That Other Place Where They Speak German

Daan, a friend of mine from Harvard by way of the Netherlands, is spending the summer in Frankfurt, Germany, working for Deutsche Bank and invited me to visit him during the first weekend in July. My expectations were kind of low -- Frankfurt was rebuilt after WWII to look new, rather than old, meaning that the entire city has a kind of 1950s-drab aesthetic. And when I told people in Vienna that I was going to Frankfurt, they gave me strange looks. (That could have just been the look they give everyone who suggests leaving Austria to go to the land of the Scheiß Piefkes, but I'd like to think Austrians are a bit more discerning in their hatred of Germans.)

But I found a lot to like in Frankfurt and in Hessen, even if the German German did start to grate at my ears after 24 hours.* 

Frankfurt is the only city in Germany with a skyline, and that skyline is dominated by Deutsche Bank.

Frankfurt is the birthplace of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. This is a monument to him that was for some reason transformed into a Michael Jackson monument. I was confused.

After walking around the city a bit on Friday night, we woke up early Saturday morning and took the train to Wiesbaden, a town in the area that used to be a spa for the German Kaiser. 

Fountain in town with supposed curative properties. It just tasted sulfuric to me, though.

It was actually really pretty, and we spent a pleasant day wandering around the town and hiking in the mountains in the area.

Daan riding the train up the mountain

Yes, there was a Russian Orthodox Church on top of a random mountain in Hessen.

I also learned on this trip that Germans can be hilarious, both when they intend to be so and when they do not:

"Sensible people don't ride bikes here. For everyone else, it's forbidden."

 A Döner Boat. Yes, this is normal.

* My friend Sarah, who was also in Vienna this summer and speaks no German, told me that she had always thought of German as a hard language until she came here and realized how beautiful it could sound. I am convinced that that's Austrian German -- lilting, flexible with consonants, and enough to bring a smile to anyone's face. And I've gotten so used to Austrian German that German German sounds weird to me.