I would like to travel and live/study in Germany this spring. Any suggestions for cities known for that magical mixture of low cost of living and innovative/lively cultural offerings?
Berlin is one of the obvious answers. I have also been considering Leipzig for a while, and a friend has recently recommended that I visit Karlsruhe. Are there any other cities/towns I should add to my list?
Berlin rocks, it's built environment reflects the conflicting opinions that Germany has about its past and future. Actually, all of Germany is great. I'd love to live there.
Frankfurt is very commercial (skyscrapers etc). Having said that, we found the people very friendly, and embarassingly fluent in English (considering they know about 3 other languages, and English is not their mother tongue).
We were recommended to cross the river and seek out a local pub and order green sauce and apfel cider. Sitting at a table of total german strangers who liked practicing their english jokes on us, it was one of the best nights in Europe I can recall.
i dunno, there's a ton of great work if you avoid all the trashy name brand stuff. berlin's got some great architects that are relatively unkown outside of germany.
well berlin is your best combination of affordability + excitment. you really can't beat the youth scene there.
if you're looking for an alternative, leipzig is probably good, stuttgart is okay.
hamburg is cool but rich and tame. munich is great but expensive and also kind of tame - it's also way more beautiful in the typical european way than berlin. frankfurt is actually a pretty cool place too.
other than that, the smaller (and probably less expensive) german cities like karlsruhe, kiel, etc are all okay, just kind of boring.
maybe you should check out some of the university cities like freiburg, cottbus, marburg, etc. i dunno, they're probably all boring too. freiburg is actually really beautiful (in an old fashioned way, and its situated right by some cool big hills) but its probably expensive, though its got lots of students.
i used to love and be happy in pretty much all of germany, but after getting hooked on big cities from living in NYC and LA, now for me in germany it's gotta be berlin or nothing. if in europe, then berlin paris or london. maybe rome or madrid. everything else is too small.
i stayed in freiburg for a bit travelling between stuttgart and basel, a ton of students and some interesting projects. nice scale, it's not too expensive and was told it's the "california" of DE.
chase, even basel? you wouldn't work for h+dem or roger diener?
haven't been to basel except for on the freeway driving through on my way to zurich. i do like hdm. i think i'd be willing to try out a smaller metropolis like basel or rotterdam for the sake of working for someone outstanding. as long as they paid well and i wasn't doing shit work. and as long as i get my six weeks urlaub.
Being proximate to big cities would be the key for me...with an hour's drive / commute. I don't think I'd necessarily need to live in one. But then, I've never lived semi rural before, its just a nice dream.
Speaking of Europe, has anyone ever worked at B+E before in Voralberg, Austria?
Thanks for all your responses...sometimes over generalizations about cities can actually be helpful. I'm re-applying to programs and was going to take a german course at one of the goethe institutes prior to venturing out to the rest of Germany, Eastern Europe, Scandinavia (and maybe Greenland?)
But for all practical purposes, it seems that Berlin is the best bet for settting up my base in europe.
Oct 18, 07 2:51 pm ·
·
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.
affordable and interesting cities in Germany
I would like to travel and live/study in Germany this spring. Any suggestions for cities known for that magical mixture of low cost of living and innovative/lively cultural offerings?
Berlin is one of the obvious answers. I have also been considering Leipzig for a while, and a friend has recently recommended that I visit Karlsruhe. Are there any other cities/towns I should add to my list?
Thanks in advance!
karlsruhe is dirt cheap if you live in the turkish section
plus it's central to stuttgart, frankfurt, muenchen, paris, basel, zuerich...
stuttgart might be a better option, actually.
Berlin rocks, it's built environment reflects the conflicting opinions that Germany has about its past and future. Actually, all of Germany is great. I'd love to live there.
Frankfurt is very commercial (skyscrapers etc). Having said that, we found the people very friendly, and embarassingly fluent in English (considering they know about 3 other languages, and English is not their mother tongue).
We were recommended to cross the river and seek out a local pub and order green sauce and apfel cider. Sitting at a table of total german strangers who liked practicing their english jokes on us, it was one of the best nights in Europe I can recall.
Good times...
berlin is also very cheap ... but aslo not very attractive for studying ...
i dunno, there's a ton of great work if you avoid all the trashy name brand stuff. berlin's got some great architects that are relatively unkown outside of germany.
well berlin is your best combination of affordability + excitment. you really can't beat the youth scene there.
if you're looking for an alternative, leipzig is probably good, stuttgart is okay.
hamburg is cool but rich and tame. munich is great but expensive and also kind of tame - it's also way more beautiful in the typical european way than berlin. frankfurt is actually a pretty cool place too.
other than that, the smaller (and probably less expensive) german cities like karlsruhe, kiel, etc are all okay, just kind of boring.
maybe you should check out some of the university cities like freiburg, cottbus, marburg, etc. i dunno, they're probably all boring too. freiburg is actually really beautiful (in an old fashioned way, and its situated right by some cool big hills) but its probably expensive, though its got lots of students.
i used to love and be happy in pretty much all of germany, but after getting hooked on big cities from living in NYC and LA, now for me in germany it's gotta be berlin or nothing. if in europe, then berlin paris or london. maybe rome or madrid. everything else is too small.
i stayed in freiburg for a bit travelling between stuttgart and basel, a ton of students and some interesting projects. nice scale, it's not too expensive and was told it's the "california" of DE.
chase, even basel? you wouldn't work for h+dem or roger diener?
haven't been to basel except for on the freeway driving through on my way to zurich. i do like hdm. i think i'd be willing to try out a smaller metropolis like basel or rotterdam for the sake of working for someone outstanding. as long as they paid well and i wasn't doing shit work. and as long as i get my six weeks urlaub.
Being proximate to big cities would be the key for me...with an hour's drive / commute. I don't think I'd necessarily need to live in one. But then, I've never lived semi rural before, its just a nice dream.
Speaking of Europe, has anyone ever worked at B+E before in Voralberg, Austria?
Thanks for all your responses...sometimes over generalizations about cities can actually be helpful. I'm re-applying to programs and was going to take a german course at one of the goethe institutes prior to venturing out to the rest of Germany, Eastern Europe, Scandinavia (and maybe Greenland?)
But for all practical purposes, it seems that Berlin is the best bet for settting up my base in europe.
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.