10 days in Frankfurt

[olmartins]

Hello , I am from Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais state in Brazil, and I am going to be 2 weeks in Frankfurt, where I am going to work.
I'd like to learn some german there, can anyone suggest a place to study during the nights ? In the weekend I intend to go travel around, can you suggest something interesting ?
Thanks, Orlando.

[Kare]

Just for better understanding: Frankfurt/Main or Frankfurt/Oder?
We have two, one at the river Main (normally called 'Frankfurt am Main') and one at the river Oder (normally called 'Frankfurt/Oder' or 'Frankfurt (Oder)'). I guess you are likely going to spend your time in 'Frankfurt am Main', but I rather ask for clarification instead of sending you somewhere you won't be. ^_^;;

[olmartins]

Hi Kare, tks for your reply.
It's going to be Frankfurt/Main.

[Kare]

Thought so ^^

Okay, I am going to be honest: I just asked Wiki. XD
Something I do know about Frankfurt is that it has the largest airport in Germany (at least I think so) and it is said that it is well worth a look if you have the time.
General ideas would be museums, churches and a walk by the river or maybe you want to go to the Zoo... yeah, I guess figuring that these are the first things that come to my mind, I wager it is obvious that I am a pretty boring person...
Anyway:
Wiki has a really long article about the city:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt
There are some helpful links there, among them a link to the Travel Wiki:
http://wikitravel.org/en/Frankfurt
This should help you quiet a bit.
I also looked it up, but there doesn't seem to be that much interesting stuff at the fair at the moment:
http://www.messefrankfurt.com/corporate/en/

And about a place to study during the night... well, I wager you are likely to get a hotel room or something? I guess that is your safest bet.
Something else I looked up where the university libraries, because some in my home town are open till midnight and one even till two in the morning, but I couldn't find anything like that this far.
Best I came up with where some that are opened till 21:30, which doesn't really hit my idea of 'night':
http://www.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/zeiten.html
and one open till 22:00
http://www.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/medhb/mallg.html

Other than that: when are you going?
If it is mid summer you can just search for a quiet place at the river bank and learn there.
Of cause this means that there are such things as "quiet places" in Frankfurt and that you aren't afraid. I read that Frankfurt has a high rate of pickpokets and I know a few people (people from the generation of my parents and older) who don't feel easy when they are out late/ in the dark...
Then again I love being out late cause that's usually when you start having the streets for yourself....
So I guess best thing is to just try... ^_^;;

[olmartins]

Yes, I'm gonna know which the hotel is gonna be, so I'll be more specific. Date will be late May now. I am watching the temperature in Frankfurt. I'll check if there're day tours in the hotel or nearby ... some friends said a good idea would be to go to Paris for example, so I subscribed in Lufthansa newsletter to get a good discount. Well, lets see what's happen. I like a good wine and beer (drafts, darks), so if you have any names, just drop them here.

Auf Wiedersehen!

[Kare]

It is rather expensive and people regurlarly going by train are more likely to be helpful here, but:
The mother of a friend works at 'Die Deutsch Bahn' (Short: DB. Main railroad company here in Germany. You rely on them almost every time you want to go by train from one city to the next.) and because of that I know that there is the posibility of using the Intercity Express between Frankfurt and Paris. It is rather expensive and it might be that flying is cheaper in the end. But you would be able to watch the landscape going by.

If you are staying at a bigger hotel I am sure people at the reception desk are likely to know which would be the best and easiest way to go about this.
Only thing I strongly discourage is attending one of the "city trips". It's likely to come up when you ponder this more deeply. Our German understanding of that word or rather of the word "Städtetour" is the idea or getting together with loads of other people, getting into a bus, driving for hours till your legs swell, having an annoying happy-go-lucky guide who shows you the city by bus for another two hours - you are likely to not see a single thing, because he either always points to the left side of the bus or always to the right. And you are sure to sit on the one side he doesn't point to... Then you can finally walk around the city (if you are lucky, otherwise you get forced through the Louvre in less than 30 minutes, because there are other things to see as well), are forced back into the bus one and a half hour later, if you are lucky there might be a musical or something at the end, you drive all the way back, and when you reach 'home' in the middle of the night you wonder what made you agree to that...
Honestly, I did it a few times when I was in school, it is really famous among elder people and it is pure torture. (Than again, I might mix this up with "Kaffeefahrten". It is a fact that elder people really enjoy these things. And I never understood why. And a "Kaffeefahrt" is one big hoax. You "win" these things, they drive you to the middle of nowhere and than they sell stuff no one ever needed. You can easily figure that this is going to end like that, and people still attend like crazy, because they "won" it. Than the disappointment mixes with the torture...)

Such a city travel might be a really good language experience, but it's just not worth the stress... at least not in my eyes. Like you probably noticed, I have a few prejudices when it comes to that. If it sounds like your idea of fun, I am the last one to stop you. ^_~

[olmartins]

Well, after a while away from Germanpod101, I am returning to say that this voyage was awesome. During our only one weekend we didn't go to Paris (the initial idea was to go in an ICE train), but me and my colleague went to the ruins of Schloss Castle in Heidelberg, thats not too far from Frankfurt.
Very beautiful country, very good stay. We were able to talk to people from Italy, Portugal, England, France and even Africa in a mix of english, portuguese, bad italian and bad spanish. It was very funny!! For example, we went to a supermarket carrying 3 boxes with GPS devices (for our friends in Brazil). We were asked to leave them in the entrance, and my colleague told me in portuguese that he was not going to leave them there (In Brazil, not all places I suppose, it is not safe), then the cashier spoke to us in clean portuguese: You can leave them here, its safe. Man, at the first miliseconds I was surprised, I didn't know what language she was talking.
Then she told us she was from Parana (state in Brazil where we have many german communities) and living in Frankfurt for 30 years now. That event was very interesting.