Halloween- Berlin Style

Last year the kids were really disappointed with our Halloween experience.  It was one of the first times that the cultural differences were truly glaring.  To be fair, Halloween is not a German holiday.  In certain areas of Berlin they started celebrating the holiday just 10-15 years ago so they do have some kinks to work out and/or make it their own.  Clearly it does not need to be how it is in the US or at least Seattle.  We don't even know if the rest of the states do it like we do.

Anyway, one of the promises we made the kids was that if we were going to stay a 2nd year in Berlin that we would find a better area to do trick or treating in.
I sent out a few emails and did a bit of searching and found that there was, in fact, a very American neighborhood filled with very American people.  It is very close to the US Consulate and also pretty close to where we live.

We made plans with Toby and his family to meet us near the Sbahn.  Being from Sweden, his kids had only experienced European/Swedish Halloween.  According to Toby this consisted of his kids dressing up and then he would call his parents and his sister who live down the street to remind them that it was Halloween and to get the candy ready.  They would walk down to their grandparents and their Aunt's and get a piece of candy or two and that was it.  So by comparison, our experience last year wasn't all that bad.   We hopped the bus and ended up at "THE" trick or treating street.  There were SOOO many people.  All Americans - both those giving candy and those trick or treating.  I heard more American English in the one hour that we walked around than I have heard in months. We met up with Benjamin's best friend, Clayton and his mom and brother.  We also met up with our friends Katy, Bob and their kids, Leopold and Suzy.  I write that very nonchalantly - "we met up with" but it was anything BUT.  I was trying to connect with each by text.  It was pitch black outside. 

Best costume of the night.  Suzy the
jellyfish.  She doubled as the lead
since she was lit up and everyone
could actually see her. 

Every time I'd look down at the bright light on my phone then I couldn't see in front of me for several minutes.  The 6 kids would already be halfway down an unfamiliar street.  There were seriously SO many people.  I felt overwhelmed.  But we connected with some of the friends that we had planned to connect with that night.  There were two other friends that were there but couldn't find them.
The kids all were very very happy with their trick or treating experience, though so it made it worth it.  We realized the time and that we had previously made a reservation at our favorite Vietnamese restaurant back in Zehlendorf.  We found that walking would be our quickest option so we hoofed it and made it just a few minutes late to find Marty (who had to work) waiting for us at a big long table.  We ate and laughed and the kids traded their candy and Toby's kids said that "was the best thing EVER"  In fact, at the end of a VERY full week in Berlin which included a trip to the Harry Potter exhibit (the whole reason for the Berlin visit)  they rated Halloween as the VERY best part of the week.