Frankfurt, March 2014

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I went to Frankfurt for the Luminale, booked after I read about it on a design blog as I love light and electronics and digital art.

Frankfurt isn’t the liveliest of cities, but I was really happy to have a break so used the time to go for a long walk along the river (clean air!)

I stayed at the Adina Apartment Hotel, which was fine although they charged for internet which was annoying. But you buy a pass, and you can stop start it, so it wasn’t too bad. I ate where foursquare recommended, although most of them weren’t much to write home about. This place was the best. And I went up the Main Tower, which gave some good views of the city.

It took me a while to figure out what was going with the Luminale. I had to go to the centre to find the booklet with all the information about the pieces. This is where I found the bus, but I didn’t quite figure out that it was running on a loop, so having walked to meet it, discovered there was nothing there (apart from the booklet), I just rode it back to where I had started, realised that I couldn’t see most things because it was still light, stopped for dinner, got super lost… and then found my way to the heart of it, and started having a better time! A nice couple guided me to a park, which hosted lots of different pieces, so that was really nice. I love the idea of them being set all over the city! But they can be hard to find.

There were some awesome pieces, but really spread out over the city so I got lost a lot, and didn’t get to see some bits that I would have liked to see. I think with another person and more time it would be super fun, you could walk around bits all evening. But by myself with only one evening to see as much as I could it was a little creepy and frantic, rushing around alone in the dark, in a quiet city. Mostly cab drivers and people who live there didn’t even seem to know what was happening! I did meet a really sweet guy who insisted on walking me to where I was headed, it was so kind of him, but late at night alone? I felt uncomfortable and slightly afraid.

All in all, I’d go to the Luminale again. But with someone, and with more time. Because it’s not set over a weekend I had to book vacation days, so I thought one evening would be OK. It really wasn’t.