Yet more old photos from Frankfurt.

More old pictures from Frankfurt.

It also means that my nearly six years working for Lufthansa Systems are ending. My new job will be with Ironport, and I’m looking forward to it very much. I didn’t decide to move to Munich because I dislike Frankfurt (Frankfurt, despite rumors to the contrary, isn’t really all that bad) nor Lufthansa, nor “for the money”, but simply because Ironport offered me an interesting job, and I feel that it’s a cool company full of nice people. (I realize this may sound like a bit of boot licking, but whatever, those are the reasons, and I don’t care what you think.)

I’ll send around an email with my new contact information in early April; but you can always reach me at my known email address, or via jabber, icq, and so on.

“Work is good. Having work means more money. And more money makes for a better life. Financially speaking, I mean.”

The man looked still lost.

“Where do you want to go,” I asked him.

He showed me a piece of paper he was holding. “To this hotel,” he said.

I looked at the paper and it listed an address in Frankfurt.

“I don’t know this hotel-” I began. Then I noted something.

“Wait a second,” I said. “This hotel is in Frankfurt on Oder. That’s in East Germany. You are in Frankfurt on Main. It’s the wrong Frankfurt.”

“But I have to get to this hotel, is it far?”

“Well, it’s in East Germany, near the Polish border. Very far I’d say – at least seven or eight hours with the train.”

“But I must go to this hotel, because I already paid for six nights.”

I didn’t really want to argue with him. After all, what do I know about other people’s plans? By now my subway had left, too.

“Well, this station is just for the regional trains, the subways. There is a long distance train station too; just follow those signs.” I pointed them out to him. “But follow me.”

I led him up the stairs, and brought him to the ticket office of the German train company.

“You can inquire about the train schedules here, and also buy tickets,” I told him. “They’ll be able to show you where to go and so on.”

“Very good, thank you,” the man said.

“No problem, Sir, you’re welcome.”

I went back down the stairs, just in time to find out that the next subway would have ten minutes delay.

Two Frankfurts

Just remember, people: When and if you go to Germany, and you want to go to Frankfurt, make sure you get the **right** one.

• Frankfurt/Main (Main is the name of the river, not the English word “main”) is in western/central Germany
• Frankfurt/Oder (Oder is a river, too) is in eastern Germany, on the Polish border.

With apologies to Mr. Dickens for abusive use of his book title.

Six. Years.

That’s a long time.

I originally moved to Frankfurt to work at a small consulting company, and ended up working for a large IT company instead. When I first told people I’d move down south they all told me… “Frankfurt? Are you insane? That’s a horrible city!” Of course, life doesn’t really follow such preconceptions, and I actually found out that Frankfurt isn’t all that bad. Sure, it’s expensive and the traffic is insane. The streets are quite dirty… and the public transportation does really suck. But in some way, Frankfurt has grown on me. It’ll never really be “home”, but hey, home is where the heart is.

There are some good things to be said about Frankfurt, actually. For one thing it’s really small – you can cross town very quickly, and nowhere is really far away. The airport is 12 minutes from the central station by subway (if there are no delays…) It’s also got a pretty cool skyline. Just walk along the river at night, it’s quite a sight. No comparison to, say, Tokyo, but it’s really not bad for a European city.

It’s a pretty convenient city. I live in Sachsenhausen. Easy access to downtown, and pretty much everything I need within walking distance (supermarkets, subway, tram, dry cleaning; I can even walk to the central station and the south station).

I also enjoy the high percentage of foreigners. If I recall correctly, it’s about 16% for entire Frankfurt; some suburbs are higher. One of my best friends here is Turkish, and you will see a lot of African and Asian people. You’ll hear at least three or four languages spoken when you go to the central shopping district during a busy time. I love that.

Would I recommend moving to Frankfurt? It kinda depends on your personality, of course. I doubt I’d want to live in the middle of it with kids. But hey, if you’re young, single, and get a job here… don’t be scared of the town.

Last winter, I noticed how colleagues working in the Lufthansa Aviation Center would run across the – very busy – street, trying to catch a bus. I thought it would be only a matter of time before one of them would be hit by a car in the dark. So I mailed a suggestion – first to my superiors, then to the cities of Frankfurt and Kelsterbach – suggesting that a fence should be erected on the middle strip on the road should.

At the time, I got only negative replies. However, after my vacation, I noticed that they had actually set that fence up while I wasn’t around. No plaque or dedication, but I am a little proud that they actually did it.

I may have saved someone’s life.

It was a hailstorm.

Yes, you read that right: Little pieces of ice were falling down, hitting my balcony, and bouncing back up 20-30cm into the air. Lasted about ten minutes. And then the thunderstorm set in.

And in the evening we had more heavy rains. Don’t know how much water fell on Frankfurt, but it must have been a lot. Temperatures, meanwhile, hover around 13°C. I am not complaining about this, I vastly prefer such a colder weather to temperatures in the 30s, but I must observe that it seems highly unusual considering it is now July.

If it was up to me, I’d keep this weather all summer until we’ll eventually hit the autumn storms.