So in real time, it's the eve before my flight back to Canada (with the first leg, Dublin to London, leaving in about 8 hours) and I'm quite bummed to be leaving Europe. I will definitely be back, and I'll at least get to re-live my adventures a little by adding more posts to this blog until I catch up with the end of the trip.

Anyway, back to the past!

The next day was Dresden, where I was meeting Kim, my Ottawa friend who was also doing a tour in Germany. We'd decided to line up our trips to spend some time together in Germany. And Dresden was important to her because of its role in Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse V.  I did try to read it before getting there, but time is a luxury I clearly have no wrangle on.

The DB train route there actually went okay for once, aside from a slow-down because of cows on the track. I'm cool with cows though, they're cute. I also accidentally got off two stops early. I just saw "Dresden," didn't want to miss the stop completely, and packed my things and got off. But how it works, is there's usually a lot of stops that start with the name of the location. So could be, say, "Dresden Hbf," which is where I should have gotten off, but I got off at "Dresden-Neustadt."

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It ended up being the same walking distance from my first destination - the Semperoper, an opera house of the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden - as it would have been from the main train station anyway, so I hadn't lost any time. If anything, I gained some by hopping off early. PLUS I got to see a reunion between friends that reminded me of those I'd see in the airports. As Hugh said, Love really is, all around. 

I started the walk towards the Semperoper, also having my first experience with rain in Europe. I had my umbrella and I did put it up, but unfortunately, the umbrella did not protect my ballet flats from getting wet. It was my fault for wearing them, I just thought it would have looked nicer as opposed to my pink and white running shoes. I should have just looked awkward, because my flats are not waterproof, and there was a fair bit of water. My feet got wet fairly quickly, and I was only about 10 minutes into Dresden. This would become an issue later, twice, but we'll get there.

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The colour scheme and the rain did lend a bit of a dreary feel, but it also felt appropriate given the history. Plus it was my first time seeing rain in a while, or rather feeling it - it did rain a little bit when I was on the trains, but... I was in a train. My area of Ontario has been subject to some droughty weather this summer, and I had very much missed the rain. So I got over the wet feet, because it meant I got to feel rain.

After seeing some really cool sights and vantage points....

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I finally got to the Semperoper. Half of the outside was covered by construction scaffolding - I was told by V this is pretty normal. And the theatre was also closed until the next day, so I couldn't go in and do a tour either. A guy outside tried selling me tickets to the show the next night, but I told him I wouldn't be in the area then.

I texted Kim to let her know I was heading to the Neumarkt Square, and started making my way to meet her there. I stumbled across some really cool things as I went, all the while pondering over the interesting mix of old and new worlds that could be seen in the architecture. I also came across a beautiful courtyard, and found a cool Math and Physics centre. It was, unfortunately, closing so I was only able to see the lobby, but it was still pretty.

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I got to the Square first, so I had a little poke around. The store fronts were gorgeous, I loved the layout and the architecture, and I also enjoyed the different statues, as well as looking at the large church in the centre - which V later told me is the Frauenkirche (Women's Church).

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I went into the church to explore, because it was open, and also noted a sign pointing to a different entrance that read, "dome ascent." Filing that away for later, I continued in and immediately saw a huge vaulted ceiling with, you guessed it, a dome up top. Now I understood.

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This church also boasted a massive altar and a beautiful organ. I noticed that people were sitting in the pews, as though attending church in their visiting. It was oddly quiet, considering the amount of tourists - not to say that I didn't like it. I quietly made my way around the back so as not to interrupt them, and went down a little ways into the basement where they had several things on display, including graves. I paid my quiet respects and then read over the walls they had bearing the names of people who were lost in the war. I didn't find a single Postma, but I did find some Dutch soldiers.

I then got a message from Kim saying she was in the Square, so I made my way back up. We met under the Martin Luther statue - one of many - where we had our first Europe hug. As we meandered around, I pointed out the "Ontario Steakhouse" that was there. I'd gone to check the menu on my earlier explorations and noticed that their fare was maybe fancier than what most Ontario restaurants carry. We took our time admiring more of the Square, including going back into the Frauenkirche with Kim - we went to check out the Dome Ascent but you had to pay, and it was a LOT of stairs, and we were hungry.

Thus, with growling stomachs, we started picking a place for dinner. We were torn between two, but it was the nougat ice cream at one of them that did it. It was called the Coselpalais, and is apparently one of the best-known baroque buildings in Dresden, and was significantly rebuilt after the war.

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Can you guess what kind of cuisine they had there? If you said German, you would be half right. It was German-French cuisine, and it was delicious. We started with drinks, I got one that's actually an aperatif that came in a double holder with a little glass of rose, and a little glass of red currant sorbet. When I combined them, it was even better than each on their own.

Kim got a mango lillet, which was very refreshing. Meal-wise, I ordered pheasant with potatoes and vegetables. Including a mashed potato like disc with something green swirled in that I can't remember right this minute what it was... maybe spinach? Either way, it was amazing. I'm not sure if I've had pheasant before, but I've had partridge, duck, chicken, turkey, Cornish hen, pigeon, and definitely other birds I can't recall, but I don't think ever pheasant.

It was delicious nonetheless. And this was the time where I learned that if you ask for water, you'll immediately be asked if you want it sparkling or not.

I was torn on dessert, but ended up getting the "Mohrenkopf" which consisted of homemade nougat ice cream, vanilla and hazelnut ice cream, hot chocolate sauce, whipped cream, and a crispy wafer ("Just one tiny thin little wafer..."). I also got a latte, which came with a little biscoff cookie again. I love that extra cookie, I wish Canada did this too. I also forgot to take a picture of dessert because I was so excited to eat it...

After dinner, I walked Kim to her hotel since it was on my way to the train station. Unsure of if there would be bathrooms in the train station - likely a no considering what I'd seen of train stations here thus far - I used Kim's bathroom, thankee kindly to her.

I then hustled to the station and waited for my train. Another thing the Deutsche Bahn does, is the later in the evening it gets, the more spaced out the trains are. Starting at around 7 p.m. It was now 8:30 p.m. I had missed the earlier train because it had taken a while to get our bill - something I was told is not uncommon and that I can be more aggressive in asking. What it meant about the trains was I wouldn't be getting back to V's place until very late.

Knowing all this, I got on my first train, and rode it to the Leipzig Hbf. I used the Loo & Me again, but it went much smoother this time - especially since I didn't have to get my big suitcase through the turnstile. On boarding the next train, I noticed on the DB app that it was to stop at Weimar instead of going all the way to Erfurt Hbf. I thought that was weird, and I messaged V. We both looked through the app's notifications, but it was only listed as a "maintenance" issue. Which likely means something was wrong with the track, and it needed fixing. Great. It also said that I would need to take a bus to get from Weimar to Erfurt Hbf - it was labelled as a "hotel bus," AKA a shuttle, which led me to believe it was a specific bus rather than regular city bus. However, when I got to the Weimar station, I quickly realized I had no idea where to go in order to catch this bus.

There was no signage, no attendants, no directions on the app... so I followed the sign for regular buses, figuring out front would probably be the best bet. To my relief, there were other people there waiting for the bus, some of whom understood enough English to say that yes, this was the spot. So we waited... and about 15 minutes later, I noticed the entire group, almost as one entity, started walking up the street. I thought "okay, well maybe someone knows something that I don't," and I followed the crowd. We went just a little ways up the street to a little stand that seemed to be specifically for specialty buses.

Thirty minutes later, someone walked up and said something in German. Yet another instance of how emotions translate the same across all languages. Everybody groaned and got angry. I knew that wasn't good. I listened for a little bit, trying to see if anyone was speaking English, but no dice. So I asked one of the people who had groaned, "what was said about the bus?" He gave me an apologetic look, and said it's going to be an hour wait. This was now 1:30 in the morning, it was quite cold outside, and my feet were still wet from Dresden - which made me feel even colder. And now, we'd have to be outside for another hour?!

I messaged V to update her and she said she was coming to get me. It's a 30-minute drive one way from her place to Weimar, but she concluded it would still get me back to her place way quicker than waiting for this bus. She even sent me her location to track where she was, and brought snacks and drinks for me for the ride. And she did all this while still having school first thing in the morning. I thought she had the day off, I was incorrect. Which made me appreciate it all the more. We complained about the trains as we drove, talked about IKEA, and I ate one of the pretzels we'd gotten from her friend. I'm very glad to have friends like V. She also joked, or maybe not joked, that the sayings about the DB are, "You trust, you lose," and "In the DB, we never trust." Needless to say, I forked out some cash to pay for a more expensive "ICE" train ticket for Friday, the day of my flight to Edinburgh. I wanted to make sure I wouldn't miss it, and had believed the ICE trains at least run on time without issues.... oh how wrong I was. But that's for another time.

This night, we got home safe and sound, and I went to sleep knowing I have an amazing friend, Dresden is wet, but pretty, and in the DB I should never trust. (Side note, I might have to come back to this one to re-upload some pictures, my internet connection is terrible here).

Erinnerst du dich, als wir uns alle liebten? (Remember when we all loved each other?)

Much love,
Alison

Song recommendation:  (April Showers by Al Jolson - except October showers instead, just can't resist a little Al)