Flea markets
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Due to federal liberalization, shopping hours are theoretically unlimited. Nevertheless, many of the smaller shops still close at 8PM Most of the bigger stores and nearly all of the malls are open additionally until 9 or 10PM from Thursday to Saturday. Sunday opening is still limited to about a dozen weekends per year, although some supermarkets located at train stations Hauptbahnhof, Bahnhof Zoologischer Garten, FriedrichstraÃe, Innsbrucker Platz and Ostbahnhof are open also on Sundays. Many bakeries and small food stores called Spätkauf are open late at night and on Sundays in busier neighborhoods especially Prenzlauer Berg, Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain. Stores inside the Hauptbahnhof central station have long working hours usually until about 10 or 11PM, also on Sundays.
The main shopping areas are:
Ku'Damm and its extension, TauentzienstraÃe remain the main shopping streets even now that the Wall has come down. KaDeWe Kaufhaus Des Westens at Wittenbergplatz is a must visit just for the vast food department on the 6th floor. It's reputedly the biggest department store in Continental Europe and still has an old world charm, with very helpful and friendly staff.
FriedrichstraÃe is the upmarket shopping street in former East Berlin with Galeries Lafayette and the other Quartiers 204 to 207 as main areas to be impressed with wealthy shoppers. The renovated Galeria Kaufhof department store at Alexanderplatz is also worth a visit. The main shopping area for the alternative, but still wealthy crowd is north of Hackescher Markt, especially around the Hackesche Höfe.For some more affordable but still very fashionable shopping there is Prenzlauer Berg, Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain with a lot of young designers opening shops, but also lots of record stores and design shops. Constant change makes it hard to recommend a place, but the area around station Eberswalder StraÃe in Prenzlauer Berg, around BergmannstraÃe and OranienstraÃe in Kreuzberg and around Boxhagener Platz in Friedrichshain are always great when it comes to shopping.
For nice and trendy second-hand clothing and accessories visit Elementarteilchen - Second Hand für Frauen in the upcoming district Berlin-Wedding Di-Sa 12-16, Amsterdamer Str. 4, Seestr. U6. For cheap books, a nice choice is Jokers Restseller in FriedrichstraÃe 148 tel +49 30 20 45 84 23 where there is a wide variety of secondhand books. For souvenirs, have a look just in front of the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche; these shops sell almost the same items as others, but are cheaper, but not all the staff speaks English. You can also get cheap postcards there from €0.30 while the average price for normal postcard is €0.50-0.80. For collectible stamps go to Goethe StraÃe 2 Ernst Reuter Platz, U2, where you can find a Philatelic Post Office from the Deutsche Post. They generally speak English. For alternative souvenirs design, fashion and small stuff from Berlin designers and artists, go to ausberlin (http://www.ausberlin.de) near Alexanderplatz; it's a bit hidden at the other side of Kaufhof at the Karl-Liebknecht-StraÃe.