Grüne Woche

This past Thursday, instead of having class, we took a field trip to the "Grüne Woche" (literally Green Week) Expo, that is a huge expo dedicated to agriculture and food. It happens only once a year in Berlin, and happens to be the biggest of its kind in the world. Since we went as a group of students, it only cost us 4 euros each to get in.


[my ticket]

When we entered, we had free range to go wherever we wanted and do whatever we wanted, as long as we wrote a one-page reflection on what we did for class on Monday. We started out by going through a hall of wine and beer from all over the world, and also local German products (mainly meat and cheese). The expo has become known as the "Fresse Messe" (or Eating Expo) to the Berliners, since a huge part of it is all the samples that vendors give out as well as all the food you can buy there.


[lots of cheese...]


[that is a lot of kinds of beers]


[:( meat...]

Although it is described as an agricultural fair, they have everything from food and wine (and beer) to animals and farming techniques to household products to gardening and home improvement. So, we continued on to the gardening section, where we were totally astounded by the gardens that had been set up inside and the amount of time that must have been put into the expo.


[part of the huge indoor garden space]


[a waterfall...]

We then headed into the halls that had vendors representing individual countries. Lots of different nations each had booths where they we selling not only foods, but also different crafts.


[Canada had a stand, but not the U.S.]

Ukraine also had their own hall, which could only be described as somewhat depressing. As we walked around, the vendors at the stands did not seem happy at all to be there, not to mention that it was crowded and kind of shabby looking. So much so that some other FU BESTers that we met there were only looking for their way out. It was also a large contrast to the section that Russia had, which was open and lighter, with thoughtfully planned out booths and sections. A reflection on the real world perhaps...


[Ukraine]


[Russia had their vodka in a pump bottle...]

We then finally came upon the section that we had been searching for - all the animals. They had one hall with house animals, which included lots of different kinds of house pets and a show with dogs catching Frisbees, but no puppies to play with.


[Doggies doing tricks]

They also had a section with farm animals, where of course I had a blast! They also took the opportunity to promote "Bio-essen," which is like organic food, but with much stricter guidelines.


[COWS! My favorite farm animal!]


[Annie and Jessica enjoying some great free samples!]


[An entire horse-show ring was set up]


[a very shaggy horse]


[the very happy bio-pigs... free range and healthy and so happy about it. Very sad to think of the wurst that they will be put in that is being served at the next stand over, but the Germans didn't seem to think so]

We got to the show right when it opened around 10, and by 12:30, it was already too crowded. There were sections where you simply couldn't walk because there were so many people, many of them being inconsiderate to other people walking around them. There were more sections with different countries (including bigger ones from France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Switzerland), a whole room with different typical foods from all the German states, more stands with wine.


[Trying to stand behind a cut-out from the Netherlands, and even standing on my tippy-toes, I am too short! My brother Thomas told me that they are on average the tallest in the world, and based on this I sure do believe him...]

It was really great to go to the Grune Woche, not only for the loads of free samples, but also because it was cool to be part of such a huge thing that happens in Berlin. I can definitely understand why it is so popular, although we did end up leaving simply because there were too many people there!