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Last Saturday morning I had big hopes of exploring the Winterfeldtplatz Market in a district called Schöneberg before heading to a work meeting that afternoon. Winterfeldtplatz is no Turkish market, in that it's way more organized, clean, and fancy. In other words, not half as much fun, but still cute and a good market fix for this now-working gal who can no longer spend her Tuesday and Friday afternoons stuffing Gözleme into her face and lazing over cappuccinos.

As soon as I exited the train and eagerly rounded the corner to the escalator, I could hear the heavy rain splattering up above. Equal parts patting myself on the back for bringing an umbrella and cursing myself for getting out of bed early to go to a market in the rain, I decided to make the best of it and find a cute café to enjoy a light breakfast. Light because, well, I had already eaten breakfast an hour earlier.

A corner café called Winterfeldt (sensing a pattern here?) that doubles as a Chocolatier caught my eye. I ducked in and treated myself to a cappuccino and croissant. It wasn't the best croissant of my life, but it did the trick, and so did the ambiance. And the delicious house-made chocolate covered almond that sat delicately on the coffee spoon. When the cashier rang up the total as 3 euros ($3.80), I remember thinking, "man, that's cheap." The thing is it's not really, not for Berlin standards, but it is for me when you consider a comparable order in a comparable cafe in DC would probably cost $5 or $6. Not to mention there are basically no independent cafés I know of in DC that are as cute.

Later that evening, I met Kelly to go to a dub-step concert (more on that later) and we were scouring the back streets of Neukölln for a quick pre-show dinner. We found ourselves in a neighborhood without many options, but spotted an adorable café-slash-ice cream dealer with live music that was offering a vegetarian buffet. Now let me be specific on what I mean by buffet. There were indeed a variety of dishes available for everyone to choose from, and yes, you could take as much and go back as often as you wanted. But the dishes were small and the options limited for American standards. I remember a caprese salad, tabbouleh, some other salads, hummus, soup, bread, rice pudding... plenty for a quick dinner and we only went back once, for dessert. It was all the buffet I needed. And all for... you got it... 3 euros.