Many roads lead to Costa. If you are looking for large rations at a bargain, here you will find delicacies such as Parmesan or pickled peppers at high quality for a low price. "They have to be working with loaded dice! Cheating!" claims the dutiful citizen of Oberhausen. But neither the Italian mafia nor products of low quality are involved. The two Albanian salesmen are merely talented in importing high quality products from Tuscany to the garage on Duisburger Straße where they sell their Italian deli food.

Each night, as the clock at the central station strikes four a.m. and the early dawn starts to rise, the night crawlers of Oberhausen know there is a place where they are still welcome and always at home: The 24/7 shop right next to the Little Baba snack bar. We would like to pause for a moment to say "thank you" on behalf of all party people. As the station's toilet closes at 11 p.m. already and the local McDonald's does not even offer a toilet, an additional place of relief is much needed. For only one euro, Little Baba at the central station opens its gate to the toilet and afterwards pampers us with tasty Turkish pastries. To save us fun-loving people from dehydration, the „Trinkhalle“ takes us in its big, strong arms and nourishes us with thirst quenching drinks and a last one for the road. Don´t worry if your stomach screams for food late at night. Both the 24/7 and the snack bar offer a wide culinary range from Kebab to fresh fruit. The kiosk also boasts a precise selection of essentials for spontaneous endeavors such as toothbrushes, milk and red envelopes. Thanks to the staff of both shops, who never sleep. Thank you for keeping the doors always open, when every other shop at the central station has already closed. Thank you for everything and see you next weekend!

A true festival of ball sports hides behind the blue and white turnstile on Emscher island: Balls of any kind of sports are whizzing through the air, upright or in curved arches. Those who do not duck or evade in time may suddenly find themselves included in a game of dodgeball. After having exhausted yourself at ping-pong, beach volleyball or a walk to the ice cream spot, you may regain your strength at one of the public barbecue areas with home-made potato salad and butcher’s goods. If you leave the facility via the back exit, you are led directly to the bank of the Rhine-Herne-Canal, where you can relax – with regard for your safety – to unwind your feet and your soul. The artistic bridge construction "Slinky Springs to Fame" by Tobias Rehberger floats directly above the canal. Since 2011, it is the junction between the park Kaisergarten and the SSB sports complex. In the evening, this piece of art glows in all colors. Many couples who have entered the bridge left their love locks at the railing. You may ask: which will last longer? The bridge or their love? The first round in 2016 has decided: Love has won.

Immediately before crossing the border to Bottrop you will find a calm oasis in the midst of bucolic nature. Directly across the street from brine bath Vonderort lies the eponymous green space. The city forest Revierpark Vonderort offers quiet walking paths, where every now and then joggers fall gasping on one of the numerous benches along the way for a short rest. Full of daisies and withered blades of grass, the large lawn at the center of the park is perfectly suited for picnics and lonely reading sessions. A small lake surrounds the grass area, where you may take a tour by either pedal or rowboat, watching turtles in the wild or feeding the ducks in a dreamy bliss. But take care, dear respected animal lovers! The ducks of Oberhausen have a bad reputation for being fraudulent and quite moody, so they might at times not distinguish forefingers and bread crumbs from each other.

Berlin is well known for its street art treasures, ranging from oversized mandalas on building walls to traffic lights which have been wrapped up in woolen blankets as if to protect them from chilblains thanks to the trending Urban Knitting. Anything the citizens of Berlin can do, the citizens of Oberhausen can do even better. Therefore, if you are into urban art you should not miss a visit to the "Wall of Fame" at „Druckluft“. Throughout its 30-year history, the socio-cultural centre has invited amateur artists to take out their spray cans and paintbrushes and let off steam on the 15-meter-long wall at the hall forecourt.
Any surface in sight that is not properly secured has been sprayed on as well: the old BMW bus in the courtyard, an old electrical box and the paper bin all are covered in psychedelic patterns and philosophical slogans such as "ACAB" or Aristotle. And who knows, among the many layers of color may actually hide an early piece of a nowadays iconic street art genius, awaiting its excavation.

If you have been at the main station regularly in the past, you have probably come across a lifesized plastic mannequin in a purple dress, with a blond wig and a nice headdress. Rumour has it that many have already begun to include her in their morning ritual with a fleeting salutation, while others in good intent throw money at her occasionally.
However, a price tag hanging around her plastic neck quickly explains the misunderstanding: Already at the entrance door to the „doll house,“ one finds all kinds of clutter, but also precious rarities from the last century. This passionately decorated shop was once located right outside the central station and has now moved to the Langemarkstraße just around the corner from Saporoshje-Platz in the city of Oberhausen. But it did not loose any of its charm.
Take a few steps down the narrow corridor with all the crowded shelves and you will find yourself right in Gabi's small dollhouse museum.
In the showcases of the private permanent exhibition, everything imaginable from the years 1890 to 1970 is displayed in miniature format: From Mongolian aristocrats to grandmother's living room and a Weimar-style toy store, to the wooden schoolroom with little bears instead of children. If your heart doesn’t melt here, you should take a child and their grandmother on the next visit.

The Polish cultural café on the Altmarkt appears to be a normal restaurant where you can spend a cosy time with family and friends to meet up for dinner or a late Sunday brunch. However, the good old Gdanska offers much more than grilled Krakauer sausages and potato fritters. Whether hosting pub-theater with ladies in quirky costumes, readings or Polish film screenings, this café is a true all-rounder. If you would rather listen to live music, there are regular jazz and acoustic sessions. Local and international artists regularly enter the stage. At the annual Air Guitar Festival, music lovers gather in front of an open air stage with live music, where they imitate Jimi Hendrix and the like, literally picking apart the air. Every two years, when the world or european soccer championship takes place, the court in front of the café turns into a public screening. All games of the Polish and German teams are shown on a big screen. Several times, fans of opposing teams have hugged at the end of the game with rosy cheeks and Żywiecnase beer.

Sipping the morning potion made of Arabica beans, sleepy dreamers tend to think of green coffee plantations, as seen on many TV commercials, where happy-looking workers harvest coffee beans in the heat of the African sun. Others, unfortunately, simply do not care about the origin of the coffee and cocoa beans in their chocolate macchiato. The employees of the fair trade shop on Elsässer Strasse have long since realized that a worldwide community of solidarity can function only if emerging countries are no longer being exploited. On a sales area of 20 m² there is a wide variety of products ranging from coffee and tea, chocolate, or wine to spices, olive oil and much more. With a sincere smile on their face, employees will also encourage an informative conversation. The shop was founded in 2014 by the initiative for a solidary world Oberhausen in order to work locally for the distribution of fair trade food and other goods. Sick of tasteless coffee from the discounter? The fair trade shop in Oberhausen will be delighted to help out: Tue., Thu. and Fri. 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Sat. 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Question: How many lunatics do you need to transform Oberhausen's cityscape? Answer: Two. Ten years ago, architect Agnieszka Wnuczak and artist Christoph Stark took on the long journey from Berlin to the „Ruhrpott“ willing to refresh the city's image, without wanting to change its idiosyncratic character. How this vision may be turned into reality is explained by the founders of Kitev as follows: 1. the beautification of the central station: the embellishment of the historical railway platform, the colorful illumination of the clocks at the top of the station tower, and the reconstruction of three floors inside the station tower are just some of their references 2. the realization of socio-artistic projects in the old district of Oberhausen 3. sustainable cooperation with international organizations, thus invoking cultural exchange across the city. And if that isn't enough, they are also committed to the reuse of the huge amount of vacancies in the city center. All of this, of course, wouldn't be possible without the cooperation and collaboration with local companies, associations, artists, refugees and many other city creators. So at the end, the counter question: How many citizens of Oberhausen are needed to change the urban landscape in the long run? Answer: All of them.

It was the year 2005, when Oberhausen's city council gathered at a table to put their heads together and brood over a plan. What to do with platform 4 and 5 at the central station, which had been shut down? Tear them down or rebuild them? Or hand it over to nature and cultural vandalism? "There has to be something better than this" murmured the city councillor. And so they came up with the idea to design the platform in an artistic manner as an industrial monument in public space. Berlin-based Ateliers Stark accepted the bid, placed two wooden sculptures, each three meters high, on impressively huges ladles and suspended a mold weighing several tons in a hovering state by using glass. At night, the two wagons of the torpedo and slag ladle are illuminated by a glistening color roulette. The panes below the flat roof have been decorated with a quote by Erik Reger from 1931: "Greedy, his eyes clung to the calm of the floating embers, gently driven by the casting locomotives ...". The city administration has succeeded in creating a link between the industrial past and the present, which the main artistic protagonists are proud of. The only question which remains: where did the wooden sculptures disappear to and when will they be looking after the trains again, dear city councillor?