Photo: Phil Strahl

The new arrival in Berlin may be shocked and horrified on their first Sunday in the city, when they awake to find the stores closed and the shops shuttered. Usually crowded consumer corridors are as empty the OK Corral at High Noon, lacking even the tumbleweeds and six shooters of the sleepy western town. Despite recent attempts to loosen restrictions on Sunday hours, most retail businesses are still six day affairs, and shoppers with poor planning skills are forced to drag their hangovers to the nearest train station, where a handful of shops are usually open for “travelers”.

So what to do on a Sunday afternoon when a crumpled wad of Euros is burning a hole through your pocket?  Head off to one of Berlin's flea markets, which offer not only valuable purchasing possibilities, but hours of entertainment as well! This past Sunday I rose early to make the rounds, caffeine deprived and braving crowds of Sunday shoppers (and the odd bagpipe) in a valiant attempt to find those odds and ends which I never knew existed but now can’t live without.