Mathias Löbl

Before embarking on my trip abroad, I thought to myself: “East Germany, who wants to go there?” I chose the city of Leipzig solely because I found an interesting internship position there with Aerologic, a cargo airline stationed at Leipzig/Halle airport. I had no particular interest in the city itself and did not have high expectations of living there.

However I quickly found out just how wrong I was: after just a few days, I had made some new friends with whom I explored Leipzig by day and night. One thing I hadn’t realised until then was that Leipzig is a young city with lots of students and international students and so there is always something happening. And the cliché of East Germany proved true too – prices were significantly lower than at home in Austria and you can live a comfortable life even on a low internship salary.

I was lucky to spend the summer months there. Leipzig is home to some huge parks which are idea for sport, BBQs, enjoying a beer or simply lying in the sun and relaxing. So you quickly find that you don’t have enough spare time, what with working and completing your Bachelor’s thesis.

The best thing about my trip abroad for me was meeting my current girlfriend there – but even aside from that, it was a very interesting stay and I would definitely do it again!