Dresden
Hallo from Dresden, Germany! Our second city in Germany was Dresden, a smaller city on the Eastern side of the country. We left Cologne bright and early on June 9th and commenced our long train journey that luckily only took six hours (this is one of our shorter trains even if it doesn’t sound short). Chase and I arrived in Dresden to a hot sun that left me sweating under my two bags in seconds. I put the address to our hostel in maps and after walking for a good ten minutes, realized I put in an old address because we were at a place that definitely was not our hostel. It took us then another good ten minutes to get to the hostel and by that time I was annoyed, hot, and aching from my bags.
Our hostel was pretty cute. The bottom floor contained the kitchen/common room and there was a bar the double as a café during the day. There were couches pulled out on the sidewalk so there was a very cozy vibe going on. The real downside was that the hostel unfortunately had no elevator (again, idk how this kept happening) so I had to walk up the spiral stairs to my room on the second floor (admittedly better than being on the fourth).
I somehow ended up being the only girl in the dorm (AGAIN) but I got one of the twin beds which was nice because I didn’t have to worry about being close to the really loud and awkward door or have anyone above or below me. I laid down for a little while before I got hungry and decided to head out in search of groceries. Since there was a nice kitchen downstairs, I had the opportunity to save money and cook more of my meals unlike in Cologne.
It seemed that the main thing to do around 4pm was for parents to take their kids to get ice cream. Every ice cream place had a long line and from the heat I could see why. It was nice getting to walk around the city, our hostel was located a little outside of the city center and was in a more residential district. There were plenty of restaurants and little shops, but it was clear that it was the part of the city where a lot of families lived.
I made dinner at the hostel that night and hung out in the bar enjoying the house wine. The next morning, I slept in because it was my birthday (yay for being 23). I made plans to go into the city center and see the Church of Our Lady. It’s free entry to go inside the sanctuary and admire the bright, white stone and gold accents that decorate almost every available surface. The church also has a lookout atop the dome, and I paid to walk up so that I could get a gorgeous view of the city. It was definitely more stairs than I bargained for, but the view was worth it; 360 views of the city and you’re given a pamphlet that has information about all the buildings you can see.
After the church I walked to Bruhl’s Terrace, which is exactly what it sounds like, a terrace on the waterfront with shops and restaurants. It’s funny because we happened to visit the city when the annual pride fest was going on. On the street below the terrace there were food venders, local businesses giving showing their support, and tons of people dressed up and enjoying the city. For lunch I tried a local cuisine, currywurst. It’s bratwurst in a curry sauce with fries, something that is pretty popular in Germany. It doesn’t sound like it should be good, but it was actually pretty good.
I met up with Chase and we sat down at one of the multitude of restaurants and got birthday cocktails. Unsurprisingly, the service was incredibly slow, even by Europe standards, but the cocktails were good and that’s what mattered. Chase and I split ways after that, I walked around the city center a little more, just taking in the architecture before heading back to the hostel.
For dinner, we went to a takeaway pizza place that had great pizza for only five euros. I originally thought about trying to find a nice place for my birthday dinner, but then changed my mind. I really just wanted some good pizza and a soda. The place was pretty popular, and it was no wonder why, the pizza was great and the perfect little dinner. We got ice cream afterwards because I spotted a place that had what I thought was cotton candy ice cream (one of my all-time favorites, guess I’m still a little kid at heart). Don’t think it was actually cotton candy, but it was blue and pink, and I can’t read German.
Even though Chase and I talked about going out drinking for my birthday, the night life around our hostel wasn’t super exciting. I decided instead to go to bed a little early and call my parents, which I think was a much better decision than going out.
The next day I had plans to once again go farther into the city. I took the tram first to the Semperoper which is the beautiful theater building close to the river. The round building has a gorgeous façade with a half-dome mosaic at the top. I didn’t go inside because I didn’t want to pay, but it was nice to at least see the outside. Right next to the theater was Zwinger Palace, which is free to enter (surprisingly). A lot of the major courtyard is under construction so one of the big, picturesque spots was closed but the top balcony that wraps around the building was open. There were multiple different exhibits and exhibitions that you could pay to see, but I stuck with wandering around the building’s exterior, enjoying the fountains and greenery, as well as the nice city view and the impressive architecture of the palace itself.
When I had my fill of old buildings, I took the tram a good twenty minutes southwest to Grosser Garten, which is a massive public park that borders the local zoo. I walked quite a ways in to find the perfect spot underneath a tree on the lawn to settle down with my book and a bottle of wine. It was a great way to spend the afternoon, relaxing in the shade and getting to watch families enjoy an afternoon walking through the park and having a picnic nearby. The grounds were too big for me to see the full expansive of the park (plus I finished that bottle of wine) so when I got tired of laying around and walking, I headed back to the hostel to pack and eat the last of my food.
Chase and I had a train to Prague the next morning around 9:20am, so we headed off to the train station with plenty of time to spare. We didn’t buy seat reservations for this train because we weren’t able to since the reservations were only available as a paper ticket that would be sent to a home address, meaning it was too late to order one. So far, the other trains we had taken hadn’t been that bad, so we figured we’d start in one of the end carriages and make our way down the train looking for an open seat.
Well, this train must have been pretty popular because it was packed. We boarded the train and instantly got stuck in the clog of people trying to move in both directions down an aisle only meant to hold one person at a time. The big hold-up was an argument between two people about someone sitting in a reserved seat. The person sitting in the seat was making a fuss about having to move for the person who had the seat reservation. A conductor had to come and try and break up the issue. Chase and I didn’t miss him calling the people idiots as he walked past.
We were probably stuck standing in the aisle for a good 15 minutes and once we finally pushed through the madness, there really wasn’t any relief in sight. There were no open seats for the people that didn’t have reservations. The trains oversell tickets and even though it says you get a seat with your ticket; a seat is not guaranteed unless you purchase a seat reservation. So, after making our way towards to end of carriage and conversing with people who got prime floor room who confirmed that all the other carriages are just as bad, Chase and I found a spot in the hallway to sit down on the floor. There was just enough room for us to sit down with our bags on one side of the hallway, and for people to pass on the other side. This was not an ideal situation, but the train was only about 2.5 hours, and we really had no other choice. So let this be a lesson: if you plan to travel by train in Europe, book your seat reservations as soon as possible.
Dresden was an amazing city. I know it doesn’t seem like I talked as much about Dresden as in some of the other cities and more because Dresden was a breather. It was the perfect city to take things slower. With just the right amount of things to see, I was able to have less busy days and enjoy the life of the city rather than feeling like I might miss out on something if I needed to take a nap or sleep in late. I definitely enjoyed Dresden more than Cologne, but I also think that had to do with having a full two days in Dresden and there being no rain.
