Introduction: Basically, we have this assignment to go to a flea market here in Berlin and find something interesting that's older than 30 years old. Also, it had to be €2 or less. Technically €5 or less, but the program only gave us €2, so that's all I was planning on spending thank you very much. Then, we have to write some sort of creative history story about it.
There's a lot of flea markets in Berlin, and we were recommended to go to two of the bigger ones- one on 17. Juni Straße, near Tiergarten (in the middle, to the east) , and the other am Mauerpark, in the north, to the west. 17. Juni was on sat + sun, and Mauerpark on sunday only, so I decided to visit them both.
17. Juni Flohmarkt
These flea markets are amazing. I think you could literally live off the kind of junk they have there. Old coins, postcards, stamps, lots of silverware, china, jewlery (both crappy and antique), clothes, pipes, random miscellaneous crap, suitcases, purses, old boxes, candelabras, books, records, and more. So much crap. There were also fast food stalls, so you literally could live there. I had grilled veggies and halumi cheese (the best) in pita or some sort of wrap, and it was delicious.
After spending like 3 or so hours there, sifting though all this junk (they say Trödel), I found something pretty much as useless as possible. A box of needles for phonographs. Still not sure what kind of story I'm gonna write about it to be honest.
Afterwards, we went to our first (and hopefully only) soccer (I'm sorry-- Fußball) game of the summer. It was the season opener apparently, and there were like 60.000 people there. Hertha (Berlin) vs FCN (Frankfurt). So season opener, Berlin, in Berlin. It was.... crazy to say the least.
There's so much more beer drinking at Fußball games here... but the 'in-stadium' inflation isn't nearly as high in the US. You could buy yourself a plastic jug of sorts with like ,5 or 1,0 L beer, and then at the end of the game return your plastic jug to the stall to get €1 back. There were people holding stacks of those at the end of the game.
The atmosphere was pretty exciting. I, of course, know absolutely nothing about soccer, but the enthusiasm was catching (for a while). The best part of the game was actually before, when all the fans were anticipating a huge game. There were people drumming out the beat for their little organized clap routines, chants, songs (how German) and all that stuff.
Of course, Hertha lost... 0:1. It was actually a pretty terrible game by German standards (still better than American soccer, says the soccer girl in our group), so I guess it wasn't that bad. However, one guy's host dad said "Oh, you were at that game? I'm sorry you had to sit through that." Even I could tell it wasn't a good game. I fell asleep for 10 minutes in the middle of it, and apparently nothing of note had happened. The fans were still going crazy until the last 3 minutes or so, when it was clear that their team was gonna lose. Then the FCN side was ecstatic. It was still an experience though.
If you can tell by the photos, we were in Olympia-Stadion, which I visited on the 28. Juli.
They had us do that thing where everybody in a certain section holds up a piece of paper in the team colors, and it makes a bunch of stripes around the stadium.
Then everybody threw the paper down towards the field.
These guys in the front were the craziest.
After their team lost, (that's not why that guy's kneeling on the floor though... that's a FCN player who fell known)
They started fights.
After spending like 3 or so hours there, sifting though all this junk (they say Trödel), I found something pretty much as useless as possible. A box of needles for phonographs. Still not sure what kind of story I'm gonna write about it to be honest.
Afterwards, we went to our first (and hopefully only) soccer (I'm sorry-- Fußball) game of the summer. It was the season opener apparently, and there were like 60.000 people there. Hertha (Berlin) vs FCN (Frankfurt). So season opener, Berlin, in Berlin. It was.... crazy to say the least.
There's so much more beer drinking at Fußball games here... but the 'in-stadium' inflation isn't nearly as high in the US. You could buy yourself a plastic jug of sorts with like ,5 or 1,0 L beer, and then at the end of the game return your plastic jug to the stall to get €1 back. There were people holding stacks of those at the end of the game.
The atmosphere was pretty exciting. I, of course, know absolutely nothing about soccer, but the enthusiasm was catching (for a while). The best part of the game was actually before, when all the fans were anticipating a huge game. There were people drumming out the beat for their little organized clap routines, chants, songs (how German) and all that stuff.
Of course, Hertha lost... 0:1. It was actually a pretty terrible game by German standards (still better than American soccer, says the soccer girl in our group), so I guess it wasn't that bad. However, one guy's host dad said "Oh, you were at that game? I'm sorry you had to sit through that." Even I could tell it wasn't a good game. I fell asleep for 10 minutes in the middle of it, and apparently nothing of note had happened. The fans were still going crazy until the last 3 minutes or so, when it was clear that their team was gonna lose. Then the FCN side was ecstatic. It was still an experience though.
If you can tell by the photos, we were in Olympia-Stadion, which I visited on the 28. Juli.
They had us do that thing where everybody in a certain section holds up a piece of paper in the team colors, and it makes a bunch of stripes around the stadium.
Then everybody threw the paper down towards the field.
These guys in the front were the craziest.
They knew all the synchronized claps, chants, etc, and they were jumping up and down together like a sea of maniacs.
After their team lost, (that's not why that guy's kneeling on the floor though... that's a FCN player who fell known)
They started fights.
That explains why there's always police reinforcements around after a Fußball Spiel. Afterwards, we slowly made our way back to the U-Bahn station, and went home. There were a lot of sad, hung over fans on the trains. Poooor things.
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