"The Pearl of the North - Hansestadt... " a Rostock Travel Page by Mariajoy

An invitation to celebrate Silvester in Rostock was too good to pass up. My friend is a local Rostocker and was returning home for New Years Eve and asked me to accompany her. I had, for a long time, wanted to visit this old Hanseatic city on the Baltic with its rich and interesting history of shipping and trading going all the way back to the 12th century when it was originally a Slavic castle settlement. In fact the name Rostock comes from the Slavic word "Roztoc" meaning "flowing out of" - a reference to the River Unterwarnow.

Rostock is a city of 250,000 inhabitants - ship building and ferry services and tourism being its main industries. There are still signs in evidence of the old DDR regime but not much. Most of the old grey buildings are being modernised and renovated and repainted, giving an appearance of prosperity and vibrancy. Unfortunately, this isn't an entirely true picture, as most of the young professionals are leaving for employment in the west but Rostock has survived worse and will endure even this phase in it's history.

Here's a brief history of Rostock.