Frankfurt. Woss it like?

possibility of moving there in the new years... Anyone got any experience living there?

Good/bad experience? Friendly folks, exciting? Bicycle friendly? Grammar pedants? Super expensive?

be good to hear, thanks.

Not been, but Koblenz is not too far away, where the Canyon bikes head office is. Sorry, that's it for my limited knowledge. However, in my confusion I nearly gave you a detailed rundown of Hamburg instead, that would have run to about 3 lines. Enjoy Frankfurt

cheers anyway i guess!

not a done deal yet... just trying to sneak out of my gilded cage here in sweden after a very boring and socially inactive 3 months : /

I feel like Dave in 2001: A Space Odyssey when he's walking around his swanky digs all alone, getting old and crusty.

Went there on a rugby tour (yes they play rugby in germany) so I am afraid I do not have that much experience of everyday life.

All I know is that it is the banking capital of germany, very good kebab shops (people eat there during the day) and it has I nice old town bit.

They drink this nice apfelwine (sp) stuff which if a bit like really dry cider mixed with white wine but it is 9% and comes in pints, dangerous.

It is a pretty useless place. All bikes are crappy step throughs that are ridden on the pavement. There is no decent beer in the whole town. The closest you will get is Guinness in the Irish bar. They drink the aforementioned apfelwien which is foul.
They don't let you in clubs if you don't speak German or look local. But the local girls are easy to pick up and can get you in. Lots of kebab shops. The town is full of insurance companies. The river is big and nice in summer. Shopping bit is ok.
The old cobbled bar area is actually quite nice to spend an evening in. The trains are good but have the most complex ticketing system imaginable. Cab drivers will try and rip you off, but drive really fast from the airport.

BlueQuinn-you should work for Lonely Planet! They need this.

I spent one day there, so know nothing about it.
But the gf is from close by Fulda, and based from what I heard from her and my limited experience there are three good things in frankfurt apart from the river, Staedelschule, Staedel Museum and the best german pulp storys, the Kemal Kayankaya books by Jakob Arjouni, take place there.

Staedelschule is where I have got possibility of going. Pretty awesome staff but I'm told they're rarely around so trying to get a bit of a bigger picture... Sweden is killing me. Slowly.

That seems like a very good reason to move there.

If I was to go to art school again all of a sudden it would hopefully be there.
Also the greater area is pretty urban/dense/interesting.
And there is an outdoor track in Darmstadt, thats close.
Plus you can get a last minute train ticket to anywhere in Germany for 25€.
I guess rents etc are expensive, but thats now the case in every german city one could imagine to live in, apart from maybe Leipzig.

I am a courier in Frankfurt for three years straight now.
Have to disagree with BlueQuinn vehemently though:
Never heard of anyone not getting into a club/ bar just because of not speaking the language or lookoing local and most of my friends or the people if live with here are foreign. Not one good beer in the whole town?
Ok, this is not bavaria, but thats obviously a ridiculous statement.

He´s right about the river though and there are quite some nice parks with a nice atmosphere, of course especially during summertime.
What´s also correct is that it´s quite pricey, not only compared to Leipzig.
The city does have an alternative scene, but it´s not that easy to find. Many people agree, that it´s not really a city that opens up easily for you. One does have to put quite some effort to find spots and people to be comfortable around.

It´s not only full of banks and insurance companies but there´s quite a lot of advertisement-, design- and also film companies, which might be interesting for you, considering your field of study, I guess.
Lots of museums and theatre as well.

On the cycling front: I´d say that it is quite bicycle friendly, since the city itself is rather small and you get anywhere within 20min, so basically no need to take the train ever...

If you´d be riding fixed, make sure to attach a rear brake to you bike anyway though, otherwise the police is likely to snatch away your ride altogether!

hope I could be of some help,
cheers, benZ

Repped for helpfulness BenZ!

thanks a lot-will be finding out if I am going there or not in the new year... pretty much decided to go if I get the opportunity. This helps me feel a bit better!

Looks like there is some good riding out towards Feldberg? I miss the hills...

I have to say I enjoyed BlueQuinn's review a tad more than the above

I can see why, but as it is, it was just pretty much slagging off with not much backing that up and although I don´t feel totally at home here, somehow I feel I had to defend the place....

also the statement that foreigners are not welcome in clubs leaves avery bitter tastes afterwards, especially when I have never heard of such a thing and maybe of course being german after all, but I don´t wanna start a new discussion alltogether...

dont worry, I see where you are coming from -
but perhaps if you knew BlueQuinn you would understand ;)

also the statement that foreigners are not welcome in clubs leaves avery bitter tastes afterwards, especially when I have never heard of such a thing and maybe of course being german after all, but I don´t wanna start a new discussion alltogether...

Well tell your bouncers not to be such dicks, then :-)
Did your foreign friends try getting in on their own? Were they English?
They seem to fucking hate the English. Probably something to do with all the financial sector workers, so who can blame them. We could never get in on our own, but send the two handsome single lads to go and pull a local bird or two to come with us and suddenly we were allowed in.

As for the beer defence, all I can say is prove it by supplying some.
All I found there was horrible fizzy lager, which doesn't qualify as beer.

German beer is very good beer. It's not ale.

I got into a club in Frankfurt. And I'm foreign.

I spent 52 hours at the Frankfurt airport.

I also lived on a wagonplatz there.

I genuinely hate Frankfurt.

Saying that, I did see a man do contact juggling with his crutches.

That was a highlight.

All I found there was horrible fizzy lager, which doesn't qualify as beer.

Yeah, if you want ale, then Germany isn't the place for you.

But the quality of lager and wheatbeer in Germany is very good.

Also, Frankfurt has a good polo scene, and they are really friendly, so even if you don't play, it's worth getting to know them.

Kölsch is a lovely type of beer. Technically halfway between ale and lager, might not be available on tap though as Frankfurt is 100miles from Köln.

Right, there you have it folks, the best reason to go to Frankfurt is for the polo

#out

I grew up near Frankfurt and hardly ever went there, so I don't know it well. The main beer in Frankfurt, Binding Bier, is certainly not renowned as being very good by German standards. I can't remember the last time I drank it, so I can't really comment. However, you should be able to find very good beer, as John says, since you're in Germany, after all. Binding is also a moloch which swallowed and closed a lot of smaller breweries. On the other hand, they own the Schöfferhofer brand (decent wheat beer) and that's brewed in their factory in Frankfurt, too.

My (superficial) impression of Frankfurt's cityscape is only gained from occasional visits (going to gigs and fairs) and a bit of reading on urban planning. There are some attractive areas that weren't destroyed much in the war but much of the city was gutted and rebuilt very badly after the war, with a strong emphasis on creating an automotive city. Curiously enough, I've never cycled there. I haven't seen that much of the city centre but I wasn't particularly wowed by what I saw. The area down by the Main (river) is wonderful on a warm day, though.

The Frankfurt Book Fair is usually worth going to if you're into that kind of thing. There are also many other fairs and other goings-on and I think you can usually catch most current music acts there. It's a fairly compact city but connectivity by public transport into the surrounding area is pretty good, so that a lot of people commute in who contribute to the activity. It is a little like London in that respect, roughly at the stage of 'string of pearls' development. If it went the way of London, all the space between the surrounding villages and towns would be swallowed up by sprawl in the coming decades. Some of that will undoubtedly happen, but probably not in as extreme a fashion as it did in London.

We did notice one specialised fixed gear shop when we were walking around:

http://www.fixiestube.de/

Here's one of the fairly standard 'summaries' of fixie hipstie culture, in German, natch:

http://www.fr-online.de/freizeittipps/fixie-szene-in-rhein-main-geschoss-fuer-den-hipster,1474298,16381488.html

My brother, who studies there, says that this article is actually accurate.

He says areas rather to avoid (cheaper though) are Bonames, Nordweststadt, Fechenheim, or Oberrad. Nicer (and pricier) areas are Nordend, Bornheim, Sachsenhausen, Westend, Innenstadt. The Gallusviertel is apparently a well-kept secret despite not being that expensive.

incredibily helpful Oliver dear chap, thank you!

With regards beer I'm more than happy to indulge experiential learning on that one. I'm sure i'd cope regardless...

However, you should be able to find very good beer, as John says, since you're in Germany, after all.

Germans always say this, but aside from the lovely smoked beer you can buy in the Jolly Butchers, all the so-called "good" German beers I have had are too thin and have pretty much tasted of nothing. White beers and wheat beers are better in this respect, but if I'm going for that type of ale the Belgians smash the Germans out of the park for quality and flavour.
I blame the purity laws.