markets that are less frequent. On separate occasions we went there for a Handmade Market and a Sweets Market. Both promoted ethical and sustainable ways of local business, although I must admit that we dropped a lot more euros supporting the cause for chocolate, cakes and brownies than crafty goods. Keep an eye on their website for what market is coming up new right here.

markthalle neun in kreuzberg

handmade market at markthalle neun

naschmarkt (sweet market) at markthalle neun

naschmarkt (sweet market) at markthalle neun

Voodoo Market
The list of markets could go on and on so I’ll just mention one more: the Voodoo market. They don’t operate often, but they try to break the traditional mould of what you have come to expect at a market. When we went in October, it was held in a nightclub with trippy neon lights and wall/ceiling decorations. What you’ll find in the stalls is a mixture of second hand and handmade clothing/jewellery, art, design, food, interior decorating stalls, art workshops, music workshops, djs and so on.

voodoo market

voodoo market

Before we arrived in Berlin we knew that we wanted to make a trip to see Teufelsberg, German for ‘Devil’s Mountain’. If you look at any Berlin urban exploration website, there’s a good chance it’ll include Teufelsberg as a place to go. After the WWII air raids, rubble was removed from the city to be transformed into the ‘mountain’. Following that, during the Cold War, the Americans used the site as a listening post to spy on East Germany with audio equipment. However since spy bases are no longer needed, the place has been left to the elements and some squatters.

We sought advice from friends about the best way to see Teufelsberg, and the general consensus is that security in the area has recently increased. Not too keen on being caught just to take some photos and do some exploration, we found one guided tour that takes you to the site so we emailed the organisers of the tour and secured a place one drizzly Sunday.

With cameras charged and rugged up in layers, we worked out which public transport route we would need to take to get to the outskirts of Berlin and meet up with the tour. Unbeknownst to us, there were extensive rail works operating that day and a lot of train lines were down so we had to make a few more train changes and ended up arriving at the meeting point 15 minutes late.

When we arrived at the designated S-bahn stop for the tour meet-up, there was no one around. After waiting 5 minutes and approaching a completely different tour group, we decided to take the plunge and hike up to Teufelsberg ourselves and hope for the best. We had the help of Google Maps to help guide us in the direction of the summit and after about 30 minutes navigating through light woodland and up a slippery undulating footpath, we could spot the ominous white patch domes towering over the treetops above us. Dreading the thought of how to scale the cyclone fence, we soon found a driveway with a security guard standing at the entrance. We explained that our tour left without us so he gave us passes and we were escorted into the grounds, up a flight of stairs and into the vast concrete space to join the group.

The photos tell the story from this point onwards but it is worth mentioning that inside the dome at the very top of the main tower, we came across a group of people chanting and moving around the space while some played instruments. Apparently David Lynch had been in negotiations to purchase the land on Teufelsberg with plans to erect a university dedicated to Transcendental Meditation in 2007 (see http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,517873,00.html) , so this may explain what we witnessed on Devil’s Mountain that day.

Since arriving in Berlin we haven’t really planned our days too much; using the ethos of “whatever we feel like doing today”. We are here for a few more months and the weather is either London like (aka dreary and cold) or beautifully sunny and warm. Berlin comes alive when the sun comes out. The parks are filled with people soaking up the last of the sun before winter arrives.

Today we decided to let our feet take us somewhere new. It started with us walking down Karl Marx Allee past the Frankfurter Tors and the large apartment complexes built after WWII. We kept walking until we came to Volkspark, known as the oldest public park in Berlin. It has a plethora of amenities including tennis courts, a restaurant, wading pool, theatre, war monuments, beach volley ball courts, bouldering walls and skateboard park. However the real point of interest became the two small mountains, which are destroyed bunkers filled in with rubble from destroyed buildings in 1946 after WWII. Amazingly some of the flak tower and bunker ruins are still visible, poking through the forest which now covers the space.

Flak tower remains 1949 - Wikipedia

Flak tower remains 2011 - Mark

A last minute invite on Sunday resulted in having a leisurely brunch with our housemate and his friend. After food and coffee, we decided to explore the flea market at Boxhagener Platz just around the corner from our brunch spot. Unlike the Mauer Park flea market, which is over crowded and goes on for kilometers, this market is nicely-sized and somewhat “curated”, as a friend described it. After a full circuit of the Platz we all ended up with something: I picked up an acoustic guitar, Bron found a tiny Pentax Auto 110 (possibly the world’s smallest SLR), our housemate also found a guitar and his friend found a vase.

Market wandering works up a thirst so we stumbled upon a Russian cafe/bar and sipped on mojitos for the rest of the afternoon until we decided to grab dinner at a local Sri Lankan restaurant. All in all a wonderful day spent with new friends and topped off by a decent German thunderstorm and lightning show.

There is an incredible amount to see here. Here are a few photographs of our adventures over the last week or so. We hope you enjoy viewing them as much as we enjoy taking them!

-mark

The Tacheles - Mark

The Tacheles - Mark

Exploring Volkspark - Bron

Volkspark - Bron

The S-Bahn - Mark

Exploring the abandoned rail yards - Bron

Abandoned rail yards - Bron

Berlin Wall Freedom Park - Mark

Berlin Wall Freedom Park - Bron

Abandoned building - Mark

The Sunday Boxhagener Flea Market with friends - Bron

Adam pondering - Mark

Soviet war memorial (Treptower Park) - Mark

Soviet war memorial (Treptower Park) - Mark

Exploring Treptower Park - Mark

On the walk from Kreuzberg to Friedrichshain - Bron

Reading by museum island - Mark

Architecture along the Spree - Bron

Hats - Mark

Friedrichshain on a weekend - Bron

From Friedrichshain to Kreuzberg - Bron

The wall - Mark

Locks on a bridge in Mitte (a week later they have been removed) - Bron

Along the Spree - Bron

Small Chair - Mark

Aunt Benny - Mark

Walking to Kreuzberg - Bron

The Barn

This was the first cafe we visited, and it felt like we were back in Melbourne. There was a group of Australian backpackers in one corner and most of the staff were speaking English with each other. What’s nice about the cafe is that it does its best to support the Slow Food movement through its use of fresh food and single origin beans.  If you do go, make sure to also try a Portuguese tart, or carrot cake or chocolate tart, etc..

Auguststraße 58, Mitte

http://www.thebarn.de/kaffee_e.html

the barn - bron

chocolate tart : flat white : carrot cake - mark

a flat white at the barn - bron

the barn - bron

Five Elephant Coffee

Though a little bit off the main drag, finding Five Elephant was like Indiana Jones picking the real holy grail at the end of The Last Crusade. At the back of the store they roast their own beans and every day make fresh cakes and tarts. On the day that we went there, Berlin was a hot & sticky 32 degrees so there was nothing nicer than sitting under a shady tree, sipping on a strong coffee and devouring a berry and lemon tart…until the bees started to attack. Later that day I received my first bee sting on our balcony (apparently the bees here are naturally quite aggressive). So for the record, I can now report that sitting inside on the wooden benches is also pleasant.

Reichenberger Straße 101, Kreuzberg

http://fiveelephant.com/

the view of kreuzberg from five elephant - mark

five elephant - mark

inside five elephant - bron

coffee roasting at five elephant - bron

Passenger Espresso

We found this coffee shop by accident when we went to the farmers’ market right near our apartment in Friedrichshain at Boxhagener Platz. To our surprise the little coffee cart had a list of drinks including a ‘flat white’, which became the perfect accompaniment for wandering around the organic food stalls. Needless to say, we jotted down the name and a few days later walked to Kreuzberg to find the fixed address and enjoy another flat white.

Fixed Cafe: Oppelner Straße 45, Kreuzberg & Mobile Coffee Cart: Boxhagener Platz (every Saturday at the Boxhagener Platz Farmers’ Markets)

http://passenger-espresso.de/

passenger espresso at the boxhagener platz farmers market - bron

passenger espresso - mark

kreuzberg street view - mark

Bonanza Coffee Heroes

It sounds like they don’t take coffee seriously, but that would definitely be a misnomer. The Heroes roast their coffee beans on site and take great care in serving you a fine cup of coffee. When we visited, Oderberger str. was in the process of being torn up and there was a lot of surly workmen milling about, which made it difficult to get inside the cafe. However once we got our shoes muddy and collected our coffees, the end result was sublime.

Oderberger Straße 35, Prenzlauer Berg

http://www.bonanzacoffee.de/

coffee at bonanza coffee heroes - mark

summer views at bonanza coffee heroes - bron

Undoubtedly this list will grow as we continue to explore Berlin in the coming months so keep a look out for part II!

- bron x

One of the most dominating sights of the Berlin skyline is the Fernsehturm (the soviet TV tower) which can be seen from everywhere (including the view from our balcony!). Because London was non-stop with doing the touristy things, our first days in Berlin have just been walking around at a much more leisurely pace (see the photos below as a sample of our first impressions of Berlin).

After a few days, it appears that we need to acquire 3 things in order for Berlin to feel like a second home:
1. buy bikes to ride everywhere
2. find a cafe nearby that serves decent coffee
3. learn some german

..only then may we be able to say: ‘ich bin ein berliner!’

- bron x

* nice pun, eh? because the symbol of berlin is a bear.. ohohoho

the soviet tv tower - bron

the berliner dom on museum island - mark

map man near the zoo - bron

navigating with a moleskin - mark

the boxhagener markets on a saturday - bron

motorbike in Mitte - mark

outside our window - bron

outside a jewish cemetery - mark

farmers market in friedrichshain on a saturday - bron

a sunday on museum island - mark

exploring kreuzberg - bron

berlin summer spent in the park -mark

exploring kreuzberg - bron

bikes in berlin - mark

berlin window views - bron

urban decay/growth - mark

Jumping forward a few hours, we were walking around the Seven Dials area and finally had our first decent coffee at Monmouth Coffee Co. Hurrah! After a couple of hours of shopping we were in need of some dinner. Lisa, who we’re staying with, recommended Spuntino on Rupert street in Soho so we thought we’d go try the food there (their official site doesn’t have much information so here’s a review). The place had dirty rusty walls, dingy lighting and a surly man sitting next to us who looked like Afrika Bambaataa.. the perfect mood for food. As soon as we sat down they took our drink orders and placed in front of us a little tin mug filled with chilli oil-drizzled popcorn. Incredible! I have no photos from our meal there as I was too absorbed with the lovely Italian/American-style tapas we had. So the best I can do is give you a list of what we consumed:

• popcorn drizzled with chilli oil
• eggplant chips with fennel yoghurt
• zucchini, mint and chilli pizza
• deep-fried stuffed olives
• chocolate, pecan & whisky cake
• strawberry & coconut eton mess
• pale ale & gin fizz

- bron x

arriving at the borough market

ilove olives

foodies at the borough market

foodies at the borough market

paella men

fish at the borough market

borough market seafood

pimms o'clock

the final stop at the borough market

at the tate modern

sunshine at the tate modern

having a flat white at monmouth coffee co.

We were terribly jet lagged after flying for 24 hrs and as London was raining we decided to check out the British Museum. They have the rosetta stone and a heap of Egyptian artefacts. Given I have always had a fascination for this I enjoyed it a lot! After walking through room after room I do wonder how much is left in Egypt???

-mark

Doha Airport

Kuwait

Garden Dinner

British Museum

British Museum

British Museum

British Museum

British Museum

British Museum

British Museum

Hello everyone! This a blog so we can both share photos and updates while we are traveling. On Friday we both finished our jobs and I’ve flown up to Brisbane to help mark pack before coming back to Melbourne departing for London next Tuesday. We will be posting more things once we leave so be sure to check in! x

- Bron