It is always a pleasure for me going to flea markets. Since I came to Berlin and I have found about them, I have another way of spending time on Sundays. I know about Mauerpark since last spring and it is so much joy going there, not only that you can find nice things with less money, buy them or just look at them, but also the atmosphere is relaxing, although people are very busy with their treasure searches. Mostly youths, crazy dressed up, laughing or enjoying delicious cakes with Glühwein and listening some live jazz music.. It is not only a flea market, where sometimes you really can make good deals, but also a nice place to spend spare time and meet new people. You can find all the 'pleasures' of a shopping-mall, only that it is more natural, more close to our simple lives. And in those lazy Sunday afternoons a little rest on the grass is just well deserved. The park itself is not arranged at all (as most of the parks in Berlin, which for me are similar to little forests) and this makes it to be wild and un-urban.

Most of the things sold at a flea market are old, very old, used and maybe for some of you will seem odd and useless. But for me they are not. I always was attracted to things that are old; I remember very often I want to reuse a lot of old clothes from my mom, because I love their fabrics, their prints, their colors. I don't know exactly how to explain this feeling, but I find sometimes that used clothes or decorations, pottery (you can call them second-third-etc-hand) are more valuable than the new ones, by simple fact that they already have a history behind.
It is always a surprise when you hunt through those many boxes of old things. They are like treasure coffers: you never know what it is inside, until you open them.

And these are my findings for yesterday... A bunch of colorful thread spools for my sewing projects and two ceramic vases. The white-gray one is for a dry lavender bouquet and the turquoise vase I will use it for pencils and brushes, until the spring comes with its gorgeous peonies.


And for a drop of curiosity, here is a slideshow where you can virtually take a stroll through this place:



(images by victoria molovata)