I started blogging in November 2005 after a business trip to Frankfurt bursting with stories of everything I had seen and experienced. While I had been to Europe before, it was my first time in Germany. That trip turned into the first of many things, which got me started on my personal blog on Blogger back in the day. I went back to it now, 10 years later and found myself cringing as I read through it. My writing has definitely matured since that first post where excitement played more of a role than any storytelling technique. I am sure much has changed in Frankfurt in the last decade since I visited. So, instead of simply importing the old post into this new blog, I decided to spruce it up by rewriting parts of it, toning down the language and bringing in my 2016 voice while telling a 2005 story!
November 2005
The Lonely Planet Guide says this about things to do in Frankfurt.
“Frankfurt is often seen only as a transit hub or a business centre, but it’s so much more. If you do happen to get stuck at the mega-airport, there’s a nightclub, art gallery and X-rated cinema to help while away those in-transit hours.”
I didn’t get to go to any nightclubs or art galleries, though I did get my first X-rated experience. Not the Cinema, but a visit to an Adult Store!
But I am getting ahead of myself.
I was in Frankfurt to attend the International Book Fair, a very popular event for the publishing industry. My boss had written a book, it had sold thousands of copies in pre-order and was now translated into German. The German edition was being launched at an event in the sidelines of the fair. The Boss was making an appearance as an author, I was there as his trusted PR manager.
The Frankfurt Book Fair has been held forever, and I mean that quite literally. Legend has it that Hitler burned down all the books during his regime and once he was gone, the entire literary scene had to be revived. Some smart German guy saw the opportunity and started up this big exhibition which today is THE biggest international book fair event in the world.
The book fair website, of course, has a boringly different version of its origin.
“The Frankfurt Book Fair story dates back as far as the Middle Ages, when Johannes Gutenberg first invented movable type just a few miles down the road. Today, the Frankfurt Book Fair is the world’s largest book fair.”
And that’s how I found myself in Frankfurt in the middle of a very cold October, all the way from warm, sunny Malaysia, a country I had moved to just a few months before, from India. I was freezing in the German autumn weather, overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the Book Fair, and puzzled by why the Germans I was meeting didn’t smile much.
I was accompanied by a Malaysian colleague (who I will refer to as Ms.R for the purposes of this post), and we were to meet our German colleague Oliver, who worked in our Berlin office at the time. Oliver was supposed to be our local guide, to help us navigate Frankfurt. He made it a point to remind us at every opportunity that he was from Berlin, the international city, where the real parties are and this was Frankfurt, the boring business city, so he couldn’t really help us!
We arrived in Frankfurt on a Saturday evening and had the Sunday to ourselves before the madness began. Oliver was on his way from Berlin and as we had limited time, Ms.R and I decided to explore the city on our own, and have Oliver join us wherever we were, once he got into the hotel.
Wrapped up in jackets and scarves bought in Malaysia (which were no match for the German chill) we set out with a subway map in our hand and a post-it note from our hotel concierge scribbled with the name of the station we were to get to, in order to see the heart of the city. It was a Sunday and the streets were deserted. We got to the subway station closest to our hotel and found a vending machine with everything in German, and not a single human in sight. We punched a few buttons hoping to see station names and match it with the one we had in our post-it. After some fruitless punching and nothing resembling the name we were trying to find, we suddenly spotted this young German school-aged kid coming our way.
We cornered him (probably startled him) and asked him to help us with the ticket vending machine. He didn’t speak any English! After a lot of wild hand gesticulation, broken English, waving of the post-it, and pressing of random buttons on the vending machine, he helped us get the tickets…..to some place that did not look like the name on our post-it.
It took us several wrong stations to realise how the system worked. We buy a single € 1.80 ticket to any inner city station in Frankfurt. This, you get by choosing that aforementioned unrelated name button on the vending machine and then you get off at the station of your choice with a selection of complicated names like Konstableurwache!
Once we got the hang of it, we got rather adventurous and even managed to take the subway in the wrong direction and go all the way to the other end of town. Somewhere along the way, it stopped being a subway anymore as we suddenly emerged into daylight and found that our train had turned into some kind of pseudo-tram! While I panicked, Ms.R calmly sat there and sagely philosophised- “What goes around, comes around.”
Sure enough, we reached the end of the line and stayed put inside as everyone else got off. Soon, we were on our way back! Given the amount of time we spent on the train, I wasn’t surprised that Oliver had already arrived at the hotel and we asked him to meet us in the downtown area.
Finally, we saw people on the streets. I found out later that most stores were closed on Sunday and people rarely stepped out of home during the day.
It was unforgivingly cold, perhaps even more so for us considering we were “fresh off the boat” from the subtropical Malaysian heat. Ms.R wisely bought gloves at a €1 Euro store (one of the few stores we found open), but I claimed I could manage without them. Well…I had my reasons. Not a single person we came across in the city of Frankfurt was wearing gloves. I was simply trying to acclimatize and fit in! That resolve lasted about 3 hours before I sheepishly found my way back to the €1 store for my gloves. I made it a point to look at everyone’s hands after that and realized we were the ONLY two people in Frankfurt wearing gloves! I am still trying to figure that one out.
Once Oliver joined us and we had a German on hand for all our queries, we got adventurous and decided to walk everywhere so that we could take it all in.
Oliver was right about it being a boring, business city, at least in comparison to Berlin, a much more vibrant and lively place teeming with energy. Frankfurt has a quaint charm. On a weekend, with very few people out and about, it’s almost possible to believe we were in a quiet German village with parks, gardens and riverside paths.
We walked around the historic Bornheim neighborhood which has beautiful medieval-style houses that survived the war. It gives one a glimpse into what the city looked like before WW2 changed it forever.
In the beautiful Romerberg area, as we strolled by the riverside, we managed to catch some cool street performances and pose for pictures with cute Velocycle drivers. Velocycles look like a cross between a Thai Tuk Tuk, Indian auto rickshaw and a paddleboat! Oliver helpfully translated our request to the drivers who spoke no English, but seemed delighted that two random Asian women wanted pictures with them.
We stumbled across Chris Paulsen, an American street musician who plays an array of different instruments and was a pretty good singer. He was selling his CDs and we paid €15 each for his CD. He even signed it for us. One day when he is famous, I can auction the CD on e-bay! Investment in the futures market, anyone?
It was getting close to sunset and the weather was cooling down even more. Oliver couldn’t understand why we were freezing in what was just very pleasant weather as far as he was concerned. We picked up our pace to find the warmth of a store or a coffee shop. And that’s how we stumbled upon the half-naked, plastic ladies.
I had never been in an adult store before. The other two had clearly been, and sniggered at my naiveté. We went in to explore and I wandered around the store wide-eyed and very confused at some of the contraptions on display. Some were helpfully labelled ‘dildos’. With feathers and fur. Others, I simply couldn’t figure out.
Ms.R bought a little pink box labelled ‘Peppermint Nipples’ that featured a slutty cartoon woman on the lid. When she opened it to show me, I was sorely disappointed to note that they were only little white peppermints shaped like tiny breasts topped with nipples. They were not even in color!
Oliver and Ms.R popped in a mint each and started making these strange sounds that were supposed to be “ummm”, “aaah” etc …you get the drift!
Oliver got his hands on something a little more exciting. A pack of penis shaped edible jelly! That confounded me. Why was a guy buying penis-shaped jelly? There was some serious gender confusion going on there. The woman was buying peppermint nipples to suck on and the guy was buying penis jellies!
And what did I do, you ask? I walked around the store like a typical Asian tourist and started taking pictures. Surprisingly, the tattooed, pierced woman at the desk didn’t mind and didn’t throw me out!
After giggling and snickering like a bunch of teenagers for a good half an hour, we had had enough. It was dark and cold outside and jetlag was starting to make its appearance felt. We took the subway back to our hotel, half asleep and partially frozen.
The next morning the biggest book fair in the world opened its doors and a gazillion people seemed to be teeming around the venue. Where were all these people yesterday?
At the entrance to the venue, we found this giant structure of a man who seemed to be hammering away at something with a sickle. We couldn’t find any description of this ‘artwork’ next to it. We still haven’t figured out what he represents or why he is there! He just keeps on hammering that mysterious object day after day, night after night and no one knows why.
For the next two days, we were rushed off our feet at the book fair and barely saw anything outside of the venue and our hotel, which was across the street. On the day we were flying out, I had a few hours before my flight and managed to walk around the city on a weekday when there was more life in the streets.
I stumbled upon charming outdoor cafes, interesting street art and half-timbered buildings reconstructed after World War II. Frankfurt was also my first introduction to restaurants and coffee shops asking if I wanted my water to be still or sparkling. I discovered that I like sparkling water better!
I was told the city transforms during Christmas time. Romerberg hosts a Christmas market and on Saturdays, people flock to the market as the twinkling lights come on after sunset. Unfortunately, I was visiting a bit too early for that.
Frankfurt has a rich and long history, and I didn’t have enough time to explore too much of it. Since then, I have passed through Frankfurt airport at least 4-5 times. It is, after all, a major international hub and one of the top 3 busiest airports in Europe. (It’s also an airport I am not very fond of. Too big, complicated and unfriendly). WW2 changed the city in many ways and it has never been the same. One day, I hope one day, to get out of the airport and see more of its hidden charms.
Must Try : Apfelwein. Apple Wine. A delicious, potent, slightly sour cider that warms up your soul on a cold, autumn night!
Someone you know fairly well lives in Germany! Maybe she can one day show you what’s outside of Frankfurt that you have definitely been missing all your life! ??