In Lieu of Skype: A Weekend In Dresden

This weekend, I hopped on a train (well, two trains) and made my way to Eastern Germany to visit Carina, a foreign exchange friend from high school who studied in the States during my Junior year. Because of a derailment, I had to take an alternate route through Frankfurt, which meant I got to see some gorgeous mountains on the way. Castles popped up every now and then, as did tiny towns tucked away into valleys. I tried to capture the ride as best I could, but we were going a lil quickly:

Friday: After the 8 hour train ride, Carina picked me up at the station and we went back to her dorm. After teaching English in Cambodia for a year, she's decided to study renewable energy at university. We spent the evening catching up and having Christmas-y German treats: Glühwein and Stollen.

Glühwein, or "glow wine," is red wine with spices in it that you heat up and drink from a mug. Incidentally, Germans call pre-gaming/ pre-drinking before going out "pre-glowing," so we when we had some the next night before going out, we were literally glowing :)

Stollen is a moist fruit bread with sugar on top. Mmmmmmm

Saturday: Carina showed me around the city, and that night we went with her roommate to Club Paula, which played all the music I listened to in high school.

Dresden was bombed heavily during WWII, but they've rebuilt some of the original structures. The Cross Church has some of the original stone worked into the new building.

You can see the columns and archway are from the original structure.

Setting up the Dresden Christmas Market, which has been a tradition since at least the 1470s.

While digging the foundation for a parking deck, workers uncovered an old Jewish settlement. They're now deciding what to do with the space.

Martin Luther

Promoting...?

Dresden Academy of the Fine Arts

The Elbe River

Monks! Carina was excited because these are the first ones she's seen since coming back from Cambodia.

Semperoper, the city's opera house. During its construction, marble was very rare so bits of it are actually wooden and painted to look like marble (or they were at one point...Carina's only been here for a month so she's still figuring out the details).

On top of the Zwinger, a palace with a huuuuge courtyard

Meep!

Inside the courtyard

Hey! A canal!

Then we headed to the newer part of the city, which reminded me generally of a very large version of Short Pump. It had it's cool nooks and crannies, though.

This was a courtyard with shops and cafes with different themed squares, including one for animals and one for the natural elements.

These pipes actually have water pouring through them!

Rubber ducky, you're the one...

A walk by the river. Lots of kites and kids. This neighborhood actually has the highest percentage of kids than any other neighborhood in Germany.

Getting ready to take the ferry

Antique market!

Church of Our Lady, rebuilt after being destroyed in the War.

Piano in the square

Cool lighting

A brief tour of the university! The physic's building

This is the roof of the library. The whole thing is underground!

On top of Carina's dorm

Places for trash, glass, plastic, and compost. The dorm rooms even have separate bins for each.

Aaaaaand then we had dinner and went clubbing. Rad.

Sunday: We woke up around 13:30, so we only had about 3 hours of daylight to enjoy. We took a walk in a big park about a kilometer from Carina's dorm. It's right next to the football stadium, and you could hear the fans even from the dorm!

A building without any description near it but which looks hella creepy.