I spent about two and a half weeks in Europe this summer. Yes, it was hard to tear myself away from the prospect of several weekends of yard sales … oh, who am I kidding. Yard sales were still gonna be there, I didn’t think twice about taking a few weeks off! Secondhand shopping really wasn’t the focus of the trip, but naturally there were some junky adventures here and there. And naturally I took a few pictures.

Our first stop was London. Here we hit the Saturday market at Portobello Road. Most of the stalls and shops are either new stuff, or full on pricey antiques, but if you walk far enough up the road eventually you find more of the oddball secondhand vendors.

There were plenty of vintage clothes dealers. Most of it was the same old stuff, but this tiny MC Hammer sweater was certainly anything but.

Seriously, how can that even exist?! It kind of blew my mind.

I liked almost everything at this guy’s stand … unfortunately, most of it was either large or too breakable to risk getting home.

Check out this crazy end table! That chair’s not bad either.

Most of the vendors had their things laid out neatly, but this one went for the ever-popular “throw shit in boxes and dump it all on the street” approach.

Then there was this half-mannequin. Not sure what someone was really thinking …

We also hit Old Spitalfields Market. Last time I was here, my camera ran out of batteries. This time I made sure to take plenty of pictures.

It was Thursday — antique day! Almost every stall was crammed full of vintage goodies.

Then there was this ram. Need a ram? They’ve got it.

Next, we spent a couple of days in Berlin. I’d read they had some great Sunday fleamarkets, but we were arriving Sunday afternoon so I pretty much wrote that off. Around 5:00 we found ourselves wandering around downtown. We crossed a little bridge onto the Museum Island and discovered a fleamarket happening right there.

Some of the vendors were already packing up, but lots were still open for biz.

There was a little of everything, but it seemed especially heavy on media: books, movies, records, etc.. My husband started flipping through a box of LPs, expecting to find nothing, but ended up with a stack of good stuff at amazing prices – a nice way to kick off the visit!

We spent the next couple days exploring various neighborhoods, checking out various stores, landmarks, and restaurants (and of course, the Museum of Things). Didn’t hit a lot of vintage stores, but here’s one that was pretty cool.

On Monday night I was sitting outside at a restaurant when something on a pole caught my eye. Could it be?

A garage sale sign! Of course, it had already taken place at that point, but just seeing the sign made me smile.

Finally, we spent some time in Istanbul visiting family … and doing some shopping. We did go to some vintage/antique shops, but I neglected my photo-taking responsibilities (or tried and failed to get a decent shot) at all but this one.

I thought this display at a used record store was pretty great.

One night we ate dinner at a restaurant that had an interesting store next to it. It was full of things … and I do mean full.

The stuff was mostly old, mostly jewelry, but it seemed to really have a little of everything.

It was sort of overwhelming, with room after room and nary a free inch of wall space!

Okay, this post is pretty random … I admit, blogging wasn’t at the top of my mind while I was on a much-needed (and much-enjoyed) vacation! But I hope you enjoyed a little taste of Junkeo Internationalo. (That is my made up pseudo-European language there. You like?) Now it’s time to hunker down and focus on Le Crap Americaine for a while. Yee-haw!