Dresden

After the marathon, I took a bus the 2.5 hours to Dresden, a city close to Berlin in East Germany. I planned to head to Munich, but I figured I could check out another city before drinking all those liters of beers.

I was staying in "neustadt", the New Town, for a couple of nights. I spent the evening walking around and grabbed a beer at a local biergarten. The weather was pretty nice, so I spent an hour outside working on my journal. After some dinner, I headed back to the hostel and got a German lesson from a local. I downloaded German on Duolingo and have been trying to improve my German each day. Please note that it's pretty nonexistent. I know danke and gesundheit.  Anytime I try to say something, I get a response in English. It's either my accent or my pronunciation that is giving me away. I'd like to at least try a bit while I'm in Germany though. Even if I'm completely butchering the language.

Neustadt.

Kuntshofpassage.

Bier at the biergarten.

Dresden was completely destroyed during WWII. Since then, the city has been rebuilt, including most of the historical buildings. The following morning, I headed out to explore the "altstadt", the Old Town. Most of the buildings in this part of town have been restored to what they were like before WWII. I'm no expert, but they do look old. So I guess they did a good job. It's nice that they attempted to restore them instead of completely doing away with them.

Beautiful buildings of Dresden.

Frauenkirche.

Zwinger.

Love these bridges.

I did have to do a little bit of shopping in a very nice mall in the middle of the Old Town. Clearly that wasn't there before WWII. One of my USB cords completely melted a few weeks ago. I have no idea what happened, but threw it away immediately. On my search for said USB cord, I may have bought a new purse. Of course. I do have to say, it's come in handy. And it was on sale. If I'm not buying food or spending my money on travel costs, I need to justify every purchase. And ensure it's worth it to carry around for the next couple of months. I have to say, it's been worth it.

After getting my fill of the Old Town, I headed back to the new town and found a Craft Beer store where I sat outside and people watched for a bit. I noticed that Dresden is full of young families. I saw so many children running around and being pushed in their strollers. Also, I love that men help carry their children if they are young. Back home, it's mostly women that carry around babies.

I finished off my evening in the hostel listening to a Canadian woman play her viola. She has been traveling a bit and hasn't played as much as she would like. We were her first audience in several months. I got to catch up on a few things and enjoy some live music while I was at it.

My visit was quick but I was looking forward to my next stop. I got on an early morning train to Munich in order to start Oktoberfest celebrations.