My coworker Bea (also an intern in my department but she leaves in two weeks... not talking about that :( ) she has some free trips still before her term is over, so she wanted to see a different part of Germany, and she hadn't been to Dresden before. She did all this research (on top of work... wow !!! jk it was a slow week) and she found some cool hiking around. She asked the interns on our company page if anyone wanted to go, but it turns out it was only me and our friend Roman. But we still wanted to go so we booked the (free) tickets yesterday and headed out early this morning. 

We met at the bus station and tried to do a "mystery check" aka where you assess the vehicle for compliancy, but it turned out to be too much work haha. We just sat on the bus, and after telling Bea I was a morning person, I passed out like the rest. We got to Dresden in no time (2.5 hours I think?) and went across the street to a grocery store and hopped on the regional train. We were headed to the last stop where you get off and take a ferry over the Elbe to the Czech Republic, but the conductor said the ferry at the second-to-last stop was free with our ticket, so we did that... it ended in Germany but whatever. It was pretty cute - the town was made for tourism, but for being a perfect Saturday afternoon, it was not busy at all. I think it's definitely regional tourism - there's much more famous places around (like the Bastei Bridge). We started our hike and realized that red meant "most difficult" so we quickly changed our path. I think I would've been fine, but I haven't worked out since January (shoutout to my roommie Leigh for taking me to the gym) and I always think I can hop back into physical activities like this out of nowhere, but I definitely over-estimate myself every time. So it was good Bea suggested the milder path.  

We're walking walking walking, admiring the crazy boulder formations, when all of a sudden we are walking alongside little concrete pillars painted white. Roman had been to this national park before, so he knew right away that they were border markers. One side had a "D" for "Detschland" and the other had a "C" for "Cesko" (it was painted over an engrained "CS" which was interesting... the things a country has to do when it changes names) - we found the border! I thought this was awesome, and I took some time standing in two countries at once, as well as hopping back and forth from country to country. Super neat.

Now that I had enthusiasm to go on, the rest of the hike was easier since it basically followed this border. We finally got to the top and went to a lookout point and wow. I saw the view for a second through the trees, and I got teary-eyed it was so beautiful. I don't think I've done that before. I think I was also probably excited to eat.

It was GORGEOUS though and there was plenty of space for a picnic, so we broke out our fruits, cheese, salami, and bread and feasted like nature kings. You really can't beat it. We had truly bought a feast, so we decided we needed a lil siesta after the meal... now I am not ghostly white. Ahhh it was so nice. We eventually came to the conclusion that we couldn't stay there forever, so we went on and came upon a little settlement which included a little restaurant where they were very kind to personally refill our water bottles. That was what was kinda weird about this area - people talked to you and smiled at you and said hello and acknowledged your humanity - real different from Berlin. Maybe all Germans aren't so bad... jk jk jk. They're all good people, some just show it differently.

We came to the point where we needed to go on the Czech routes, but surprisingly enough they were not as well laid-out as the German ones. We were doing pretty ok until we weren't and we found ourselves in a pretty steep and overgrown valley. I knew I'd have to get thick skin to survive in Germany, but I didn't realize it'd be physical thick skin too. Their pines HURT but we came out with barely even a few scratches. Pretty good. We were really in deep doodoo and got to a point where we had to turn around which sucked because it was hard enough going down and couldn't imagine getting back up through everything. Because this blog is for me and it's by no means being published, I would just like to say that I suggested we climb the valley cliffs at a nearby low point - and bam we were on top and on flat, open ground with the border in sight. Kinda saved our butts... ok not true but saved a lot of misery going back up the valley. Most athletic thing I've done in years.

We make our way along the border, knowing it will get us to a road eventually and we finally get to a familiar spot where a road curves by. We were so happy and tired that we just laid down on the road and had a second feast. Man German roads are great. We had to press on and we eventually got back to the town, onto the ferry and back on the train (barely). We had planned to stop by the touristy bridge mentioned above, but we were running out of time (and energy). We went back into Dresden to see the city for a bit, but we had roughly an hour there so we did some quick sightseeing and grabbed some burgers and fries for dinner. Dresden is a really gorgeous town - it was rebuilt after massive bombings in WWII, so it's a bit artificial, but they tried to keep as much as they could original. It was crazy though how big and open it was. You could throw your arms out and spin around and not hit anyone (trust me I tested this more than a few times). It was so free!! And the buildings were so pretty and logical and there were cute restaurants - it's a legit prosperous and contributing city, but it still had time to look cute. There were many things that made me realize I was living in Berlin. Sometimes I might as well be living in NYC (probably more Williamsburg though). This was the first European city I'd visited since moving to Berlin. I had forgotten what Europe was like. I want to see more of Eastern Europe since I'm obviously so used to the West. It was really interesting to be there and feel very proper and comfortable. Berlin is comfortable, but in a different, hanging-at-my-guy-friends'-college-house kind of feel. It's kinda dirty and pretty unorganized, but everyone's themselves and there's a super chill vibe going on. I haven't been anywhere in Europe like that. So it was weird today to go back to a place where I personally would picture "Europe". I'd like to see more and change that image.