Neighborhood Tour - Hafengasse

Today I'm going to take you on a little tour around the neighborhood.  Each week I'll give you a little taste of what the neighborhood around my place looks like so you can get an idea of where I'm living.  Let's get started.

This is Prinz Karl.  It's both a dorm and a cafeteria - well really Mensa, there are Cafeteria's elsewhere, but Mensa is like Cafeteria in the English language sense of Dining Hall, so we'll leave it at that. The dorm is pretty nice.  The rooms are relatively spacious, the kitchen has working appliances - and you only need to share a kitchen with a maximum of 6 other people.  Each floor has 2 showers and a 1/2 bath.  The entire dorm shares a washing machine and dryer, but we don't have to pay for it.  And honestly, having talked to my friends who live in WHO/Fichtenweg, 1 for 20 people is really good.

If you exit our building, directly across from us is a toy store.  The hopes and dreams of many a young child are shattered in front of this store.  On a regular basis I hear children screaming that they want something from the store only to be told that they can't have it, or that the store is closed because it's a Sunday.  mwahahahahahaha

To the left of the toy store, there is a post office.  Very practical.  They even have a store in there with all sorts of supplies.  I think it's probably a little over priced for that kind of stuff, but it's the only place you can mail a letter.  Across from the post office is an Apotheke.  If you need homeopathic German medicine, this is the place to go.  If you want actual medicine, you have to go here too, but you need to know what to ask for.

So that's right around the dorm, but let's continue at least to the far corner of this block.  I'll skip over the other international knick knack store next to the toy store and the a lovely, albeit super expensive, clothing store directly next to the dorm. But next to that expensive clothing store is Hanseatica.  They are a coffee shop that has been in that location for a long time.  They just finished some renovations.  It's a Stehcafe, which means there are no chairs and you stand to drink your coffee, but it's cute and when you register with the Bürgeramt you get a coupon for there.

Finally, at the end of the block is Collegium.  It's a nice little cafe/bar that usually has places to sit and hang out.  I would highly recommend it.  It can get a little crowded in the evenings, but the few times I've been there for drinks we've always been able to get a table to sit at, or a spot to stand at the bar.  They have tasty cappuccino.