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Krystal's Travels
Beth and I left for Dresden around 10:00 am yesterday and arrived a little before noon. We were pretty hungry by the time we got there so after buying a map we went in search of food and found an all-you-can-eat brunch so we ate there. It was quite yummy.
After lunch we walked in the general direction of what looked like where we wanted to go according to the map (neither of us are good with directions...that's what Kali is usually for). We found a little marketplace and then the Kreuzkirche. Since it was 1:00 at the time, the bells were going off like crazy for a good 10 minutes I think. We tried to go in but a service was getting ready to start so we couldn't. Then we were going to go to the Frauenkirche but there was a massive line waiting to get in. We decided to keep sightseeing instead of spending the day waiting in line. I guess that's what we get for picking a holiday weekend to visit the city. Lots of tourists. We only had a few hours before we needed to find a place to stay for the night and get ready for the opera so we kept bumming around the city. We finally were able to go inside a church, which happened to be the cathedral so I was happy. It was really pretty inside. The Semperoper was across the street from the cathedral so we took some pictures of that. They had tours but we figured we would get to see it when we went to the opera later. Then we went to Zwinger where there's a bunch of museums. It was 10 euros to see all the museums though so we decided to skip it since we didn't have much time. After that we went across the river to see the newer part of the city. There weren't nearly as many interesting buildings over there. We wanted to see a castle so we hopped on the tram to Schloss Albrechtsberg. I don't think it was open but we couldn't really find a place where they were selling tickets until we had decided we walked around enough. I don't know if they were even open but we decided it was too expensive anyway...had to save money to see the opera! So we went back across the river to the train station to search for one of the 3 youth hostels listed in the travel guide I had bought. We actually found the one we were looking for. We picked the one we stayed at because it was the one that we could find on the map. I'm pretty sure we found it by pure luck. So we checked in, dropped off some stuff, and headed back to the city to go to the opera. We were kind of cutting it close by then so we had to hurry. They were out of the cheapest seats but it was just as well because we were in the back row at the very top. The cheap seats were behind us and you had to stand up if you wanted to see. Not fun for a Wagner opera. We saw Lohengrin (for those of you that don't know, "Here Comes the Bride" comes from Lohengrin). It was AMAZING. Beth thought I was going to pee my pants a few times cause I kept getting shivers up and down my spine. I think I'm hooked now. After the opera I grabbed a season program and saw that Der Ring des Nibelungens is playing in June!!! Patrick is going to freak when I tell him. This is the cycle of operas that I'm basing my capstone on and it would be awesome to actually get to see them! Of course, they're only doing one a week so that will be 4 more trips to Dresden. Can I write off the costs as research?? Being in this country makes me wish I were still a music major. However, I know I need to graduate in December so that's not really feasible now.
I'm definitely a fan of Dresden. Most of the time I was there I wasn't too worried about being able to see everything cause I had pretty much decided that I was coming back and would have plenty of time to see more. Like the Wagner museum...definitely going to see that next time. I'm going to have to take Patrick there when he comes.
After the opera we managed to find our way back to our hostel and went straight to bed. A quick breakfast in the morning and we headed to the train station to catch the next train out. I love how you can just go to the station when you're ready to leave and buy your tickets then. There are usually trains every hour to Leipzig from Dresden so we didn't have to wait long.
I can't wait to go back!
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