What Katie Did in Berlin – Flohmarkt Mauerpark

Sometimes the only thing that makes things bearable is knowing that you have an escape route. Hubs and I planned this trip to Europe knowing that we would soon both be needing a change of scenery. I love this city and I love my job but I was getting some seriously itchy feet. So no sooner had I finished teaching my last class for Term 2 then we were off to the airport jetting to Europe. Hooray! While my first love is English, I was also a keen History student at school and uni so deeply historical Berlin was the first stop on our trip. And of course, a trip to Germany means two things:

Kinder Surprise
Which you may remember I raved about here

And Milka Chocolate

Amen!

But, as much as I drooled over the enormous selection of these chocolates that were in every supermarket, newsagent and convenience store, I found that there was more to Berlin than just sitting around eating chocolate. Crazy, I know.

On our first day there, hubs tracked down a flea market that he thought would be fun to browse in. At home we often spend weekends at markets or wandering through thrift shops and antique stores but i’ve never seen anything like the Flohmarkt at Mauerpark. Honestly, if I lived in Germany, I would never leave this market.

Half the market was your normal urban hipster style market with organic lah di dah foodstuffs and hemp backpacks with organic vegan leather jackets while the other half was a treasure trove of trestle tables filled with cardboard boxes of junk and gems.

I was so disappointed when I came back to reality and realised that I couldn’t bring this whole tea set of light-as-a-feather hand painted china home with me.

One thing I was able to indulge in was my love of pins and brooches.
I like to add a little bit of interest to a cardigan, collar or jacket lapel with a sweet historical or crazy pin
and as you can see there were so many to choose from!

After we completed a lap of the market it was definitely time for lunch. While there were a number of beer gardens within the market that we could sit down and eat at, I was drawn to the strip of food trucks and movable vendors down the middle of the market. My first stop was (predictably) for something sweet…

The waffle van

Thank goodness all these German words are so similar to their English partners!

I went for the waffle with applesauce, vanilla icecream and cinnamon sugar and it was blissfully light and creamy! The waffle was floppier than ones we have at home but it worked and was much easier to cut with the plastic fork than the hard toasted ones would have been.

Now, you would be forgiven for thinking that the waffle was the sum total of my lunch experience. However, you will be surprised to hear that i’ve grown up (a little) and my tummy just wasn’t satisfied with something sweet for a main meal. So, seeing as i’ve been making an effort this year to try things I wouldn’t normally try, I took a leap of faith on something that looked and smelled truly delicious but seemed like a dangerous choice…

Salted Mackerel with wedges and half a bread roll with herbed butter.

Oh. My. God.

Look how juicy and succulent this fish was!

It fell off the bone and, combined with the salty, crackling skin, made the most sumptuous market lunch i’ve ever eaten. Hubs had bravely offered to eat it all if I couldn’t manage it but there was no stopping me as I wolfed this down. It seemed to be a bit of a local favourite and i’m not sure that many tourists opt for the fish as, while I was eating, I looked up to see the staff from two other market food stalls calling out to me, cheering and throwing me high fives and thumbs ups! This was, without doubt, the best start to our holiday and bode well for the next three weeks of globe trotting and tasting.

Now, I know that on the scale of crazy things to eat, this one isn’t super high on the list, but what have you eaten while overseas that you wouldn’t normally have chosen?