germany: dresden

I'd visited Dresden before, but it was just a day trip with rainy weather. When Bo suggested we meet up in the city, I said hey, why not. I can always justify a weekend trip somewhere. Always.

I took a taxi from school to the airport, flying Lufthansa. Both of my flights went smoothly, I arrived on time. Thankfully, the public transport in Dresden is a metro train, which comes regularly. I rode the train to the central train station, and went to find Bo, who said we could meet up at a giant Christmas tree.

He tapped me on the shoulder as I was going down a flight of stairs, he'd met my s-bahn from the airport but I'd completely missed him. He showed me to the Christmas tree, it was indeed very big. In another area of the train station was a GIANT stack of (presumably fake) ritter sport chocolate bars. If only they were real! Greatest marketing item ever.

We walked out of the station, I followed him. Bo had arrived in the city earlier in the day by train, so he'd already figured out how to get to the hotel, which I really appreciated. I'm not a huge fan of arriving anywhere after dark, but I don't always have a choice. On the way to the hotel we stopped at a small shack for a snack of curry wurst. Now that I like the stuff, I can't get enough of it!! With spicy sauce and mustard, I'm a happy camper. The bread roll that came with the wurst was the best bread roll I've ever had.

Our hotel was in a quiet neighborhood, which was nice. Some people want a hotel in the middle of nightlife, or at least close to it, but that's pretty much the last thing I want. We used wifi to take a look at what to see in the city over the next couple days, Bo already had a paper city map on which we could mark what we wanted to see.

The next morning I woke up earlier than Bo, because I always do. We got ready to go, and started walking toward the tram stop. On the way we stopped at the bakery on the corner of the same block where our hotel was located. We also stopped into another bakery close to the tram stop. Dresden has great bakeries, yum.

Close to the tram stop was an evangelical lutheran church. Like most churches, it caught my eye. I took photos of the outside, but the doors weren't open for me to go inside. Darnit.

We took the tram back to the hauptbahnhof, where we'd met up the night before. We walked through the station and out the other side. I remembered this walk from the last time I visited Dresden, I knew where to go. Even if I hadn't known where to go, it would've been easy to follow other tourists to the pedestrian zone.

Walking along the zone we looked into a couple more bakeries, somehow I didn't buy anything even though everything looked good. I stepped into a store with watches, hoping to find a Timex Ironman, but the store didn't have what I wanted.

We arrived at the Frauenkirchen, an iconic church in the old area of Dresden. This church is featured on many postcards of the city. Unfortunately, when we arrived, we discovered it was closed in order to prepare for a concert taking place that evening. Argh.

Since the Frauenkirchen is well known, and in the middle of a large platz, there are heaps of people around, including random performers. I liked the guy making huge bubbles while wearing a blue tuxedo. There was also a man playing a grand piano in front of the statue of Martin Luther, it was nice to listen for a few minutes.

We would our way through streets to a particular street which is known because of what is on the wall. It's called the parade of kings. On the wall is a long mural, depicting each king of the Saxon Kingdom. It's another iconic place in the city, I think it's more unique than anything else in the city. I still haven't figured out how to take a photo of the mural that shows the whole thing, and shows it well.

Our next sight was the Dresden Cathedral. Visitors enter through a non-descript door on one side of the church, then go up a short flight of stairs to get into the church itself.

It's a big church, but not super fancy. I like the ceiling, and the organ at the back of the church. Some of the interior of the church is being redone, so it was covered up in plastic. There is no entry fee, yippee!

We walked a bit more, past the opera house. I looked at one of the signs on the front of the opera house, to check out prices and times for tours, but nothing worked out for us. Another time I'd love to see a show, or take a tour. I love classic old school European opera houses, and all the etiquette that goes with them.

We arrived at the entry area of the Residenzschloss. We walked through the arches, into the gardens in the interior courtyard. It's a stunning area, everyone who walks in whips out their camera and starts taking photos. It's not super fancy, but everything is divided into sections. Since we were there in mid November, there wasn't anything special to see, but I was still happy to be there. We took a few timed pictures on one set of stairs, it's amazing how often people walk through photos being taken. I was laughing and frustrated at the same time.

I also like the upper balconies/railings of this area. Along the railings of the balconies are statues, and you can see the stone decor of the buildings as well. One of the 'gates' into the area has a giant crown on top, it's definitely worth a photo. Given the crappy weather, it was nice to see the gold in the crown. Another area of the gardens has a fountain, surrounded by statues and whatnot. After waiting (not so) patiently for other people to get out of my way, I was able to take a panoramic photo of the whole thing. We also took photos of each other in the dry fountain, hee hee.

We exited to the schloss area, and walked across a bridge to the other side of the river. We saw a cafe that seemed welcome in the grey skied weather, and went in. I was happy to have ice cream, despite the cold. It had hot raspberry sauce, which equals out the cold, right?

After eating, we walked through an aisle of trees, straight up the street. The trees are nice, and still had colour from the fall season. Unfortunately, it was too dark to take photos to show the colour. We walked all the way to the end of the street, as we both still felt the need to move. By the time we got to the end of the street we found a circular intersection and went all the way around.

Then we walked all the way back to the old city area. I took a couple night photos on the bridge as we walked. I wanted to take a photo of a display set up by one vendor, but he didn't want me to do so, darnit.

In the hauptbahnhof we grabbed a quick dinner at a branch of the place we'd first found in Berlin, an Asian fast food place. Tofu and veggies make me happy :) Also in the hauptbahnhof was a cheap grocery store, where I found ritter sport chocolate bars on sale. I'm sure plenty of people would say that buying six of them was too many, but I'm not one of those people. That same grocery store also had the glass jars of Landliebe yogurt I love so much. Definitely more than one serving, but I don't get them very often. In addition to the chocolate, we picked up breakfast food for the next morning.

When we got up the next morning the food and drinks were still cold because Bo had put them on the sill outside the window the night before. Yay for a yogurt I love for breakfast. We cleaned up, packed up, and checked out, each of us carrying our backpack with us. This day was better, because the weather was much better. Mostly blue skies with some clouds make every photo better. I took another photo of the Lutheran Church from the day before, just because it looked better with a mostly blue sky.

We took the tram back to the hauptbahnhof, and found the small area where we could rent a locker to store our backpacks. We found one big enough for both our packs, yay! In the hauptbahnhof I found a small shack and bought hot chocolate, just because it sounded good.

We went back to the giant stack of fake ritter sport bars, and took photos. Definitely one of my favourite travel photos of all time, hee hee. If only all that chocolate was real.....

We walked past the Frauenkirche, back to the parade of kings. While walking along that street, I bought postcads and a magnet, getting that 'chore' out of the way.

We went back to the gardens in the schloss, and took more photos since everything looked better. I was happy to get a photo with the crown behind us, and blue skies.

We followed the same route we'd followed the day before, crossing the bridge. Across the street from our ice cream cafe the day before we found a bakery full of yummy stuff. I ended up buying something with cherries, and another pastry too. Yum. I wasn't hungry, but couldn't help myselfhe Sometimes I think it's a good thing I don't live in a place with yummy bakeries everywhere.

We continued to follow the same path as the day before, all the way to the same intersection at the very end. This time, instead of turning around, we kept walking. We walked past a very drunk man, all the way to Louisenstrasse.

This started our time in a 'hippy' neighborhood. Many of the buildings had graffitti on the lower levels, and the shops were of a more vintage sort. Heaps of cafes too. We even saw people painting an archway, which was fun to watch for a few minutes.

We turned up Koenigstrasse, which brought us to another archway. When we passed through the archway we'd entered an area known as the Kunsthof Passage. The apartment buildings in this area are decorated in a way I've never seen. It's not the type of decor you get from mosaics, or painting, or fancy brickwork. It's what you get when other pieces are 'glued on' to the exterior. One of the buildings was yellow, and the decor was a series of large yellow tiles. Another building was blue, with pipes and flower pots and such. We weren't the only ones taking a look at everything, it's definitely a fun area. There are a few cafes, but we didn't really have time to sit and relax.

To get back to the old city area we followed another street, totally non touristy. I took a photo of a woman at a bus stop just because it seemed so normal. When we got close to the old town area we walked along the water for a bit, which was quite pretty and relaxing. Even though it wasn't stunning, it was one of those moments when you think 'hey, I have a pretty good life.'

We wound our way through the old town streets back to the Frauenkirche. I'd seen the inside before, but Bo hadn't. It's iconic for a reason. There are volunteers there who help keep all the visitors quiet, which takes some effort. There are a lot of people in there, and many visitors forget that a church is supposed to be a place of reflection and prayer, not yelling and gossiping. This church was hit during the war, but a lot of it has been redone, and it looks amazing. Most visitors only go to the ground floor, though you can pay 8 euros (!!!) to go up the bell tower. I think that allows you to go to the balconies as well, though I'm not sure. Everyone exits through a different door than they entered.

We started moving a little faster, heading back toward the hauptbahnhof again. I was very aware of the time, and knew I couldn't afford to miss my train back to the airport. When we got to the hauptbahnhof I ordered food for both of us, while Bo went to get our luggage from storage. We met up again in the middle of the train station.

We said our goodbyes, and I boarded the train. Around 20 minutes later I was at the airport, printing out my boarding pass. The airport offers 30 minutes of free wifi, I wish it was a little longer. My flights back to Kyiv were easy and smooth.

I hope to come back to Dresden another time, and get to know the rest of the city better, and maybe even do a day trip in the area.