EuroRiss: A Day in Dresden

This East German city was Karina’s and my last city visit before I headed out of Europe. It was a quick trip—only 36 hours—but a randomly enjoyable one.

We arrived around noon to Dresden. Dresden is most widely-known as being a small big-city that was bombed nearly completely in April 1945. One of the only structures to remain was a wall from a church. About 25,000 civilians died the day Dresden was bombed in World Ward II. In ONE day. And did I mention these were civilians? Nowadays, Dresden is known as one of Germany’s most beautiful cities.

Our hostel was great. Right in the center of a cool neighborhood of shops, clubs, bars and good restaurants. South of us about 20 minutes walk lay the big beautiful buildings, just over the river. This is where much of the historical stuff and sights lie. Like that church with the lone standing wall left standing after the bomb. That was rebuilt and finished just a few years ago. Anyways, one of the best things about a hostel in general? Free food and free stuff. Like free bike rentals. And free dinners. So Karina and I took advantage of both.

Starting with the bike rentals, these bikes were ghetto. They were painted black and yellow strips and they were a little rickety. Karina’s squeaked and grunted every time she pedaled and don’t get me started on when she rode over the old cobblestone streets. Mine was just plain small with miniature wheels so I had to pedal twice as fast. We named them appropriately—Karina’s Hans and mine Fritz. Within the first 5 minutes, Karina already had a bike crash with another girl. She left with a minor scratch on her index finger that required a little patching up.

We rode over the river to the historical side to all the sights and through the pretty buildings. It felt so free and I absolutely LOVE seeing a city by bike. Especially in Germany. They are bike friendly and on many sidewalks, especially back in Berlin, a bike lane is painted separate from the walking lane and boy, do those Germans follow the rules!! This riding around was much easier for Karina and I then biking ‘round Florence was with my parents in Italy. Anyway, after sightseeing, we stopped for some hot chocolate and apple strudel. Since seeing Inglorious Bastards, I’ve needed to try real German apple strudel and smack my lips after chewing, just like that guy who played the German general does at the dinner party in the movie. So I did. I smacked my lips. And we ate and people watched for awhile.

With Hans and Fritz. In front of the church dome here.

In front of the only wall that stood standing when Dresden was bombed during WWII.

Apple strudel!

We biked around for a bit longer, laughing often because we felt so clumsy so often with Hans and Fritz. But they carried us back to some shopping and through the drizzle that came off and on.

Pretty flowers.

Karina being skillful.

Afterwards, we ate an amazing vegetarian dinner at our hostel. Not many others came down to dinner so I ended up eating 4ths. Very small portions, I swear! This dude made some green bean casserole, pea casserole, wild rice, and apple something-or-other. I feel I’ve been living off of meat and cheese sandwiches for way too freaking long, so it was SO nice to have some veggies.

As our final outing in Dresden for the day, Karina and I decided to check out the neighborhood by night and grab a beer. We walked by a place that seemed lively, but cozy. We could hear a guy speaking on a microphone and the crowd looked fairly cool. We assumed a band was going to play, so we headed inside.

Well, we were wrong. They were playing bingo. So we hopped in the game and immediately were given two shots of schnapps for joining. We took them plain because we hadn’t even had a chance yet to order our beer. In any case, the guy on the mike was the one reading off the numbers and apparently the vocal entertainment of the night. I guess he was a riot, but since he only spoke German, every thing had to be translated for me by Karina.

We were at the bar with the main crowd and were told the German rules of playing bingo. And we totally didn’t understand how to play for the entire game. All we understood was that we were supposed to scream very loudly whenever we got a number, so we did, and we definitely screamed the loudest. Being the top first/loudest screamer means that instead of being the first one to announce your number being picked and earning a free shot, you earn a much more massive type of alcoholic drink. And so, within ordering our FIRST beer, we had already been given/won 2 shots of schnapps. Karina and I made a good team and played together with both of our bingo scorecards. After 30 minutes of play, we won 1 massive fishbowl-like drink of vodka and apple juice, another large random liquor beverage we had to share with others (so big), 1 more shot of schnapps, 1 famous German crime stories book, 2 cartons of milk, 2 bottles of chardonnay and 2 matching china dinner plates. It began to get just plain bizarre. And obviously, by this time, we began to be very delayed in announcing that our numbers were getting picked as Karina’s translations to me was more often then not…wrong. Or backwards.

By the time we left, we had lost track of the crime stories book and the bottles of champagne were mysteriously drank. Probably a very good thing. Luckily, we made new friends and one walked us the two blocks to our home for the night, back to Hans and Fritz and a nice warm bed. Let’s just say that the bus ride back to Berlin the next morning was a little rough….