The Turkish Market and Landwehrkanal

I said right from the start that I did not move to Berlin because I was pushed away from a London that I could no longer bear. Quite the opposite. I was pulled by the attraction of doing something different which was just enough to tempt me away from the area of North-East London that I live in and love. So it is no surprise that I have ended up living pretty near an area that it pretty much Dalston's Berlin equivalent. Running or walking down the Landwehrkanal, which runs from the Spree in the east, through Kreuzberg to the Tiergarten and beyond, reminds me of the Lee Navigation that then turns off into the Hertford Union Canal as runs past Victoria Park towards Islington. There is a extremely strong Turkish community here, as there is in the strip of road between Dalston and Stoke Newington. Both sell great falafels, although the ones here are much more cinnamony. And there are concerned mumbles from the original community about the influx of young trendies to the area, especially Neukölln, pushing up rent prices and turning every second shop into the 'conceptual space'.

The canal is a pretty busy place. Pleasure boats go up and down it, joggers run alongside it, people relax by it, laying out on its banks in the afternoon sun, playing a game of pétanque just down from Glogauer Straße or mini golf by the inland harbour further along.

Every Tuesday and Friday, there is a huge Turkish market by Kottbusser Damm which sells fruit, veg, flowers, mounds upon mounds of feta cheese, olives, bread, dried fruits and baklava as well as fabrics, clothes, more types of buttons than I have seen in my life and handmade mustard (even whisky mustard). The real find though, that my Swedish friend introduced me to, is a guy selling Ghanaian food there. For 4 euros you can get a bowl of veg stew, beans, rice and cooked banana and some mind-alteringly hot sauce. Amazing.

While I'm on the subject of canals, if you're looking for an altogether different canal experience then you should give the Spreewald a try. Its an area of tiny waterways and canals about 100km south east of Berlin that were created when the land was irrigated. I spent the weekend there with friends, paddling around in the sunshine, past meadows with baby goats and cute little houses and places to stop off and get a beer. All very wholesome and wind and the willows.