Typische Tourismus

I'm just going to say that taking time out of the day to write this blog is not as easy as I thought it would be.  Hopefully since classes start tomorrow, things will begin to die down a bit and I will actually feel like updating on a more frequent basis.  However, I dedicated myself to this... so I will continue!

I believe I left off on Wednesday, bringing us to Thursday morning... the first official day of the 2012 Dresden Study Abroad program (woohoo)!  Thankfully, the tour did not start until 11, so I was able to get some much needed rest before hand.  The entire group met at the tram stop (public transportation here is amazing!) after walking by the Russian Orthodox church which is located near the dorms.

After riding the train we got off by the City hall, which, unfortunately is under construction this year.  Dr. Spencer, who knows everything (his own words) told us that the most famous picture of the Dresden bombing was taken from on top of this building.

The statue is called "Goodness", which really, when shown in this picture is, for lack of better words, haunting!

Dr. Spencer pointed out a statue that is located on a traffic island in the middle of a busy road way.  "Why would someone build a statue, that is meant to be looked at, in a place where a person would have to take their life into their own hands to see it" (dr. Spencer).  The answer is, that when it was built, it was in the middle of the industrialized city.  "Don't trust the empty spaces."

Throughout this tour, it was chilling to think about how all of this, the entire city was rebuilt, fairly recently.  It is sad to think that none of the building are actually "the real thing"

Next we stopped at the Kreuzkirche (church of the cross) which was so named because it, apparently, houses a splinter of the original cross.  In Dr. Spencer's words "if you piece together all of the supposed splinters of the cross, you will have one damn big cross!"

When the church was rebuilt, it was chosen to remain fairly plain on the inside, as a memorial to the bombing.  

There are no actual ruins in Dresden, and no actual memorial.  The memorial is by rebuilding the buildings in a way that reminds the people of what happened here.

Next we stopped at the Altmarkt, where in a few months one of the most famous Christmas markets in Germany takes place.  It was also the sight where bodies were burnt after the bombing (cheery, I know).

Across from the Altmarkt is one of the only GDR style buildings that remains in the city.  Some want it to be torn down, but others want it to remain as a historic reminder.  The fate of the building, and famous mural on it's side is still in the air.

The next stop was the Zwinger, which was an open place (at the time, another wall was later built by Semper, who also built the opera house) where Augustus the strong held parties.  The bells that ring every hour are actually made of porcelain, which was discovered in Dresden and is still made here (European porcelain that is).

the porcelain bells

NExt we went to the Hofkirche (catholic church.)  Augustus the strong converted to catholicism in order to become king of Poland.  The majority of the population remained protestant, so when he built the Hofkirche, he also built the Frauenkirche for the protestant population.  Many people think that catholic churches are outlandishly decorated, etc.  However, this church is surprisingly elegantly plain, while the Frauenkirche is "teeth-cringinly outlandish"  This is because Augustus didn't want to make the protestant community upset with the church, and when the protestants decorated their church the decided to "go all out" with it!

famous Silberman oregon.

Sorry that I don't have any pics (yet) of the inside of the Frauenkirche.

The outside of the Frauenkirche is another building memorial to the bombing.  It wasn't actually destroyed by a bomb... rather it collapsed 2 days later because of the intense 1,500 degree heat.  The black bricks on the outside are stones from the original that they were able to save and they are placed in the exact spot they were on the original.

That afternoon we went to the City museum and learned more about the history of Dresden and the area.

That night, we went to the grocery store and just relaxed and hung out.

Friday morning we all met up and walked along the Elbe River 7ish kilometers to another part of the city.  

Along the way we saw the new bridge that is drawing a lot of contriversy...

As well as a 110 year old bridge, that is getting questionable in terms of safety.  This bridge called the Blue Wonder was the first (ever) suspension something or another bridge.  It was also the only bridge in Dresden that was not destroyed by Nazis in World War II, and therefore was the bridge the Soviets came over to Dresden in.

We took a cable train up a hill that provided us with a great view of the city.

Me and a few others had lunch at a Biergarten, where I had the best beer ever (or so far) Berliner Weisse.  It had apple flavoring in it, and was sehr gut!  

We visited an art gallery and then went back to the dorm to get ready for some Fußball (soccer). A group of us went to a South African bar called Capetown in the Altstadt.  It served fried Zebra and raw ostrich, but no one was brave enough to get it.  We all ordered a bit of food and a beer and I watched my first soccer game.  It was pretty easy to understand (after they explained to me that the people in yellow were  the refs and what off sides meant).  Every time Germany scored a goal everyone in the bar would scream jagermeister... and they would proceed to pass out free shots of jager.  Germany won the game 4-2 (but I stopped at one shot).

The next morning a few of us went to a flea market that is by the river.  After that we caught a bus to the section of the city we were at the day before to go to the Elbhangfest festival.  It was here I had my first experience with spaghetteis.  Spaghettieis is ice cream in the shape of noodles, with strawberry sauce and white chocolate crumbles.  It is the best ice cream (and I really don't like ice-cream) that I ever tasted.  After walking around the festival for a few hours (and getting a lot of sunburn) we went back to the dorm to just chill for the night.  A small group of us went to the Neustadt to explore for an hour or two.

Sunday morning a group of us walked again through the tour we took on Wednesday with Dr. Spencer, in order to take some pictures and enjoy the view at a nice leisurely pace (that man walks fast!)  After a nice break at Starbucks, we went back to the dorm and had a nice relaxing day before classes start.

Now it is 15 minutes before I have to leave for my first class.  *sigh* why couldn't this just be 8 weeks of exploring and touring?  Oh well, I guess we have to learn something.  Maybe I will feel more comfortable using my German after this...
or maybe not.