Dresden

What I was surprised by most in Dresden was how different the tourist areas were from the non-tourist areas.  There was an immense amount of effort put into restoring the bombed out areas of downtown Dresden and recreating buildings like the Frauenkirche to be exactly like the original.  The areas around the Frauenkirche and Zwinger Palace were in the older styles even though the buildings were newer, which isn’t always something you see.  Rather than try and preserve the historical aspects of the city, I feel like a lot of places would convert more toward a modern style.  It was interesting walking across the river and seeing such a distinct difference in the feel of the spaces.  Over by the Kunsthof Passage nothing was kept as clean or professional looking.  You could tell that not near as many of the people walking around were tourists.  Not as many store keepers spoke English.  There was also a lot of graffiti again, which was something we had not really seen since we were in Berlin. 

Kunsthof Passage

I would say that my favorite academic experience in Dresden would be the Kunsthof Passage.  The entire experience of walking there and being there was fascinating to me.  To notice all of the differences I listed earlier f rom the tourist part of the city to the non-tourist part of the city was such a cool experience – especially because the changes were so fast and so drastic.  The passage itself was something I had been excited about seeing from the time we learned about it in class.  When you entered the passage it once again felt like you were in a completely different part of the city.  Everything including the stores and restaurants – the entire atmosphere – was so artsy and cute.  There was a lot of bright colors, flowers, etc. that added to the atmosphere.  The part of the passage with the wall that plays music when it rains was amazing.  It was also impressive to learn that store keepers and restaurant owners paid money out of their own pockets to have to art installed – they didn’t use government money. 

Kunsthof Passage

My favorite extracurricular activity was the movie that me, Michaela, and Lizzy went to.  We went to the Hangover 3 and the theater actually played it in English!  We were surprised to see that the theater sold alcohol, and so of course we had to get some wine.  The wine came in a mini bottle and they gave out glass wine glasses to drink out of in the theatre.  We couldn’t believe it.  The movie was very funny and it was a relaxing last night in Germany.

I would recommend the gelato stand in the square near the train station.  It was only one euro for a generous scoop of gelato! Me and some of the girls stopped there twice in the less than 48 hours we spent there because it was so good and so cheap!

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