To Flea or Not to Flea | Michael Rodehorst

Mauerpark, located roughly 4 kilometers northeast of Berlin’s Central Station, is a public park that turns into a flea market every Sunday, lasting from ten in the morning till six in the evening. Back in January one of the graduate students I worked with at LSU, who happens to visits Germany every summer, recommended I visit the Mauerpark flea market on my free weekend in Berlin. He told me that it always had unique items for cheap prices and that it was well worth my time. Trusting his judgment, I decided that I needed to check it out.

It was about 11:30 when I walked into Mauerpark, and it was utterly hectic. There were rows upon rows of tents set up side by side and tons of people flowing in and out of the park every minute. I figured that the flea market wouldn’t be so crazy because it had been drizzling all morning, but despite the sloppy weather the entire park area was roaring with business. Each vendor had their own table set-ups with big tents to cover them from the rain. All of their products were sprawled out on tables within their tents, and some vendors even had racks out in front of their tent to hang clothes, jewelry, and purses. There was an overwhelming variety of clothes, knick-knacks, trinkets, accessories, and other second-hand goods. There was also an abundance of unique goods too like garden plants, handmade tapestries, soaps, and perfumes. It took me over an hour just to look over all of the products that were on display.

Once one o’clock rolled around, the flea market got insanely crowded. It was so crowded that I was having trouble trying to leave. It seemed to me that this was a very well-known and visited flea market because of the mass amounts of people who came to shop there. Despite these final minutes of frustration while trying to leave, I had a really enjoyable time. I had never been to a flea market of that size before, so it was interesting to see all the hustle and bustle of people trying to buy and sell unique hand-made and second-hand goods.