Bon Voyage!: And Last but Very Not Least....DRESDEN!

Well, I must admit that I was writing my blog based on what picutres I was looking at when I wrote my last post. Considering that I left my camera at one of my friends houses that lives an hour away, I didn't see the picutres that I took in Dresden. I will get my camera back tomorrow, but I wanted to write about my visit to Dresden anyway.

My host mother is from Germany and my host father is from Austria. I was so lucky to get to see where each of them comes from over the winter break! I left school a tad earlier than the other students so that my host mother and I could take the flight to Dresden one week before Christmas. Before we left, my host mother warned me about the snow. She said that there could be a lot and that I should take sturdy winter boots because we would do some walking. There ended up being quite a bit of snow! I would estimate about a foot and four inches or so. Back in Kansas, snow gets high, but not much higher than that right around where I live. We stayed with my host mothers parents who have an apartement there. It was great to meet her parents and sister. They were very hospitible and even though I don't know German, I feel like I got to know them.

What did I do while I was there? I visited their famous Christmas markets, called Strietzelmarkt, a Christmas circus, the Dresden Opera House, called Semperoper, lovely churches, and I enjoyed walking around in the lovely city. The architecture in Dresden is made from sand stone. In many of the buildings there is a mixture of dark and light stones. The dark stones are the originals and the light ones are ones that have been replaced.

The Christmas markets were something else! They had lovely decorations over every little cabin, they sold very interesting things including the famous German stars, and they sold some very delicious foods. I had my first candied apple there. The opera house is something I will never forget. Ever since I was little, my family has always enjoyed operas. When I visited Paris a few years ago, I got to visit the Garnier Opera House. When I got the chance to visit Dresden, I knew I wanted to visit the opera house. One thing I found interesting was the ammount of history relating back to opera writers. Many original works were performed there. The churches in Dresden are well known too. One of the most famous was partially destroyed during World War II and it has been rebuilt. On this church you can really see the old and new sandstone. Another interesting thing I got to see was the Meissen porcelain wall which shows Saxon royalty.

Walking around in the city was great. I got to do some shopping and hang out with my host mother. I had a really good time. Dresden even has a Starbucks! France only has one or two in Paris. One of the most typical things that I tried was a real bratwurst and saurkraut! I have had them in the US, but saurkraut in Germany is a million times better.

Here are some picutre of what I saw (thanks to Google):