Frankfurt Tourism

Today one of the other new teachers invited us all over to his new apartment for dinner. It was fun to hang out with a bunch of the other new teachers, and eat a delicious home cooked meal. He has just moved in, so it did mean eating sitting on the floor or at the coffee table :)

On my way, I got off the S-Bahn early and walked along the main shopping street and through the tourist areas of Frankfurt. The main shopping street is the Zeil. It has a couple malls plus lots of big shops along it. It is very wide and only pedestrians, so there are often markets set up and restaurants in the middle of the street. Today there was a pride festival at one end (I saw some of the parade they had yesterday) and at the other end an Italian festival.

Here is a photo of one of the malls I've already been in multiple times:

MyZeil

Then I walked down to the old square, the Römerberg. I believe that most of the square was bombed during the war, but it has all been beautifully restored. (On a side note: it just took me half an hour to figure out how to type the ö, I didn't know it would be so difficult!)

This is the view of the whole square. The church on the right is the Alte Nikolaikirche. In the tourist areas you see a lot of these bike taxis. Everyone here has bikes and there are bike lanes everywhere, so I guess it makes sense that they even have taxis that are bikes! 

This is the view from the Römerberg to the Dom. This is the Kaiserdom of St. Bartholomäus, which is the largest religious building in Frankfurt. It use to be the palace chapel (according to http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiserdom_St._Bartholom%C3%A4us). I haven't been inside yet, but that is definitely on my to do list. 

And here is a neat looking building. The main floor is a restaurant with seating outside, looking onto the square. 

To get to my friends house I walked along the Main. There is a path all along the river, on both sides, for pedestrians and bikes. There is a couple pedestrian bridges across the Main. The one in the picture below, the Eiserner Steg bridge, is my favourite so far. All along you see locks locked to the bridge. Each of these has initials written or engraved into it, and a date. Apparently this is a custom called "love padlocks" in many places in the world. 

The church at the left of this picture is the Dreikönigskirche. Another place I want to visit!

Walking to School

I went for a walk this evening to take some photos to share of my walk to school. I live at the very edge of town, and so basically walk through fields to get to school. I do pass a gym and sports facility, including 2 restaurants, so it isn't completely the middle of nowhere. Even with the corn field, I get a good view of the Taunus hills. Something to remind me of mountains :)

My first view of the Taunus hills across the fields. 

There are other towns scattered through the fields. I am hoping to get a bicycle soon so I can do some exploring.

Corn fields with corn growing as high as me!

On my way back home I stopped to watch the thunder storm that was going on in one section of the horizon. If you look at this picture you can see one section looks like it is raining in the distance. That is where I was watching the lightning. It was funny because to the right there is a bright patch of sky. It doesn't show up well in the photo, but the sun was shining down from the clouds and it was bright. Quite a contrast to the thunder storm going on next door!

A Frankfurt Birthday

Saturday July 23:

This past Saturday was my birthday. To celebrate, Sarah and I went out to La Maison du Pain. So far our favourite cafe, they have the best pain au chocolate! And yes, I am in Germany.

This is the cake that I had. It was multi-layered, chocolate and something like mousse. Very yummy!

After lunch we took the U-Bahn to Ikea. I can't say I have ever taken public transit to Ikea, I doubt anyone has. All in all we spent about 6 hours there!! I bought some small things for my kitchen, some sheets and an ironing board. One thing I have discovered is how different bedding is. All I have for my bed is a duvet and a pillow. A large square pillow. I bought a duvet cover/pillow case set and then also a fitted sheet. I would have loved to get a flat sheet but those don't seem to exist here. Oh well, I will either adapt or get one sent from home. 

Sunday July 24:

I live in Steinbach, just outside of Frankfurt, so have to take the S-Bahn to get into the city. On Sunday we went into Frankfurt to meet up with the head of the Gymnasium (highschool, ie. gr 5-10) at my school and some of the new staff for lunch. We went to a Chinese buffet near the main train station. When we got there we were all a bit suspicious of the restaurant. It was on the first floor, and the door and stairway did not lead us to expect how nice it was upstairs! The food was great, and the company made me really excited to start work the following day. 

After, 3 of us headed back towards the Römerberg to watch the Frankfurt Ironman Triathlon. It was already mid-afternoon and the athletes had started at 7 am! We got to watch the winner running up the final red carpet (His race time was 8 hours and 13 minutes!), as well as the female winner about an hour later. Unfortunately there were so many people that I didn't get any good photos.

New Apartment

This morning I moved into my apartment! I was so lucky, the couple who own it picked me up from my hotel this morning to help me with all my luggage. I took some photos of the place before I have unpacked anything, still haven't really taken anything out of my suitcases! Here is a look at my apartment. Notice that pretty much everything is from Ikea :)

Kitchen

The kitchen! It is fairly small, no full fridge or oven. I am planning on buying a toaster oven instead. There are just the bare bones in terms of dishes and things. I think I will buy some extras at Ikea tomorrow :)

Another view of the kitchen

Bathroom

Bedroom/living room/office..

My room! The bed is an Ikea fold out couch. There is a cover that I can put on it if I want to make it into a couch. Notice how much shelving is in the room, I doubt I will be able to fill it all. A nice thing about this apartment is it comes with internet, phone and cable. I think there are only German channels though - time to practice!

After I had moved in and finished signing the contract for the place and learning the important things like where the garbage and washing machine are, I headed back into Frankfurt to meet up with Sarah. We wanted to look for some household things. I needed sheets, a hand towel, etc. We took the U-Bahn north of Frankfurt to go to Primark (a cheap department store from the UK) and ended up discovering a huge mall. It is called the Nordwest Zentrum. Funnily enough, we ran into one of the other Canadian teachers there! 

Sarah is staying with me for a few nights until she can move into her apartment. So on the way back we stopped at a Rewe grocery store. It was hilarious trying to find food to make a stir fry for dinner. Even buying milk was challenging! It wasn't until I actually drank it that I knew it was proper milk. From pictures and a few German words we managed to buy a package of sauce for the turkey we bought and some flavoured noodles. We had no real clue what kind of sauce or flavour, but in the end they were ok.

Tomorrow we have planned some shopping extravaganzas. In the morning: checking out the flea market along the Main river. In the afternoon: Ikea!!

Apartment Hunting

This week has been super crazy trying to find apartments! Thankfully we have had help from HR to phone places, talk with landlords and read leases: basically to help us with the different language. Yesterday I went out to Roedelheim and saw two places, but again they were so disappointing. Both places were being renovated, which on the website looked like a good thing. However the first one it looked like they got behind schedule and then just gave up because there was no kitchen! The second one the availability date had been pushed back. Then today I went out to Steinbach and looked at a very nice little apartment. It is owned by the couple living in the house, and they rent out a little apartment in their upstairs. Anyway, I loved it so signed the contract! I will post pictures when I move in tomorrow. Another lucky thing, this apartment comes with no provision. In Frankfurt many apartments you have to pay provision, which is basically a commission for the real estate agent. This costs you 2.38 months rent! And you don't get any of it back, it all goes into the agents pocket. You also have to pay about 3 months rent as kaution (deposit). All in all this means that to get an apartment you often have to put down more than 6 months rent! Luckily I just had to put down 3 1/3 (I only have to pay 1/3  for the rest of July). The couple is so nice, tomorrow they are picking me up from the hotel because they said I must have so much luggage! Which is definitely true :)

Photo update

I haven't had much time to see the tourist sites or take photos, I've been so busy looking for apartments, doing paperwork and meeting people. On the first day I was here we did get to do a bit of site seeing. I just thought I'd post a photo to share:

The Römer

Quick Update!

Just before I go to bed I want to write down what I've done for the past two days in Frankfurt so I don't forget. So far my impression of Frankfurt: kind of a European Vancouver. I really like it and can't wait to spend more time exploring.

Day 1:
My first day in Frankfurt started at 4am, as that was when I was fully awake. At 4:30 I decided I couldn't stay in bed any longer so got up and read, had a shower, organized my hotel room, etc. When it finally got light I went for a walk past the city campus of the school I will be at. The area is SO nice. There seem to be parks everywhere, one big one (with a castle somewhere I think! Will have to find it some day) right beside the school. Useful since the school doesn't have a yard. Then back to the hotel for breakfast.

Later in the morning I set off with a new friend to explore the city. We walked down to the main shopping street, Zeil, and then down to the river. There is a walking/cycling path all along the river which we wandered along for a while. We crossed a pedestrian bridge, but left the south side of the river to explore another day. After leaving the river we walked through the Römerberg. (for more info/pictures see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_am_Main#R.C3.B6mer)

At 2 we had to meet at the city campus to do paperwork with someone from HR. The school there is being renovated, so we sat in a half empty classroom and filled in papers for registering with immigration, bank accounts, health insurance. The last thing for the day was to hike to the immigration office and register our addresses. Unfortunately for me, my address was in a different area... the nice HR lady had to go register me the next day.

A group of us went out for dinner and drinks in the evening. We tried Turkish because one of the guys has spent the past year teaching in Turkey. It was impressive how much Turkish he speaks - I hope I will be able to converse that well in German in a year!

Day 2 (today):
Got up early (ok I was only up at 6 instead of 4) to meet up at 7:30 with some of the other Canadians. We headed to Starbucks (I know, so German) to use their free internet and start our apartment search. We continued this at school later in the morning with the help of the secretary and lady from HR. Today I say two places - one in Bockenheim and one in the Westend. I was a bit dissapointed with Bockenheim and the apartment wasn't what I'm looking for. The Westend area is so nice, but the apartment is small. It has one 20 m2 room, a kitchenette in the hall and a very nice bathroom. Luckily I have two appointments tomorrow - hopefully something will work out!

After checking out the apartments we met up for dinner. This time we had Korean, because two of the guys had spend 2/3 years together teaching in Korea. Soo yummy! We then walked down to the river and back up  and around to our hotel. Unfortunately we don't know Frankfurt too well and ended up having to walk through a lovely red light district which turned into something like East Hastings...well now we know.

Tomorrow's agenda: more apartment hunting!

Arrived in Frankfurt

I arrived safely last night in Frankfurt. After a 10 hour flight it was so nice to be picked up at the airport by one of the other new teachers. She and her boyfriend then drove me into Frankfurt, stopping for a bite to eat before dropping me off at the hotel. We even drove past the stadium where the FIFA Women's World Cup final was to be played later in the evening. There were lots of people and cars all heading to the game.

Later in the evening I met up with two of the other teachers coming from Canada. I didn't get to see much of Frankfurt as we just walked the short distance from our hotel to Berger Str. for another bite to eat. After meeting these people I am so excited to meet all the other teachers at the school! So far everyone has been so nice and helpful: one of the Canadians even already knew a good place to buy a cheap bike! 

The hotel I am staying at is in a nice area of Frankfurt, just north-east of the main downtown area. Hopefully today some of us will take a bit of a walking tour of the area and downtown today. The hotel is nice and quiet. Most importantly it has everything I need: a bed, shower and free internet! Unfortunately the breakfast is 8 Euro a day, so after today I have to fend for myself. 

My hotel room

And now, it is 6 am, I'm wide awake and have nothing to do until 9 am when I am meeting someone for breakfast. I've been up since about 4:30 - so annoying because I'm tired and know I will be exhausted later in the day. I may just go for a bit of a walk this early morning... 

The time has come...

In 14 and a half hours I will be arriving in Frankfurt. I can't believe that it is already time to go! Today has been kind of strange, all my stuff is packed and I didn't have much to do. I bought a book to read on the plane, played  trivial pursuit with Christie, watched a Miranda...

Some how I have managed to fit everything into the one checked suitcase I am allowed. I am about three quarters of a kilo overweight, hopefully they will be lenient. I am also taking my little rolling suitcase as carry-on, don't tell anyone that's also overweight! I guess this is what happens when you are packing for two years...

What I'm taking:

A Walk in the Woods

Here are some photos from our walk in the forest today.

This one was taken using the vertical panorama feature on my camera. We decided that it made it look a bit Emily Carr-ish.

Ok, had to add one of Christie and I taking pictures of each other taking pictures ... what can I say, we must have been bored.

One more from a walk in the woods a couple days ago: