Advice on life in Frankfurt an der Oder

Hi all,

Brand new to TT, but have been reading the boards for a little while now. I wondered if anyone had any first hand experience with the town of Frankfurt (Oder) and/or the European University of Viadrina there. Reason I ask is that my wife will be applying, along with other German universities, to Viadrina to continue her university studies. So of course we'll fly down and visit in person if the time comes, but I was just looking for anyones general impression of the place. We'd likely only be there for 2 years maximum. She's applying to a few other schools as well, but in territories to the West I'm more familiar with, having lived in Germany in the 90's for a while. Though no doubt it's changed a lot since then. We both speak some German, not fluently, but enough to get by without the need for much English. Have a baby daughter too. So any info will be of interest and much appreciated.

We're taking an unrelated trip to the Alps in October for rest and relaxation, so looking forward to that.

We currently live in Tallinn, Estonia, but unfortunately that option isn't available (no Baltic countries are listed) to choose in the profile options so I left it blank.

Thanks,
Freakster

Editor Bob added Estonia for me, so thanks for that.

hi
i guess your post is a bit old. I teach at the viadrina but like most of the other teachers and students I commute from berlin. it is just an hour on the train. I know a few teachers live in FFO but sadly there isn't much of a student life there. it is a bit of a vicious circle I think. the students all have a semesterticket which lets them use the trains for free. so they all live in Berlin. Can't say I blame them!

I know this thread is probably too old to help the original poster, but someone else may be interested.

I'm going there on Erasmus from Aston Uni in Brum in autumn and Frankfurt/Oder wasn't as small as I thought it might be: certainly bigger than my Mum's hometown with trams and shopping centres, and a tower called the Oderturm. I talked to a girl (a student) from the uni and some of the students like in the Frankfurt area, and seem to like it probably cos they meet other students in the halls. And apparently another girl from Aston Uni is there this year and doesn't want to leave.

I only visited for a day from a hotel in Berlin so couldn't see everything. I'd imagine a lot of the students who like in Frankfurt still visit Berlin a lot cos it's free with there SemesterTicket and only takes an hour: a bit like students in Luton or Guildford regularly visiting London I guess.

You can also walk over a bridge into Sl/ubice (swoob-itsy), Poland--with no border controls since last year. Though its mainly tobacconists, hairdressers, bureaux de change and liquor stores by the border (and a big sign saying ALDI or LIDL 1 km). Hair cuts, cigarettes and alcohol are cheaper in Poland. There's also a cafe that seems to be full of Germans with a German & Polish menu. Despite things being cheaper in Slubice, there still seemed a fair number of shops (inc hairdressers) in Frankfurt: esp compared to some British town centres in recent months.

So in all it seemed liked it'd be OK to me, even though I'm more of a city than town person. Though I do like seeing nice countryside too, and there's lots of trees between Berlin & Frankfurt (Oder) on the (double-decker) train. The train station was bigger than I thought too: I though it'd only have two platforms but it has several, some shops, a Burger King and luggage lockers (which few places in Britain outside London have).

I've been to Frankfurt/Oder several times for various reasons. It looks like a pretty nice town. There is an excellent Thai and VietNamese restaurant on the street that runs parallel to the river. The steakhouse on the other side of the street is good too. That street also has a number of shops and a shopping center.

That's not too much information, but it all helps.