Thirty-six hours in Leipzig didn’t leave me with any deep insights about the city, but I did notice a few things.
Most important, after being corrected a few times, know to pronounce it lipe-zig, not leep-zig.
It seems to be a city that skews young. Or at least, the areas in which I spent ay time, Centrum and Lindenau, a bit south and west of Centrum, about a 10 minute tram ride away. Centrum is the downtown, the older part of the city. The University of Leipzig is there, so there were plenty of students around, even in mid June. Enrollment is around 28,000 and in a city of 530,000 that many students will stand out. Also, per this October 2012 piece in Der Spiegel, Leipzig has become a magnet for young artists thanks to a low cost of living.
The Lindenau neighborhood, where Noch Besser Leben is located, looks to be on the verge of gentrification. Next to freshly painted and (I’d assume) rehabbed buildings are unpainted, graffiti marked walls. Noch Besser Leben is in one of the (for now, I assume) unpainted buildings. Though there was a guy working on the hallway, fixing the plaster moulding, painting…so maybe the building will look very different if we were to come back in a couple of years. A few doors down from Noch Besser is a fancy juice bar and health food store. There are art spaces all around, hipsters on bikes (not too many fixes though), parents pushing prams. For Philadelphians, think Northern Liberties before the demand really hit. Or Fishtown once Northern Liberties over-developed, but before Fishtown would change. For New Yorkers think Williamsburg or Jersey City when those areas were in transition. Then mix in an unconstrained graffiti culture and the lingering remains of post-Eastern Bloc decay.
Ur-Krostitzer is the local beer, and pretty good.
I now wish we had a bit more time to hang in Leipzig. But off to Berlin we had to go…
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