Dresden? Try Dresdone.

Hello once again to everybody! This week has been an awesome and fast paced one, and I have a ton to write about, so I'll just get right into it.

This past Monday was spent in the Neues Rathaus in Leipzig to register with the city, so we can stay longer than the 90 days allotted. Before leaving to get there, however, Tanner and I decided to take the SBahn to get to the city center quicker. We hadn't used it before, and due to a rash decision we ended up leaving the city entirely, going into the outskirts of Leipzig and. I hopped off after one false stop, but Tanner rode it to the end of the line. Eventually we made it back to the city center, and made it into the city hall area that had the same speed as the beloved DMV.

Dense city turned to stop devoid of people

On Tuesday I decided to go into the city center alone to explore the shops around the market. It may have been raining, but that did not stop the masses of people out shopping at the same time. I visited an old bookshop, a flower stand, and listened to a music group on the street. Being surrounded by so many people I didn't know, I was forced to confront the unique sense of fraternity I felt with them. Coming from a suburb in Texas, I grew up with a nice large back and front yard, with a nicely sized house. We would shop at the Tom Thumb, and go to individual locations to have fun, but we never lived in such close proximity with so many people, just because of Texas's size. Leipzig's size and design causes you to see people at all times of the day. You walk next to them, ride the tram with them, listen to street performers with them, and all of this has a great affect on how I see people. There is no us vs. them personality, as it is only us.

Flowers in a pig pot (a la Ali Ryan)

Wednesday passed like a normal day. Get up at 7:30. Walk to class, leave class, do homework, explore a little bit more of the city. Thursday was a special day of class, however. We had our amazing study abroad coordinator Elfi Herman and her boss Briget come in to talk about their time living in East Germany while it was under the control of Russia and the GDR. They talked about how you would have to wait 15 years to get a car, and how an engineer would make the same salary as a teacher. Luxury items were low, and the ones you could buy were expensive. While all of these were negative, they would talk about how they had a good life. Everybody had a job, and the necessities of life were dirt cheap. They said that the number one thing that they miss now is the community formed with their neighbors and friends, which showed me how people will always find a way to be happy, so long as they have those they love around them. Later that night Reuben, Jacob, Nevan, and I all decided to explore the woods near our apartments. It was dark, slightly rainy, and a short distance into the woods had trees so dense that you couldn't see the city beyond the trees. We came upon a junction in the woods where eight different paths met in a perfectly symmetrical octagon. Nevan and I took one path, while Reuben and Jacob took the other. After seeing a mystery man dissapear into the woods, we were all off put by the atmosphere. Reuben and Jacob even found a mysterious set up in the woods that caused them to walk just a little bit quicker to make it out. We still have 5 paths left to explore, and intend on doing so soon.

Mysterious objects probably used by a forest murderer

Friday was by far the busiest day of the week as we spent it in Dresden on a day trip. The train ride was only 1.5 hours, and it was smooth. The old portion of Dresden was a 20 minute walk from the Dresden Haupt Banhof, and when we arrived, we were stunned. The only story I had ever heard about Dresden was how it was flattened in the Dresden firebombing, but if I had not heard it, I would have never known that the city had been attacked. Massive historic structures filled the city. We visited the Procession of Princes memorial, Zwinger palace, Dresden fortress, multiple churches I could not name, and the crown jewel of our trip, the Frauenkirche. The Frauenkirche is a church that was mostly destroyed during the Dresden firebombing, and was left in ruin under the GDR as a war monument. When the wall came down, the German government set to rebuilding the beautiful church in the 1990s. For 5 euros we were allowed to climb to the top of Frauenkirche to look out over the entire town of Dresden. After plenty more adventuring, we turned back to the train station and watched plenty of completely empty ghost trains pull up and leave before we hopped on to head back to Leipzig.

Building in Dresden

Procession of Princes mural

Look through the Zwinger palace

Inside of Dresden Fortress

Zwinger cortyard

Inside of Dresden Fortress

Inside of Dresden Fortress looking out

The main room to Frauenkirche

Further up the church

On top of the Frauenkirche looking over Dresden

People pretending to be ants

Definitely a haunted mansion

Dresden

Who's that handsome person.....

Lectern

Beautiful church

My new best friend

Saturday we went into the town market as the weather was nice, and the shops were calling. Apparently every single one of the 520,838 Leipzigers thought it would be a nice day to shop as well. The streets were packed, but it had a wonderful feel to it.

City center on a perfect weather day

Finally we get to today. Today we met up with our mentors at the Red Bull Arena to see Leipzig's professional soccer team win a match against a west German team. Leipzig's team is currently 1st in the 2nd division, and if they sustain this throughout the season, then they will be able to move up to 1st division which would be incredibly exciting.

Outside and Inside of the Stadium

That's all for this week, and next weekend we will be visiting the concentration camp in Buchenwald. Until next Sunday, have a great week!