Frankfurt

post offices

The postal service in Germany is Deutsche Post (http://www.post.de).

The four easiest-to-reach full-service postal offices are easy to locate:-

Inside Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof central station by the long-distance ICE/IRE trains; near McDonalds.

In the Karstadt department store ground floor on the Zeil shopping street.

On Goetheplatz

At the Südbahnhof Southern Station take exit Diesterwegplatz and cross the square; the post office is to the left.

phone

Besides public pay phones and mobile phone services, a large number of stores sell prepaid telephone cards. This is especially useful for international calls. The PTT multi-media store - 65 Baseler Strasse, offers competitive rates for international calls 10 cents per min to the UK Some other stores also offer in house phone services. Another easy to reach store that seems reliable is in the Hauptwache subway station.You may also visit one of the plenty internet cafés, since they almost all offer cheap phone calls via internet.

drugs and beggars

The central station area Hauptbahnhof is known for being a center for homeless and perhaps drug users. It has improved much in recent years, but you will still occasionally be bothered by beggars. The drug addicts generally don't bother people, and the beggars will ask for Kleingeld small change, which by their definition is anything between €0.20-2. One way to fend off beggars is just to say you do not speak German and this might just be true for you anyway!. They will often switch to English then, so just pretend you can not speak that either just shake your head, or say "No English" and they will get frustrated and leave you alone. If you think you are up to it, you may find it useful to know one or two sentences in the Frankfurter dialect to mimic locals, as tourists are often regarded as more profitable targets for beggars. Some of these phrases would be hoer uff stop it, lass misch in ruh leave me alone or mach disch ab! go away!. A polite Nein, danke no thanks will usually not do.