Cestovala jsem do Dresden!

Last Saturday afternoon (as in November 3) me, Rachel, her friend Susie and Susie’s roommate Megan (both of whom are studying in Madrid) took a train from Prague to Dresden. The ride was fine, we got a compartment to ourselves, but about halfway through the lights went out and it was pitch-black in there. It made me think of the 3rd Harry Potter movie, when the dementors attack the train. Kiiiinda creepy.

Anyway, we got to Dresden, where it was drizzling, and found our hostel pretty easily. Now let me just say this: I will never, ever ever stay in a hostel I love as much as I loved that one. Our room was the CUTEST THING I’VE EVER SEEN. When we walked into our room, we thought we’d accidentally entered a 13-year-old girl’s bedroom. The walls were plastered with pictures of celebrities from magazines. Lace canopies hung over the bunk beds. Christmas lights were all around the room. There were even STUFFED ANIMALS TIED TO OUR BEDS WITH STRINGS. If we hadn’t been starving, we probably would never have left the room.

The staff at this place was also awesome. The girl working the desk was Irish, and when we asked her for good restaurant suggestions, she named about twenty and marked them all on a map for us. We ended up going to a place called Plan Wirtschaft. Service was incredibly slow…I think we were there for about 4 hours total, including waiting time beforehand. But it was a really good dinner – I had ox meat (!) with potatoes, and then Megan and I shared a dessert that was some sort of sweet bread dipped in hot vanilla sauce. It was definitely more expensive than a meal in Prague, but worth it.

After dinner it was nearly midnight, and because Susie and Megan had to leave early in the morning for their plane back to Madrid, we walked around the city a bit and took pictures of the “old” buildings. The interesting thing about Dresden is that although it was destroyed by World War II, they rebuilt the city center to look as though it were hundreds of years older.

Then we went back and slept. There was another person in our room, and she was a bitch. We were trying to be as quiet as possible getting back in the room, and she woke up and bitched that “it was late.” Then when Susie and Megan got up to leave at around 4 am, she bitched that “it was 4 in the bloody morning.” I’m sorry, but aren’t you paying €15 a night for a 6-bed room? If you’re too cheap to get yourself a private room, you have to deal with the consequences.

Rachel and I got up the next morning at around 9:30 and, per the Irish girl’s recommendation, got a breakfast brunch at a place called Cup & Cino. I ate a lot of croissants and had a tasty hot chocolate with a cute heart of cinnamon floating on top. Seriously, I don’t think there was a single thing in Dresden that WASN’T cute. The area around our hostel in general was very cool, with tons of restaurants and shops (almost all of which were closed, unfortunately, because it was Sunday.)


We then set about walking around the city…and as it turned out, there wasn’t much to it. We saw two cathedrals, the palace, some little parks and some museum lobbies all by 3 in the afternoon. Which is not to say that I didn’t love Dresden, because I definitely did. It’s not much for sightseeing, but if you just wanted to chill out with friends for a few days it would be a great place. One funny thing I noticed was that all the dogs there were HUGE. There are tons of dogs in Prague, and they come in all sizes, but I’d say the average dog is cocker spaniel sized. In Germany they were all humongous German Shepherd types…which I guess makes sense.

Once we were done walking around, Rachel and I found a cute (there’s that word again) café where we sat by a fake fireplace and drank hot chocolate and tea. We weighed our options – there was a train at 5:09 and at 7:09. We decided to go for the 5:09, because we really had nothing else to do there. The train station in Dresden was very modern and nice, and we got Burger King (again: DELICIOUS) and ate it on the way home. Overall it was a fantastic weekend and I’m so happy I was actually able to go to Germany, because until I decided to go to Dresden it looked like it wasn’t going to happen.