Dresden June 25, 2012



Well I just spent the last two days in the smaller town of Dresden, Germany. The population is about half a million people and it's the capital city of the state of Saxony. It has historically been known as a beautiful, cultural "jewel box" due to it's incredibly ornate churches, buildings and palaces in the historic city centre.



In 1945 most of the city was obliterated in an overnight Allied bomb attack, which destroyed the city and wiped out centuries of an iconic spire-filled skyline against the Elbe river. The city also lost many of its citizens that night.



I was told that not much was done to rebuild the city during the DDR (East Germany) years but after reunification Germany really put in a lot of money to restore the ruins. And only recently has it really been restored to resemble something of its former glory. What's cool is see is how some landmarks have been rebuilt with the stones of the bombed-out buildings. One main church is speckled in black tiles, which come from the church that previously sat in the same spot.



In Dresden, I was hosted by two CouchSurfers. I initially received an invitation to stay with Florian, an international business university student. When his plans changed for the Saturday evening and he could no longer host me, he asked his friends and Athina (an exchange student from Arizona) stepped up to the plate, which I thought was really kind of both of them. So when I arrived at the Dresden Hauptbahnhof on Saturday afternoon, I walked to the tram stop to find the right one to take me to Athina's place. Except all the tram lines were under construction... so it was time to take a walk in what I hoped was the right direction.



After walking for about 10 minutes, I stopped and realized I had just passed her dorm building when I suddenly heard someone yell out my name. I turned around and Athina and her friends were walking up the street, searching for me in case I got lost due to the non-working tram business.



Athina also had two other guys staying with her for the weekend. Nathan and Andrey are both mechanical engineering students from the States (Northern Arizona University and Georgia Tech) who are completing a work semester in a small town (can't remember the name) somewhere else in the country. I also met Max, a German student and Jirkka, a student from the Czech Republic studying in Dresden.



Since more people were staying over, I stayed in Athina's ex-boyfriend's dorm, which was next door. Phillippe was away for the weekend so it was great to have the extra space. After dropping my bag off everyone grabbed a quick lunch before we all headed to the historic downtown.



I've talked about how beautiful and historic the city was and it was great to see it with new friends. Hitting up a market and getting an erdbeer (strawberry) ice cream cone just wouldn't be the same without having locals who speak the language beside you (especially when the ice cream man refuses your 20 euro bill :P)



So we walked around, checked out the historical sites and at one point while we were admiring a massive tile mural which shows all the previous Kings of Saxony, I learned about a new tradition for young couples who are about to get married in Germany. The bride and groom to-be will go around town with their friends and ask strangers for money and in return will do silly tasks or dances, all to raise money for their wedding. . The friends accompanying them will usually have funny, brightly coloured matching T-shirts and often the bride or groom will be in a funny costume (think, man in a baby costume). A group of guys came up to us and Athina decided to help out (she did not, however, give them her bra as requested)... not sure how that would help pay for a wedding.



Heading home that night, we stopped at a grocery store and grabbed some food for the evening as well as beer. I picked up some Radler, a beer/lemonade combo drink that is really popular and a regular Paulaner beer. Both were great. We all got ready in our rooms and then met outside to head to an Irish pub to catch the Spain-France Euro 2012 game. Afterwards, we went to a student area across the river and hung out at a bar serving all sorts of crazy cocktails and I learned a new drinking game called "Hello Governor". It's a "count the numbers and change the rules often" kind of game and let's just say I learned how to count to 20 in German pretty quickly.



It was on the walk to that bar that I learned the meaning of YOLO - You only live once. I like that. I feel like that right now - that when I travel I'm really living it up in a way that you just can't in a regular 9-5 life.



The next day, after a long sleep-in we all met in Athina's kitchen for a communal breakfast, and then set out to walk through the city again.. and get more ice cream of course. In one of the city squares we came across a really cool garage-sale type market where locals parked their cars in rows and sold their household possessions There was the usual assortment of books, linens, jewelry, etc... but what I liked the most was to see the old historic pins, postcards and photos that people had from the East Germany days. At the market I finally got to meet Florian, the original CouchSurfer who I pretty much owe the whole weekend to.



After some of the guys picked up a few items, we went to hang out by the Elbe river. What I love about Europe is the complete free-ness to just sit and spend the day hanging out.. by the river or in the park or city square.... and not have a care in the world. I feel like at home most people would get itchy after half an hour and hurry off to do errands or head to an appointment, when really the art of sitting and living and watching the world pass you by should be learned and practiced.



Around 5 pm, we headed home to get ready for a barbeque that we would have at some other student's house, pot-luck style. It was great until the rain suddenly came but we quickly moved the party inside and later watched the Italy-England soccer game. It's those moments that I am definitely going to appreciate and remember the most. One week ago I was frantically packing up my Toronto apartment and the next I'm sitting among a bunch of foreign-speaking students, half a world away. So cool. And their kindness and generosity will definitely not be forgotten!



Athina from Dresden Max from Dresden Jirka, Christian and Johannes from Dresden (A little dark from the low lighting)