Dresden: Where Beer Tastes Like Apple Juice and Pretzels Taste Like Pretzels

I think this was my first international day trip since going to Egypt for dinner from Israel when I was 8. I went to Dresden with my friend Maryse who is visiting from Paris as well as a couple Wash U friends from the program. We had a beautiful train ride, especially around the Czech-German border, where we followed the Elbe through mountains for about 45 minutes.

Our only plans were to visit a historic vault and go to a museum in the Zwinger, which is a massive complex that I believe used to be a castle. So that left a lot of time for wandering/eating.

Seeing all of the glass, modern buildings was a shock coming from Prague, and it felt pretty American. But we found our way to a round church that everyone seemed to be going in. It was this church I'd read about that was destroyed in the bombing of Dresden in 1945 and left as rubble until recently, when it was reconstructed in honor of the city's 800th anniversary (2006). The interior was incredible, there ere wavy balconies and a beautiful ceiling. But we left quickly because we thought a concert was about to start and we were starving.

For lunch we went to the cheapest expensive restaurant we could find, which was completely empty. Andrew ordered a pretzel for all of us, and I realized I'd never actually had a real pretzel, only the tiny hard ones that come in bags. I don't really know why I never tried one, but I think it was because the big salt scared me when I was little. Biting into it, I couldn't believe that it was soft bread that... tasted like a pretzel. So strange. And we randomly ordered Radler beer, because I didn't want Pilsner which was the other option. The Radler tasted like apple juice. It was delicious. And the actual food was really good, too.

After lunch we went to the Zwinger, which I'm sure is much more beautiful when it was grass and the fountains are running, but it was still nice. We went to the main art museum, where they have an absurd amount of art, including Raphael's Sistine Madonna (the one with the two cute cherubs at the bottom looking up). There were also some famous Titians and Giorgiones, but my favorite was the trio of paintings by Jacob van Ruisdael, who painted The Jewish Cemetery. I finally got to use my art history knowledge, and I can't wait to visit more art museums around Europe.

Our next stop was the Green Vault of August the Strong. It was a treasure chamber. They had 9 rooms of ridiculous jewels and ivory and bronze. I stole this picture from online.

Perhaps the craziest think about the vault was that while waiting to go in, I ran into a friend from my Jewish leadership group in high school. I think it was the most surprising run-in I've ever experienced.

As for future plans, I'm going to my first opera on Wednesday, the World Ski Jumping Championships on Saturday, and Terezin on Sunday. For our free weekend in March, I think I'll be taking a train to Vienna. And my post-program adventure will begin in Athens in mid-may. I'm pretty excited.