Dresden, Germany

Before I set sail, I just wanted to do a quick recap blog post about my most recent adventure in Germany. After Beach Week 2012, I jetted off to Dresden, Germany with my brother for 8 days. Part of his independent senior project, Skye chose me to go along with him to see how much German culture we could soak up in one week.

I don't know if any of you have seen The Buried Life on MTV (one of their better shows I must say) but we fashioned the trip along the same plot line- we had a list of 21 things Skye needed to try to accomplish by the end of the week, all revolving around the essential question of German culture.

It was an full, yet exciting week! We checked off almost all of the things on his list, visiting a German school the first day, touring museums, drinking beer and eating bratwurst, and (my person favorite) hiking in Saxonian Switzerland. The hike was up treacherous stairs and paths that led to climbing and extreme hiking up large rock structures. I found myself swinging from rock to rock at some points, praying that the metal handles were bolted securely to the rock faces.

Another highlight of the trip included attending an abstract/classical orchestral concert in the VW factory...the acoustics were phenomenal and I never knew a woman could play so many notes in one measure amidst the hanging metal bodies of in-progress cars.

Our day trip to Berlin was fun, though karma came back to bite us in Dresden for skimping on paying for train tickets in Berlin when we were caught by the transportation police and fined 40 euro each for having an invalid ticket. We certainly learned our lesson, but still had to call the parents and share our slightly frightening story. All in all, the lessons we learned were both academic and cultural... and all great lessons to keep in mind before departing on my next journey.











**We stayed with family friends, the Guenthers, who were great hosts and planned various day trips for us, helping us to pack in as much as we could during our stay there. Just wanted to informally send them a shout out and a personal thank you for making it a wonderful trip, and one I certainly won't forget with Skye. Oh, and their cat Carlo (originally named Adolf for his unique facial fur) deserves a thank you too!