June 15 2012

We went to Dresden today. Left much earlier than we ever have before and it took about 3 hours to get there. Once we got to Dresden a lot of the students left their bags at the hostel which is really close to the Hauptbahnhof. We then met the tour guide and she took us to a point in the middle of the city, where we began our tour.

We walked through the markplatz and to a building where there is a mural that remains from the Communist period. According to the tourguide they decided to leave this mural up as a testament to that period in history “for the children who wouldn’t remember.”

Then we walked through the Zwinger (which I think was my favorite place we went in Dresden), and then the Frauenkirche. We ate some incredible schnitzel for lunch. Then we had free time. So most of us from MSU went to the Frauenkirche and went up the top where we could see the skyline of the city. It was incredible. Dresden is definitely my favorite German city so far.

After that Jennifer, Tim, and I went to the Starbucks in the markplatz and got some coffee while I uploaded a lot of the day’s pictures to facebook. It is interesting to go to something that is so familiar from the states, and it looks a lot like the ones in the states, and yet there are little differences that keep you from forgetting where you are. For example, the food selection is much better, the coffee tastes different, and the nutmeg in the little shakers was called “muskat” even though the vanilla was still called “vanilla” and the chocolate still called “chocolate.”

Kelly then found us at the Starbucks and we all went to walk around some more. We went back to the Zwinger and Kelly showed us this really awesome fountain that was hidden away in one of the corners.

Finally, we met up with our group again and went back to the hostel.

Words:

Die Kindheit = childhood

Die Jugend = youth

Die Erwachsen = Adulthood

Das Rentendasein = Senior

Lebenstil = lifestyle

Me sitting on top of the Zwinger

Us in front of the Frauenkirche