Seriously, I don't even know where this week went. I can't believe I've been in Dresden for 3 weeks already and that I only have 3 more days before I leave to go to Paris and then (finally) Tübingen.
So, what did I do this week?
Tuesday was neat! There was a Goethe-organized trip to Dr. Quendt's, which is a bakery/factory a little bit outside of town. They are well-known throughout this city for a lot of different baked goods, but outside of Dresden they are pretty much just famous for Russian bread (which is actually a type of cookie). The factory visit was fun; it was like watching Unwrapped but in real life. The best part (outside of the free cookies and tea/coffee) was the room where they put the almost-finished cookies into big spinners and spray them with chocolate. Mmm, chocolate spray.
Friday during class was like Christmas Eve, or the last day of school before summer break... class was sooo boring, and seemed to go on forever (though that is also kind of because I got a new teacher who is not as good as the one I used to have... she's nice, but very German...). When it was finally 1:00, I hurried home, ate lunch, and packed for Prague! We took an afternoon train out of Dresden and got to Prague just as it was getting dark. If there was ever a more confusing, twisty-turny wait-do-these-streets-even-have-names-where-are-all-the-signs city, I have yet to see it. That being said, all the little tiny pedestrian-only cobblestone alleys lined with shops and cafes were super cute, especially once we got out of the tourist-heavy areas.
We stayed at a hostel called Hostel Tyn, named for the Tyn Church in Old Town Square that is in front of it. It was a little old, but not run-down at all; everything was really clean and comfortable. Thankfully we were the only ones in our room, which was tiny, but in a charming instead of cramped way. I would definitely stay there again... it was cute and clean but at the same time didn't feel institutional like my room here in Dresden (which has white walls, white kitchen, white sheets, white radiators...) and was off the beaten path of touristiness.
The food in Prague was fantastic. It tasted like my Eastern European ancestry. Breakfast consisted of a ham and cheese croissant and a cappuccino (on both Saturday and Sunday mornings - we went back to the same place because it was delicious and cheap). In Old Town Square there were a lot of street vendors, mostly for the tourists so it was a bit overpriced, but today I caved and bought a sweet dough thing that I don't remember the name of because Czech is impossible. But it was tasty! At the more traditional Czech restaurants we went to (e.g. not the pizza place we hit up for lunch on Saturday) there were a lot of dumplings and potatoes and meat, which was excellent. I think lunch today was the best meal we had. We went to this restaurant called Klub Architektu, which was next to the Bethlehem Chapel and one or two stories underground. It was really dimly lit and the walls and arches were brick so it felt sort of medieval. I had hot apple cider, chicken and vegetable soup, turkey with mushroom sauce and potato dumplings, and a slice of honey/walnut cake. Not only was it fantastic, but the entire meal only cost about 10 euros. Woo! If I ever get back to Prague I am definitely going back to that restaurant.
One of the things that surprised me the most was just how ridiculously touristy Prague is. Granted, we were in the most popular sightseeing neighborhoods, but even when it seemed like we were in less popular areas there were still shops full of keychains, mugs, tshirts, postcards, and the like. It's kind of surprising that all of these stores, selling literally the exact same things, can stay in business.
Prague itself is an absolutely gorgeous city. Like I'm pretty sure I only saw one ugly building. Everything has beautiful ornate facades, and the river runs right through the middle, and there are statues and cobblestones and hills everywhere... as soon as I get better internet, I will definitely put up pictures. We had perfect weather on Saturday - by the time we got to Prague Castle, it was sunny and even kind of warm! The sun made all the churches/cathedrals we visited even better because they weren't all dark and depressing like European churches sometimes are. I've never seen stained glass in such vibrant colors as in St. Vitus's Cathedral in Prague Castle. It was amazing.
Less amazing was the Astronomical Tower in Old Town Square... but in a kind of hilarious way. The tower itself was pretty cool, and it was totally worth the 2 euros/50 crowns to get up there, because you could walk around the whole thing and see the entire city from above. But the famous part about the tower is that every hour on the hour, the bells ring and figures come out and do things. We missed it when we were there on Saturday morning because we were on our way down from the tower itself and by the time we got back to the front of it, it was over. Later that afternoon, after a lot of planning, we decided that we'd go back to our respective hostels, nap, and meet at the tower at 7:50 so that we could see it do its thing at 8:00. The guys wanted to see it more than Alex and I did, so we took our time leaving our room and didn't hurry to get there in time. We ended up getting there at about 7:57 anyway, so we got to see the spectacular 8:00 show!
...which consisted of a couple windows opening and saints passing through them (inside the building - we could just see them through the now-open windows) for 30 seconds or a minute, followed by the closing of the windows and quite possibly the most anticlimactic trumpet sound I have ever heard. We had no choice but to laugh, not at the tower (though the trumpet was pretty funny), but at the hundreds of people watching it with us. The next morning we ended up there at the right time again, and one of the guys hadn't seen it yet, so we watched it again with him, and again laughed at the hundreds of people who had gathered to watch. Good times were had by all.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
Festung Koenigstein and Berlin!
Man, I can't even believe how much I've done in the past 3 days. I'm pretty sure I've walked through, like, all of Berlin and Sachsen.
Friday: After class got out, I went with a few people to Festung Königstein, which is in the Sächsische Schweiz (nearby mountains) and about an hour away by train, in the town of, you guessed it, Königstein. The Festung is built into some sandstone at the top of a large hill/small mountain in the center of town, and it was a fortress in the 18th century (though various establishments have existed there since the 1300s) and used as a prison up until I think WWII. The best way to get there is by using the super steep stairs in the center of town, but they were so covered in snow that we couldn't use them the day that we went. Instead we went up a ramp that went back and forth on the side of the hill... it seemed like it would be easy, but it was probably the hardest hike I have ever been on and more of a workout than anything I ever do in a gym. Because there was so much snow and the incline was so steep (probably about 20 degrees) the whole time, it took us about an hour to get to the top. There were stairs sometimes, but they were so snowy that it was more like just walking up a briefly steeper part of the hill. When we got to the top of the hill and the base of the fortress, we found out that the elevator that goes to the top only operates in summer... so we had to walk up 3 more steep hill chunks to actually get inside the fortress to where all the buildings were. Once we got all the way up it was completely worth it... the view was beautiful and you could walk all around the edge of the fortress and look down on the little towns below. There were some museums and a little cafe so we went into the museums briefly but then decided it would be better to get Glühwein at the cafe. And it definitely was. We took a different way back down, which was easier and less steep, but it also involved walking on the nonexistent shoulder of a highway for 5-10 minutes... so that was a bit scary, but we survived. And I only fell in the snow once!
Friday night we had a small dance party in one of the guys´rooms here, and that was fun, but I didn´t stay too late because...
Saturday: BERLIN!!! We woke up at like 7:30 and took the 9:00 train out of Dresden. Jesus (Colombian dude) brought with Uno cards, so we played that for about half of the 3-hour train ride. Good times were had by all. We had bought sandwiches for breakfast at the bakery, and Jesus brought with tea, sweet bread, and Berliners, and a banana for those of us who got hungry on the train ride... he was pretty much our dad/tour guide for the weekend, haha. We got checked into our hostel by 1:30 and then went to Alexanderplatz in search of food, because by that point we were all starving. We ended up getting burritos at a Chipotle-like restaurant, and they were surprisingly good... it's hard to find things that are spicy in Germany, but that restaurant succeeded.
After Alexanderplatz we walked to the Rotes Rathaus and saw it, the Neptunbrunnen (Neptune fountain), and the Engels and Marx memorial. At the fountain I ran into my friend Emily, who also goes to Northwestern and is studying abroad in Prague for winter/spring. She studies film so she was in Berlin to see the Berlinale film festival, which started this weekend and goes until next weekend. After that, we saw the Berliner Dom (cathedral). Across the street from the Dom was a big open field and people had built hundreds of snowmen of varying sizes on it, so we went over to check that out too. It was like a scene from Calvin and Hobbes! Some snowmen were a couple feet tall, while others were huge - probably 10 feet or so. I have no idea how people could lift snowballs so big and heavy that high, but it was really cool. They were dressed as all sorts of things, like robots and bus drivers.
After the snowmen and the Dom we went to the Pergamon Museum, which has all sorts of artifacts from ancient cultures (Greek, Roman, Islamic, Mesopotamian/Assyrian/Persian, etc.), and that was really cool. One of my favorite parts was seeing the exhibit on Greek and Roman currency, because it was fascinating to see how it had evolved over time, and I was surprised at how detailed the coins were so early as 1000 BC. I also really liked the Islamic art exhibit, especially the models of the prayer niches. There were pieces of Greek temples and Roman art, and all kinds of jewelry from the different cultures.
When we left the museum it was about 4:30, so we decided to hit up Schloss Charlottenburg before dinner. It's towards the outskirts of the city, so it took us a bit to get there, and then we had to walk about 2 km because the bus was expensive and we decided it wasn't that far. ...It kind of was, and it was really cold, and by the time we got there it was closed, but it was pretty from the outside! So I guess if I go back to Berlin, that is something I should do. Apparently in the summer there is a really nice garden on the other side. After that we went back into the city center to the Gedachtniskirche, which is a church that was destroyed in WWII and they left it that way as a memorial. Around the church was a small group of tents set up for Carnival, so we got Glühwein and walked around a bit. Then we bought bratwursts from a street vendor and walked around eating them, which is probably the most German thing I have done since getting here. It was great! We had dinner at an Italian restaurant and then went to Potsdamer Platz to see it lit up at night.
I'm exhausted again just thinking about everything we did on Saturday - and that was only day one!
On Sunday morning, after breakfast, we went first to the Brandenburger Tor. It was a little bit disappointing because they had a huge screen and scaffolding set up in front of it, so you could only see the front from an awkward angle off to the side, and you could only see the whole thing from the back. We went to the Reichstag too, but the line to get in was RIDICULOUSLY long, even in the middle of winter on a cold snowy day. If I get back to Berlin, I'd like to go inside that building as well. We went to the Siegessäule, but it was under construction. Normally you can get really close to it and even go up inside of it, but we could only see it from the outside about 20 feet away. Instead of taking the S-Bahn back to Unter den Linden, we walked from Siegessäule back to Brandenburger Tor, which was about 2 km, but we went through the Tiergarten and it was really pretty and snow covered. When we got back to the Tor, we spent some time at the Holocaust memorial as well. After that we walked down all of Unter den Linden and on the way saw Hotel Adlon, the Russian embassy, Humboldt Universität, Sankt Hedwigs Cathedrale, the library, and the Neue Wache (WWI memorial). By that point we were back at the Dom again and got lunch (well, a 2 pm meal) at a Vietnamese restaurant in tourist central. It was a bit expensive, but pretty good. We then went to the Olympic Stadium, which was a little past Charlottenburg (the neighborhood, not the Schloss), and got there at 3:55... and it closed at 4. So we couldn't go in, but we got to see the outside, and it is HUGE.
Maybe next time I go to Berlin I will look up the opening and closing hours for the things I want to see and plan my day around that...
Our train left at 5:30, and I ended up getting home completely exhausted at 9. After dinner and a shower it was really nice to just relax in my own bed. What a weekend!
I'm really glad other people here know Europe better than I do. With Jesus in Berlin, he knew exactly where everything was, and which S-Bahn we should take to get there, and where to transfer, and everything. I don't think he'd been there more than one time before... he just has an amazing memory. He even knew a little bit about most of the things we saw, so it was like having our own free, private tour guide. Next weekend we're going to Prague, and I think Mikel knows his way around there pretty well, so that will be fun too.
I'm glad I've gotten to know the people at the Goethe Institut here better. At the beginning of the month I was a little worried that I wouldn't make any friends because there is no real way to meet people you live with short of knocking on everyone's door and introducing yourself. But everyone knows that, so everyone is more friendly and open and there's a bit more of an effort to make plans to do things during the evenings and on weekends when there isn't a Goethe-organized event. It's really different from Bonn, but I've gotten used to it, and now I'm really glad I'm here.
Friday: After class got out, I went with a few people to Festung Königstein, which is in the Sächsische Schweiz (nearby mountains) and about an hour away by train, in the town of, you guessed it, Königstein. The Festung is built into some sandstone at the top of a large hill/small mountain in the center of town, and it was a fortress in the 18th century (though various establishments have existed there since the 1300s) and used as a prison up until I think WWII. The best way to get there is by using the super steep stairs in the center of town, but they were so covered in snow that we couldn't use them the day that we went. Instead we went up a ramp that went back and forth on the side of the hill... it seemed like it would be easy, but it was probably the hardest hike I have ever been on and more of a workout than anything I ever do in a gym. Because there was so much snow and the incline was so steep (probably about 20 degrees) the whole time, it took us about an hour to get to the top. There were stairs sometimes, but they were so snowy that it was more like just walking up a briefly steeper part of the hill. When we got to the top of the hill and the base of the fortress, we found out that the elevator that goes to the top only operates in summer... so we had to walk up 3 more steep hill chunks to actually get inside the fortress to where all the buildings were. Once we got all the way up it was completely worth it... the view was beautiful and you could walk all around the edge of the fortress and look down on the little towns below. There were some museums and a little cafe so we went into the museums briefly but then decided it would be better to get Glühwein at the cafe. And it definitely was. We took a different way back down, which was easier and less steep, but it also involved walking on the nonexistent shoulder of a highway for 5-10 minutes... so that was a bit scary, but we survived. And I only fell in the snow once!
Friday night we had a small dance party in one of the guys´rooms here, and that was fun, but I didn´t stay too late because...
Saturday: BERLIN!!! We woke up at like 7:30 and took the 9:00 train out of Dresden. Jesus (Colombian dude) brought with Uno cards, so we played that for about half of the 3-hour train ride. Good times were had by all. We had bought sandwiches for breakfast at the bakery, and Jesus brought with tea, sweet bread, and Berliners, and a banana for those of us who got hungry on the train ride... he was pretty much our dad/tour guide for the weekend, haha. We got checked into our hostel by 1:30 and then went to Alexanderplatz in search of food, because by that point we were all starving. We ended up getting burritos at a Chipotle-like restaurant, and they were surprisingly good... it's hard to find things that are spicy in Germany, but that restaurant succeeded.
After Alexanderplatz we walked to the Rotes Rathaus and saw it, the Neptunbrunnen (Neptune fountain), and the Engels and Marx memorial. At the fountain I ran into my friend Emily, who also goes to Northwestern and is studying abroad in Prague for winter/spring. She studies film so she was in Berlin to see the Berlinale film festival, which started this weekend and goes until next weekend. After that, we saw the Berliner Dom (cathedral). Across the street from the Dom was a big open field and people had built hundreds of snowmen of varying sizes on it, so we went over to check that out too. It was like a scene from Calvin and Hobbes! Some snowmen were a couple feet tall, while others were huge - probably 10 feet or so. I have no idea how people could lift snowballs so big and heavy that high, but it was really cool. They were dressed as all sorts of things, like robots and bus drivers.
After the snowmen and the Dom we went to the Pergamon Museum, which has all sorts of artifacts from ancient cultures (Greek, Roman, Islamic, Mesopotamian/Assyrian/Persian, etc.), and that was really cool. One of my favorite parts was seeing the exhibit on Greek and Roman currency, because it was fascinating to see how it had evolved over time, and I was surprised at how detailed the coins were so early as 1000 BC. I also really liked the Islamic art exhibit, especially the models of the prayer niches. There were pieces of Greek temples and Roman art, and all kinds of jewelry from the different cultures.
When we left the museum it was about 4:30, so we decided to hit up Schloss Charlottenburg before dinner. It's towards the outskirts of the city, so it took us a bit to get there, and then we had to walk about 2 km because the bus was expensive and we decided it wasn't that far. ...It kind of was, and it was really cold, and by the time we got there it was closed, but it was pretty from the outside! So I guess if I go back to Berlin, that is something I should do. Apparently in the summer there is a really nice garden on the other side. After that we went back into the city center to the Gedachtniskirche, which is a church that was destroyed in WWII and they left it that way as a memorial. Around the church was a small group of tents set up for Carnival, so we got Glühwein and walked around a bit. Then we bought bratwursts from a street vendor and walked around eating them, which is probably the most German thing I have done since getting here. It was great! We had dinner at an Italian restaurant and then went to Potsdamer Platz to see it lit up at night.
I'm exhausted again just thinking about everything we did on Saturday - and that was only day one!
On Sunday morning, after breakfast, we went first to the Brandenburger Tor. It was a little bit disappointing because they had a huge screen and scaffolding set up in front of it, so you could only see the front from an awkward angle off to the side, and you could only see the whole thing from the back. We went to the Reichstag too, but the line to get in was RIDICULOUSLY long, even in the middle of winter on a cold snowy day. If I get back to Berlin, I'd like to go inside that building as well. We went to the Siegessäule, but it was under construction. Normally you can get really close to it and even go up inside of it, but we could only see it from the outside about 20 feet away. Instead of taking the S-Bahn back to Unter den Linden, we walked from Siegessäule back to Brandenburger Tor, which was about 2 km, but we went through the Tiergarten and it was really pretty and snow covered. When we got back to the Tor, we spent some time at the Holocaust memorial as well. After that we walked down all of Unter den Linden and on the way saw Hotel Adlon, the Russian embassy, Humboldt Universität, Sankt Hedwigs Cathedrale, the library, and the Neue Wache (WWI memorial). By that point we were back at the Dom again and got lunch (well, a 2 pm meal) at a Vietnamese restaurant in tourist central. It was a bit expensive, but pretty good. We then went to the Olympic Stadium, which was a little past Charlottenburg (the neighborhood, not the Schloss), and got there at 3:55... and it closed at 4. So we couldn't go in, but we got to see the outside, and it is HUGE.
Maybe next time I go to Berlin I will look up the opening and closing hours for the things I want to see and plan my day around that...
Our train left at 5:30, and I ended up getting home completely exhausted at 9. After dinner and a shower it was really nice to just relax in my own bed. What a weekend!
I'm really glad other people here know Europe better than I do. With Jesus in Berlin, he knew exactly where everything was, and which S-Bahn we should take to get there, and where to transfer, and everything. I don't think he'd been there more than one time before... he just has an amazing memory. He even knew a little bit about most of the things we saw, so it was like having our own free, private tour guide. Next weekend we're going to Prague, and I think Mikel knows his way around there pretty well, so that will be fun too.
I'm glad I've gotten to know the people at the Goethe Institut here better. At the beginning of the month I was a little worried that I wouldn't make any friends because there is no real way to meet people you live with short of knocking on everyone's door and introducing yourself. But everyone knows that, so everyone is more friendly and open and there's a bit more of an effort to make plans to do things during the evenings and on weekends when there isn't a Goethe-organized event. It's really different from Bonn, but I've gotten used to it, and now I'm really glad I'm here.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Mittwoch ist Schnitzeltag!
Dresden! It's weird to think I've only been here a little over a week, because I know my neighborhood so well now. At the same time, I've barely even ventured into the Altstadt, so I'm glad I have another two weeks here... there's so much I still want to explore!
So this weekend I didn't really do very much, because I got really sick on Thursday. By the time I felt like getting out of bed on Sunday, well, it was Sunday and everything was closed.
Monday is the student party day here, so we went out that night. We ended up just going to the Irish pub because that's what the only person who had an opinion about where we went wanted to do, but it was a lot of fun. We stayed there til midnight or so just hanging out and talking and then went home. Last night was one girl's last night here so we went to a student club called Aquarium (sadly, there were no fish), where the cocktails were cheap and tasty and it happened to be karaoke night. All the songs to choose from were in English, so it was really entertaining to hear them sung with a German accent. Especially when they sang things like Beyonce and Bon Jovi.
I just got back a little while ago from Stammtisch, which is our weekly dinner outing (organized by Goethe). So far we have been to two different breweries/restaurants, so it's been cool to try the different local beers that are available. I don't know if it's a brewery thing, or a Dresden thing, or just a coincidence, but at both restaurants there were also special deals where on Wednesday you could get a schnitzel dinner plus a ,5 liter beer for like 8-9 Euros.
This Saturday there was supposed to be a trip to the Sächsische Schweiz (nearby mountains - Sachsen's version of the Alps, but not as high or famous, but apparently just as beautiful), but it got canceled because there are going to be some sort of demonstrations to do with public transportation on Saturday and Sunday, which is what we would use to get there. So instead, a small group of us decided we should go to Berlin! It's only about 2 hours away, maybe 3 if we take the slow train. We're going to leave Saturday morning and come back Sunday night. I'm really excited, because the last time I was in Berlin I was really jet lagged and didn't know much of anything about the city or its history. Now that I've been in Germany for a month and a half (thus, no jet lag) and took a class about Berlin and gave a presentation about its Sehenswürdigkeiten - ah, I can't think of the English word right now! - last quarter (thus, knowledge!), I think I will have a much better trip.
The weekend after this one we're going to Prague (Friday night-Sunday), which will also be awesome. I don't know as much about Prague or speak any Czech so I have a bit more preparing and planning to do. But I'm really looking forward to it! I've been wanting to get to Prague since I was in Germany a few years ago.
Oh yeah, and sometimes I take a German class. :)
Edit: Ha, so, actually, the demonstrations on Saturday are an annual thing, and it's not about public transportation; I misread the sign, which actually said that we shouldn't use public transportation because of it. February 13th is the day Dresden was bombed during WWII, and the Neonazis (from all over Europe - last year there were about 6,000 people who came to Dresden) use it as a day to congregate in Dresden and march around the city to make people aware of their beliefs. We talked about it at dinner tonight and the German girl we ate with explained what it is. And because the extreme right is doing something, the extreme left will also be there to protest it. Apparently this year it's up for debate whether they should be allowed to demonstrate at all, and the decision will be announced tomorrow. Interesting!
So this weekend I didn't really do very much, because I got really sick on Thursday. By the time I felt like getting out of bed on Sunday, well, it was Sunday and everything was closed.
Monday is the student party day here, so we went out that night. We ended up just going to the Irish pub because that's what the only person who had an opinion about where we went wanted to do, but it was a lot of fun. We stayed there til midnight or so just hanging out and talking and then went home. Last night was one girl's last night here so we went to a student club called Aquarium (sadly, there were no fish), where the cocktails were cheap and tasty and it happened to be karaoke night. All the songs to choose from were in English, so it was really entertaining to hear them sung with a German accent. Especially when they sang things like Beyonce and Bon Jovi.
I just got back a little while ago from Stammtisch, which is our weekly dinner outing (organized by Goethe). So far we have been to two different breweries/restaurants, so it's been cool to try the different local beers that are available. I don't know if it's a brewery thing, or a Dresden thing, or just a coincidence, but at both restaurants there were also special deals where on Wednesday you could get a schnitzel dinner plus a ,5 liter beer for like 8-9 Euros.
This Saturday there was supposed to be a trip to the Sächsische Schweiz (nearby mountains - Sachsen's version of the Alps, but not as high or famous, but apparently just as beautiful), but it got canceled because there are going to be some sort of demonstrations to do with public transportation on Saturday and Sunday, which is what we would use to get there. So instead, a small group of us decided we should go to Berlin! It's only about 2 hours away, maybe 3 if we take the slow train. We're going to leave Saturday morning and come back Sunday night. I'm really excited, because the last time I was in Berlin I was really jet lagged and didn't know much of anything about the city or its history. Now that I've been in Germany for a month and a half (thus, no jet lag) and took a class about Berlin and gave a presentation about its Sehenswürdigkeiten - ah, I can't think of the English word right now! - last quarter (thus, knowledge!), I think I will have a much better trip.
The weekend after this one we're going to Prague (Friday night-Sunday), which will also be awesome. I don't know as much about Prague or speak any Czech so I have a bit more preparing and planning to do. But I'm really looking forward to it! I've been wanting to get to Prague since I was in Germany a few years ago.
Oh yeah, and sometimes I take a German class. :)
Edit: Ha, so, actually, the demonstrations on Saturday are an annual thing, and it's not about public transportation; I misread the sign, which actually said that we shouldn't use public transportation because of it. February 13th is the day Dresden was bombed during WWII, and the Neonazis (from all over Europe - last year there were about 6,000 people who came to Dresden) use it as a day to congregate in Dresden and march around the city to make people aware of their beliefs. We talked about it at dinner tonight and the German girl we ate with explained what it is. And because the extreme right is doing something, the extreme left will also be there to protest it. Apparently this year it's up for debate whether they should be allowed to demonstrate at all, and the decision will be announced tomorrow. Interesting!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
First impressions of Dresden
(written on Sunday 2/1/10)
Well, I left Bonn yesterday morning. It was a bit sad to leave everyone (that is, the people who were staying another month… a lot of my friends left between Thursday and Saturday) but we will keep in touch through Skype and stuff and maybe see each other again. I think I would like to go back to that area in the spring when all the snow melts and the fortresses on the Rhine are open (most of them are closed from November-March) because it’s really pretty. And if I come back before June, Marcel and Moritz will still be there so I could stay with one of them. After taking the train across the entire country, I am pretty sure that where I was in January is one of the most beautiful regions of Germany. That being said, I’ve never been to the north… but still. The train ride between Bonn and Mainz was gorgeous – we were next to the river for most of it, along with the cute little houses and towns and snow-covered hills/mountains on either side, and castles all over the place.
Dresden is really cool, though, too. My cab driver from the bahnhof to my hotel was really awesome and pointed out what all the buildings were as we drove past the Altstadt (they are SO PRETTY, and I haven’t even seen them in the daylight yet), and told me where good student hangouts are and where you can go see cheap movies. The Goethe Institut here is on the other side of the Elbe, in the Neustadt, and it’s a fantastic neighborhood. After I moved in and registered and everything this morning, I wandered around for a little bit. As it turns out, I’m really close to the places that my cab driver told me about! Every street I walked down must have had 5 or 10 cafes and bars, and there are also a lot of places to go grocery shopping. I ate lunch at a restaurant called Hot Spoon, and it was DELICIOUS. They have all different sorts of soup – I had some sort of Russian thing with meat, potatoes, peppers, and sour cream, in a thick tomato-based broth, which was exactly what I needed after having walked around outside in the cold for the past hour. It’s really cheap (you can get a bowl of soup big enough for a meal, a drink, and a muffin or piece of cake for about 6 Euros) and amazing, and they have different kinds of soup every day. I’ll definitely be going back there.
Dresden is a lot less pedestrian-friendly than Bonn and Bad Godesberg, in that it is inefficient to walk places because there are a lot of things and it’s all spread out, but they have a really good Straßenbahn system. It’s a lot like Freiburg’s. I was debating whether to buy a monthly train ticket, but when I found out that my Wohnheim is 2 tram stops from Goethe, I figured I’d use it a lot (because it’s like a 20 minute walk otherwise). The trams are so convenient because they go right down the main streets where everything is… almost like they planned that out or something!
The Goethe Institut here is really nice, and a lot bigger than the one in Bad Godesberg. The people who work there seem really nice too, although sadly I don’t think the Zivis are as cute (but I could be wrong – I don’t think I’ve met all of them yet). My room is clean and functional and my roommate’s cool and everything (she’s from Iowa), but it’s a bit depressing because in my building there’s no communal area, not even a kitchen. Instead, I have dishes, a refrigerator and sink, and 2 stove burners in my room. So I don’t know if we will have big huge dinners where we take turns cooking for 10-15 people here the way we did in Bonn. I’m hoping there is some secret part of the building that I don’t know about yet, because I would really like to have an oven and a toaster while I’m here. There is a meeting at 5 tomorrow for everyone living in the dorms to teach us about how internet and laundry, etc. work here, so I guess I’ll learn about all that stuff then. If there isn’t anything else, I might have to go out and buy a water boiler, because I’ve been sufficiently Germanized that I really need one now.
I think class here will be better than in Bad Godesberg. Or more challenging, at least. The guy I had my interview with said that there is no B2.1 class this term (I didn’t catch why…), and that’s what I should be in, so he said I should go to B2.2. So that’ll be interesting. I did B1.1 last month… hopefully there’s not too much that I’ve missed in such a big jump. I told him I’d heard that there was a big difference between B1 and B2 (since that’s what the teachers and my B2 friends in Bonn said), and he said yes, sort of, but it depends on the student. Sooo I should be able to handle it.
The cultural events here look like they will be fun. Tomorrow there is a trip to the Altstadt to look around so that will be a lot of fun. Throughout the month there will be ice skating, movies, etc., but there is also a “learn how to cook German food” thing that I really really want to do, and weekend trips to Leipzig, Meißen, and the Sächsische Schweiz (nearby mountains). I think the weekend of the trip to Meißen I will probably go to Prague instead, because I really really want to go there while I’m so close! Class gets out at 1 every day so I could leave Dresden at like 2:30 or something on a Friday, be there by 4:30, and then come back here on Sunday evening. I’m going to start looking into that ASAP so that it doesn’t get stupidly expensive like Amsterdam did.
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