Frankfurt, Germany
After an incredible stay in Amsterdam, I hopped back on the train and made my way to Frankfurt, Germany.
I’d like to make a note about this post. This is not meant to discourage anyone from visiting Germany. I simply want to share my personal experience and the thoughts I had going in based on what I’ve heard from friends and family that have visited.
Christmas Market
I was lucky enough to have a family friend living in Germany at the time I visited. We had just a few hours together so we made our way over to the Christmas market.
I’ll get more into my overall experience in Germany a bit later, but I can say confidently that the Christmas market was incredible. It was quite extensive, had endless stalls for shopping, and plenty of options for Gluhwein, a warm, spiced red wine.
Overall I loved the Christmas market. If you’re in town at the right time, bundle up and give yourself a few hours to walk through. It is really quite nice.
The Food
Unfortunately, I really struggled with the food here. While walking through the Christmas market and the main shopping strip, I wasn’t able to find anything vegan.
The one saving grace was, randomly, a Chipotle in the mall. I couldn’t believe that we had found in in Frankfurt, Germany, of all places, but I could barely contain my excitement.
On my way out of town, I was also very lucky to stumble across a stall in the train station with a few vegan offerings. While nothing was written in English, there were small symbols next to each of the foods saying if they had dairy, eggs, etc.
Final Thoughts
At this point in my trip, I was really starting to feel burnt out on all of the travel. I had packed so many cities into just 2 weeks, that looking forward to the remaining week was incredibly overwhelming for me.
And to be honest, I did not have high hopes going into my German stop. What I have heard from many friends and family that have visited is that generally Germans are quite cold until they really get to know you.
Of course I’m all for making friends on your travels and some of my now best friends are from my experiences around the world, but I just don’t find it necessary to need to really know someone to be kind to them.
I also struggled quite a bit with the language here. I have a pretty basic understanding of the German language from taking lessons years back, and when I tried to use the German to ask if foods contained ingredients I couldn’t eat, I was completely ignored. When I asked again in English, I got a very rude response. And unfortunately this really put a damper on my trip.
Like Paris, not nearly as many people speak English as other European countries. And sadly, unlike Paris, trying to use the native language didn’t prove to be helpful at all.
After my experience in Frankfurt, I can’t say I plan to ever go back to Germany.
That being said, it is a massive country and has a lot to offer, so please don’t put all of your weight on my experience. Take a little time to do some research beyond this post to see if it’s something for you. And truly I hope that you have a more positive time than I did.
