Willkommen in Deutschland!

For those of you who were expecting daily posts, just like I said I would do, I do apologize! Yesterday, there wasn't a whole lot to discuss either than our very confusing train ride from Wroclaw to Dresden. Nonetheless, we are here in Germany.

Maybe I will say something about the train ride yesterday. Whoever said that the European train system is efficient, is not necessarily correct. Bad signs began immediately, when a driver was supposed to pick us up from our Wroclaw hotel at 11:45am. This of course didn't happen. We waited for a few extra minutes, but ended up taking a taxi to the station. Only prior to taking a taxi, I got my mother to call a phone number that our itinerary had listed on it. She called and the call ended up in Portugal. Needless to say, the man from Portugal, who spoke English well, was not able to help us.

We managed to get on a train that said it was descend for Germany. When they did the ticket check, we were handed a note in both Polish and German. Seeing that it looked important as it may have had something to do with our trip, I used many megabytes to open my translate app on my phone to understand what it was saying. It said that there was a bridge being constructed and that we were to take a bus in some remote city. Then, about halfway, we got to a station. We had heard an announcement, but none of it was in English. Everyone got off. We struggled to get off. I got yelled at in German (I think. She might have been a nice old lady saying something nice to me, but German always sounds angry). We got on a bus for about 20 kilometres, and then back on to a train, where we finally met with our Dresden driver, who took us to our hotel.

WHEW!

Last night, we went for a walk around the city and had a few drinks at some "Australian bar" where some guy with a gold jacket sang numerous songs in English 60s, 70s, and 80s hits like "Yesterday," "Take it Easy," "Stand By Me," that kind of thing. His piano playing was great, but his voice was a "poor-man's" Randy Newman. Not particularly good. haha.

We saw a restaurant called "Ontario Steakhouse." Guess what they serve there? Tradition Canadian cuisine. What on earth is traditional Canadian. Let me assure you, some of the things on the menu may not help some of the stereotypes that we have. For example, I saw a few Mounties on things. On the menu there was elk and moose. And for dessert there was a brownie. They had hamburgers too.

OH! I had a ridiculous German meal of a "pig's knuckle" with dumplings and sauerkraut. It was tasty, but you can't have too many of these things because they are massive and very fatty! Lots of pork crackling though if you like that. It was a one time thing I assure you. Especially with my 0.5L beer!

We went back to the hotel, as it was quite late, where my mom accused me constantly of walking too fast, and said that, "Girls need to walk slower because of their shoes." She was getting angry. I was getting frustrated. Needless to say, sometimes these things happen when you are with the same person every minute of every day.

I took a couple images of our hotel, because like nearly everything in Dresden after the war, this building too was ruined. From what we understand, this old building just had walls and no roof. The roof is quite identifiable as it is red and has a large glass ceiling which lets lots of light in. Very nice.

Here is some history that we learned about today on our two to two and half hour walk through in Dresden:

Many might recall that Dresden was one of the most destroyed cities in Germany by the Allies. This city had no particular reason to be bombed, but as we learned today, the reason may do with that the Allies just wanted to make a example of their militaristic capabilities against the Nazi forces.

By the end of 1945, Dresden was in shambles. It was literally burnt to the ground by the bombs that fell on it. Some buildings stood standing, but only had walls with no roofs. The damage was very significant. Of course, the Nazis attacked a city like Coventry in England in retaliation to the same extent, and London to a lesser extent.

By 1945, this part of Germany, as you are probably aware, became part of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), otherwise known as the Soviet occupied East Germany. During the immediate post war years in Germany, as well as in most western parts of Europe, the success of the American Marshall Plan, helped rebuild the certain cities. By the 1950s in West Germany, there was a economic miracle, and the country had nearly completely been rebuilt and revitalized. Similarly, East Germany faced similar economic achievements, but is undermined by the Socialist ties that the country had with the Soviet Union. Stalin, in an effort to separate himself from the capitalist ideology, arguably, refused the Marshall Plan, and began to rebuild cities in the Eastern bloc, like Dresden, to show certain socialist ideals. Of course Nixon and Khrushchev, later on had their infamous "Kitchen Debate" showing the latest styles and trends. It was a competition and had a model of an American home that all people could afford. It was a cut in half model so people could view it. Khrushchev stressed the Soviet's focus on "things that matter," rather than luxury, which, arguably, he believed was evident of the capitalist ideology. He then satirically asked Nixon, who was the Vice President at the time, if there was a machine that could "put food into the mouth and push it down." Nixon replied by saying that at least the competition the two countries were having was technological, and not military. Evidently, Khrushchev was very heated.

Throughout our tour we saw buildings and architecture that one could definitely tell were very new, but built with the old styles. In one particular case was could see, from the side, the facade of a building, but behind it, it was just a brand new cement building. I think I speak for my mom when I say that we were flabbergasted to learn that some of the buildings and churches that we saw, that were strongly affected by the war, were actually still ruins until AFTER reunification in 1990. The large church, for example, laid in ruins in a cement heap with a fence that went around it for over 40 years. After reunification, this grandiose church was rebuilt.

Numerous examples of similar buildings are only recently built. One could not help but notice the black staining on the stones. One would think it was caused by the smoke and fire of WW2, but its just the specific type of stone being used, and subsequently, has oxidized creating a black look to the stones. In some cases one would see a building with patches of black stone all over it, because some of the original stones were being used, but needless to say, there needed to be new stones to help rebuild Dresden's architecture.

Here are some pictures.

I particularly enjoyed learning what it might have been like to live in the old GDR. Our guide was able to speak Polish, Russian, and English. Russian during the GDR years was compulsory in school. Like I said in a previous blog entry, English is now compulsory in many European countries. 

My mom and I needed a few hours by ourselves today, my mom wanted to write postcards, and to look around. I did the same. I found a biergartin (beer garden) near the hotel. It was quite cool. I think we need some of these in Vancouver. It was €3.50 and then you get a €2 deposit back when you return your glass. That was just at this particular biergarten of course. It was lovely to sit outside right on the banks of the River Elbe.

A couple lovely images of my bier from the biergarten!

Off to Leipzig tomorrow night and Nuremberg the next!

Bis dahin, alles gute!