Dresden, Bastei, Berlin

This past weekend marked my halfway point through my study abroad journey. Can time slow down now?

Dresden:
6:30am we departed Heidelberg in a very uncomfortable bus filled with grumpy exchange students. We arrived in Dresden in the early afternoon and were able to explore the old town. Dresden was demolished after a series of bombings in 1945, and has since been restored and renovated to its former glory. Dresden was my first interaction with East Germany- and I loved it! It had a beautiful old center, with an opera house (thinking of you A!), many churches, bridges, parks, and museums. During our free time we walked around the town fair- which had a lot of food, shopping, and general German cheeriness.

Frauen Church and Martin Luther

May pole!

L and I rode the Ferris wheel at the fair we stumbled upon :)

We returned to our hostel for a chaotic filling in of rooms. The hostel, Mezcalero, was by far the best I have stayed at! It had a wonderful location on the other side of the bridge from the old town near a lot of nightlife. Not only was the location good, but I ended up in a room with a full living area, kitchen, and my own room with a double bed! WOW! Oh- and did I mention the breakfast (that was included) included crepes? Yeah... definitely the best hostel ever. I was separated from G, K, and J and ended up rooming with some really nice erasmus students! They all only speak German to each other, so it was a really nice opportunity to practice my speaking, and to practice listening to others! They included me in their dinner plans, and we all went out to an Italienisch restaurant after having a glass of wine in the common room together. We planned to all go out together afterwards, but found Dresden night life to be a little bit strange. Instead of seeing bars and clubs, we just saw lots and lots of people drinking together on the streets of Dresden. Apparently no one goes to bars or clubs there... they just hang out on the streets. Knowing we all had to get up early the next day, we got one beer at a bar downtown and then turned in early.
The next day we went to the Alte Meister museum which had a great collection of art. Art museums aren't my personal favorite- but this one was small and not too overwhelming. It also had an attached porcelain museum since porcelain was invented in Dresden! The porcelain was beautiful, white and blue in all diferent shapes and functions. I was hanging out with two girls from Bulgaria, and they asked if I wanted to skip out of the museum a little early to explore the bridges. I am glad I did- seeing Dresden from the other side of the water was breathtaking!

Overlooking the art museum's gardens

Opera!

The bridge!

After Dresden we set off for a completely different scene. We went to Sachsische Schweiz and Bastei. I am not sure that anyone on the trip was expecting what we were about to experience. This place was high elevation forest with hoodoos and a beautiful bridge overlooking the Elbe river. Not only was this place breathtaking, but we also were able to experience a thunderstorm while exploring these rocky hikes. I luckily had my umbrella, but most were soaked but the large raindrops. The storm moved through quickly, and left a beautiful scene of mist that we looked down upon in the valley below us. The day we were there was a national holiday. Apparently, on national holidays Germans use their time off to drink, sing, and hike in the forests- what a magical tradition!

First lookoout

Just dancing on the trail

Bastei

Raindrops kept falling on my head

The Elbe

Climbing things!

Our drunken German friend... this picture took about 15 minutes to take because of all the laughter!

What a beauty! The bridge aint bad either!

The cool kids sit in the back of the bus

And we were off to Berlin!

Berlin: First stop was the wall and East side gallery. I was surprised at how moving seeing all the art was- and standing on the line that divided a city for so long. The art was so international and deep- I was really impressed by the entire experience! For dinner we all ventured onto Oreoburger street (Oranienburger strasse as the Germans say ;) for some wonderful Indian food. I got aloo gobhi, papadams, naan, and a long island iced tea. Fabulous! I also saw my first strippers on the streets- weird.

We both got our passports stamped!

This was not the only TV character they saw in Berlin

INDIAN FOOD

The next day we went on a tour of the old city for the entire morning. Berlin is huge! Even driving from our hostel to the Berlin Dome took about an hour- nuts! The old part of the city is beautiful, even though most told me not to expect much from Berlin's architecture I still found it mystifying. I actually am surprised I am not yet sick of the Baroque European architecture- maybe it is one of those things that will never get old! We saw Humbolt University, the memorial for the burned books, the Holocaust memorials, the Berlin Dome, the construction site (more like demolition site) of the castle, and Museum island. After lunch in the touristy souvenir shop district we took a boat tour from Friedrichsbridge to the Hauptbahnhof and back. It was nice to see Berlin from the waterways- since the city is filled with bridges and water crossings. After the boat tour we went to the Brandenburg Gate, the Holocaust museum, and the German Reichstag dome and Bundestag. These three things were probably my favorite individual activities- all so different from the other and rich in history. The Brandenburg Gate is the symbol of Berlin. The Holocaust memorial was a large area devoted to black stone slabs of different height laid out in a grid of uneven ground. Seeing the German government building, and reading about the history of its survival through the division of Berlin, was a once in a lifetime experience.

Holocaust Memorial

Berlin dome!

MARX HIMSELF

From the boat ride

The boat!

Crosses for those who were killed on the wall

Holocaust memorial

Brandenburg!

Reichstag

Pondering while in the dome above the Reichstag

STAR WARS

That evening we went to a local Italian place, but oddly ordered omlettes! It was cheap comfort food at its finest! One of the girls in our group was Turkish, and so was our waiter. At the end of our meal he gave us all a 'present' of a shot of licorice flavored alcohol with coffee beans. Most were unable to contain their disgust- but it was an adorable gesture nonetheless :) We then attempted to go to possibly the coolest club on the face of the planet, but were rejected at the door for having too much and too baggy of clothing on... oh well!
The next day we went  inside the Berliner Dome and onto Museum Island and got to see the Pergamon museum, which houses Mediterranean and Middle Eastern historical artifacts. The museum was layed out such that the artifacts were not in glass cases, but were assembled on the walls- making you feel like you were really in the time period! After that we stumbled upon an open air market- and had a very unfortunate and unsanitary lunch of burgers with a side of hatred from those serving us. We finally had free time in the city of Berlin- which I used to explore on foot what I had been driving through for the past few days. The coolest thing I saw on this solo adventure? Fresh made candy- it was a show with free samples!
On Sunday we visited the Checkpoint Charlie museum, where the American sector of West Berlin met the East Berlin sector, and the continued home. The bus ride was twelve hours long with all the stops and traffic- making us all very grumpy and exhausted upon returning to Heidelberg at 1am (a full circle form our 6:30am departure!

Pergamon fun!

Candy that was about to become leaf shaped!