We arrived on the train just in time to see the second half of the Germany Poland Eurocup game. Even though we were just getting off of the train, we wanted to find somewhere to watch it! So on our way to the hostel, we found a Kebab place that had set up a projector for people to watch the game. It was pretty great! Everyone bought beers from the place and was sitting on these picnic tables to watch. Unfortunately, Germany didn't win, so it wasn't very exciting, but at least we got to watch a good game.
The next morning in Dresden was very gloomy. It was raining pretty constantly, so we went to the military museum. I learned quite a bit there, particularly about the post world war two east Germany, but it was a lot of reading. The coolest section was one about how war has effected fashion! Fortunately, by lunch the rain had subsided a bit. Shane and I decided to try the anti-culture that exists in the larger cities in Germany and get some good vegan food. I tried a seitan kebab, which was hilariously similar to shwarma. They put seitan on a spindle like the shwarma meat and scape it off and then put it in a pita-like bread with salad and spreads. It was actually pretty tasty. I then took the bike that I borrowed from the hostel and made my way through the old part of the city. It was cool to see, but don't let these cities fool you! Dresden was fire bombed in WW2, so almost all of the buildings have been rebuilt. Either way, I loved the palace! It was quite beautiful, including the moat. The other areas were also nice, including a very nice tile mosaic. I rode around there for the majority of the day before heading back to the hostel for a quick rest.
Starting tonight, there is a festival in Dresden called the Bunte Republik Neustadt. It is celebrating a government that formed from 1990-1993. The symbol is a Mickey Mouse! So we saw lots of flags with Mickey Mouse on them or other places around the city. Since this government has been in existence, there is now a big festival. Before the festival started, I met the other members of our hostel room. They were all very nice, so we decided to go as a room! It was actually so fun and very cute. We had members from Australia, Scotland and Czech Republic. And, as the night went on the group kept growing.
The festival itself was so great. The whole community really comes out to just have fun. Some of my favorite moments were seeing what the people living in the neighborhood did. For example, one person had opened their bathroom. However, it was .5 Euros to use the bathroom, or 1 Euro to get a shot of schnapps and also use the bathroom. Another person was selling shots from the second floor! They would send down a bag to collect money, and then use a pulley to send down the schnapps! It was so funny. We found a person selling spatzle out of the window, and it was delicious! It is noodles that are handmade and small pieces with a cheesy sauce and fried onions. Yum!!
We then found an awesome band that was playing some traditional music. People were dancing and it was fantastic! I loved listening to them. Our group enjoyed lots of different music and strutted down the streets together with beer in hand. It was an amazing night. For dinner, I enjoyed a stead kebab with onions on a roll. It was very messy, but I couldn't have asked for a better German dinner. As the night went on, there were more djs and it became quite a crazy party right on the streets!
The next day, I woke up early to walk around the festival grounds. It was quiet, but amazing clean after the crazy party. I then went to Cafe Komisch to get soft serve ice cream. It is a very well known ice cream parlor because it has been making the soft serve the same way for a long time and it is delicious! I got a large vanilla chocolate swirl for only 1.80 euros and it was larger then my head! I don't even think I need to say it, but I was a very happy camper. I took my ice cream to the park to watch a Kubb tournament. Kubb is Dresden's popular lawn game and it involves throwing wooden dowels and blocks at wooden blocks. I think I almost figured it out in my time sitting there. It was very relaxing and quite fun to watch! |
Shane and I then took our bikes and headed back into Old Town. I showed him some of the places that I had found the day before and enjoyed biking around and seeing the artists in the main town square. As we biked towards the castle, we found a beach volleyball tournament in a main square! It was so much fun. The sport was intense and the crowd was awesome. Even though it wasn't huge, they were loud and very invested in the tournament. They had these cardstock fans that made so much noise! Shane and I joined right in with the cheering and truly enjoyed the game.
After the volleyball tournament, I biked around the castle one more time before heading back to the festival. I decided to spend my afternoon enjoying the culture of the festival, enjoy great food, beer and music. I had a vegetarian kebap, which was like a wrap with salad, hallomi cheese, eggplant, and peppers. It was so good! I also had a nice local amber beer (I had the local dark beer last night) and listened to some great music. One of the bands was an Irish band that was, like all other bands drinking beer onstage, but also the guitarist was drinking whisky straight from the bottle! Overall, the festival was a great time and I was glad to get to spend my trip there. Next, off to Munich!