A declaration of my love...

Possibly not to this man- but at least to his place of work- the Maybachufer Turkish Markets.

For months I put up with a work friend traipsing into work and bragging about evenings filled with mango smoothies, guacamole, herbs and spices, and melons - all fresh (if slightly ripe), and bought for bargain prices at the markets.

I think I've already complained to you guys enough about how hard it is to find good fruit and veg in our local supermarket... the land of Kauf where things tend to be either rock hard or fruit-fly ripe.

So about six weeks ago I finally headed out of work early on a Friday (the market only runs on Tuesday and Friday, and closes at 6:30), and made the 1.5 hour journey to the other end of Berlin.

And it was great. So I did it again, and again.

Of course when you enter any German market, the first thing you'll find is Kartoffel...


But make your way past that, and you'll find a world of fruits and vegies...











Huge bunches of fresh herbs...


And all sorts of turkish delights...


















...As well as meat, fish and cheeses, if you're into that sort of thing (and have enough people to carry it home).

The prices are already amazingly cheap, but by 6 pm everything plumets further. We came away with 4 huge punnets of super tasty little strawberries (1 euro for two), ~15-20 avocados (1 euro 10c), two melons (1 euro each), three bunches of parsley (1 euro), bunches and bunches of rocket (a bit wilty- thrown in for free with the parsley), 10 lemons (1 euro), 6 mangos (1 euro) and countless other treasures.

Going with Joram and Doro turned out to be great- because at that time of the evening everything comes in bulk (last time I was nearly coerced into 2 kg of cherries for 5 euros)- so we could split the wares among our two 'families'.

The also have a bunch of material, which- given my current sewing craze- is one of the driving reasons for my return...



You have to search a bit for the better quality and non-horrendous patterns, but- at 2-3 euros/m- for a beginner like myself it's really perfect.

It's where I got the material for both of my dresses (and you'd better believe that I bought more for future creations).

This time around I even managed to find something that I'm pretty sure is linen for 3euro/m!




And even if you're not so into the capitalism- there's often the opportunity to just chill by the river, listen to some music, and do a bit of people watching..


...But be aware! sometimes they watch you back