Valentine in Dresden

Hiii!

This article has been sitting in my concepts for past few months. I wrote majority of this already, but as you may see, my procrastination prevents me from ever finishing anything :). I hope I will manage to remember the blank spaces, enjoy!

Every year, there's a Valentine discount for RegioJet buses. You can get tickets to destinations such as Vienna, Amsterdam and Rome (not from anywhere, though, in Czechia you have to go from Prague), 1+1 free. Of course, there are some catches, for example you can't cancel them, but it's still worth it. 

I love traveling with my sister, it's one of those things that keep me somehow sane, so of course we had to go. Last year we went to Amsterdam, next year it's maybe going to be Amsterdam again (there's still so much we missed) but this year the council decided for Dresden. 

Dresden might not sound as exciting, I wouldn't really think of it, but when we went to Berlin before New Years Eve, we went through Dresden. It looked so beautiful, with it's gothic historical center, cathedrals and all the shops. We couldn't resist. Two months after Berlin, we were back in Germany. I have never spent even two hours in this beautiful country few months ago, so this was still very exciting. 

There are some amazing things in Germany that you would be hard-pressed to find in Czechia, at least outside Prague, such as Backwerk (cheap yummy pastries), german Bretzels and curry wursts and actual Froyo shops. We knew we are going there waaay before RegioJet started selling Valentine tickets. In fact, we had our cheap hotel and tickets to Prague booked so ahead of time, that we had to go there even if we couldn't use the 1+1 discount.
The only thing missing was asking for days off from my work. 

Yep, I do tend to forget about that. Luckily, it all worked out by the end, I just had to work the night before and the morning of. That meant that I got off the work at 5:30 AM on Friday the 13th. The train to Prague, the one containing my waiting sister (she lives with our parents, so she was leaving from Karviná), left at 6:50. I was positive that sleeping wouldn't be a good idea. Of course, I was dreading this. 

I decided to use carbs and sugar for energy instead. It wasn't such a genius idea, but it made me a little bit happier, so when I left my apartment (I managed to shower and get a breakfast before leaving) I was actually looking forward the journey. Luckily my sister really was waiting for me in the train, and after greeting her, I fell asleep rather quickly. This nap powered me through the day.

The journey was uneventful, but we had to go through Prague. Commuting between Main Station and Florenc makes me nervous. It´s not a long journey, it only around 20 minutes by feet, but if your train gets any delay, you can easily miss your bus from there. We did not mess around - no coffee, no McBreakfast, just sheer fear of missing our connection. I hope I will be able to move to Prague one day just to skip the journey from Moravia. 

Of course our first stop in Dresden was Backwerk. Not just because it was time for lunch, but also because we are very enthusiastic for pastries. We got a red velvet cinnamon roll, börek with feta and spinach and some type of focaccia. It was all very good.

Next stop was supposed to be Zwingler gallery, filled with old masters and centuries worth of history. The road there from Dresden Hauptbanhof is filled with shops (such as Lush as Zalando Boutique) and malls. Originally, we were supposed to shop by the end of the program - we don't have Primark or Hollister anywhere near our home and we wanted to use this chance. So we changed our mind quickly. As much as we wanted to see Zwingler, shopping spree sounded like more fun at the moment, and we knew that there's a froyo shop in Altmarkt. 

I have never had my own frozen yoghurt before. I tried it once, after my sister and our friend Andy accidentaly had to pay around 20 euro for a small cup. They did not notice the price was based on weight. In tragic turn of events, I love it. Why, just why are there not any shops in 100 kilometer radius :(.

After this, we did some sightseeing. Dresden is stunning, really. We based our programme around historical center of the city, which is filled with beautiful architecture and rich history. Terrible weather conditions (that never failed to make me regret my decision to arrive in dress and light coat) actually added a lot to the gothic atmosphere. 

When we were taking this picture at Schlossplatz, nearby street musician started playing Wonderwall. Since both of us love Oasis, we took it as a great sign for our trip. 
And yes, we were trying to make a heart. 

My sister carries her pink digital camera everywhere, which allows us to make a lot of photoshoots. Sadly, I can´t  share majority of them :(. I also suck at remembering our actual stops - but we saw Katolische Hofkirche, Bruhl Terrace, Frauenkirche, Stallhof and Schlossplatz, as mentioned above. 

We also saw QF Passage, mainly since both of us wanted to get a Jellycat. My favourite one is Timmy the Turtle, but as always, we chickened out. They are cute, but expensive. (Just like us.)

Then we went to our hotel, and even during the journey we knew just how cooked we were. It was cheap and our room was nice, however, it was in the middle of nowhere. We have to commute for almost an hour, last kilometer and half by foot. There wasn't any shop or open restaurant for at least one kilometer square, but we had to get some food anyway. As exhausted as we were, we made the trip to Netto as quickly as possible, and then we went to sleep very early.

We have been looking forward our next trip a lot. We went to Moritzburg, the castle from Tři oříšky pro Popelku/Three Wishes for Cinderella. We watch that movie every Christmas Eve, it´s part of our tradition. And by our I mean majority of our nation - you dine, then you turn on TV while opening presents, there´s Cinderella, then some new Christmas movie (they make one every year) and then Pelíšky. And I wouldn´t want it any other way. Like many of our greatest films, Popelka was coproduced by Germany, and parts of it were also filmed there. Moritzburg castle is one of those locations. 

Not only did they film it there, they also had an exhibition with costumes, stuff and trivia from the movie. And not only in German, but also in Czech :D. We loved the recognition. After the nightmarish journey (more on that later, but let´s say that trams were not on time), we were instantly transported into Christmas.

I think this is my favourite dress from the entire movie.

My sister collects postcards, she gets one on every single one of our trips. She used them as a travel diary. I feel like this one was the only correct option from our Valentine trip.  

You can take a photo with Cinderella´s shoe outside :D.

After we went all the way through exposition, we had half an hour to kill and we were very hungry, our morning was too chaotic to get breakfast, so we went into the first restaurant we could find. None of the waiters spoke English, which made sense as it was very tradional Saxon restaurant (at least visually), however, all of the other guests were either Czech or Slovak so it didn't feel very adventurous. What can I say, our nation loves Cinderella. 

Both of as got just a cake, as we didn't have time for coffee. I heard that this region is one of the first ones (along with Moravia and Bohemia) that came up with tradion of cake, coffee and gossip. 

The cakes were very good. I got marzipan one and my sister Eierschecke I think, a traditional Dresden cheesecake. It was sooo tasty.

What was not very good, however, was our journey back to the city. First od all, what? One way journey for 6,20? Illegal. But that was nothing. 

We managed to plan our journey on annual something that I can only call anti-nazi protest day, just for the sake of simplicity. We knew that the protests could have effect on public transport, but we didn't expect it to make our bus 40 minutes late. 

Already one hour late for our plans, we were craving for something cheap that couldn´t disapoint us, so we commuted to Backwerk at main station, instead to our first stop. This was a mistake, as we should soon learn that nothing goes from Hauptbanhof. Not only did no knew trams arrive there - none could leave, either. There were two trams, standing there for at least 20 minutes, full of unamused people.

So we walked the 3 kilometers instead. It was very cold, and I did start regretting my thin coat and lack of pants once again. Also, we were angry that we fell so much beneath our plan - it was almost 14:00 and the only one we finished was Moritzburg. 
Still hungry, we stopped by Madame Croissant, bakery that we wanted to visit day prior. I ordered a crookie and enjoyed it a lot.

. 

Luckily, it was worth it. Molkerei is supposed to be the most beautiful milk shop in the world and honestly, it really is. Not like I have been to many milkshops. It's also quite affordable and theres a cafe, too, but we decided against getting anything.

As you will see for lack of photos, we felt tired and very defeated at this point.

Next on was a photobooth on Louisestraße, it didn't work, sadly, but it allowed us to walk through the New Town. It was interesting, more Berlin than Vienna. It felt quite cool, filled with shops and cafés with several different types of matcha. I liked it there. After Kunsthofpassage, very interesting building, we decided to rest for a little bit, and as we are attracted to all things Tiki, we got milkshakes at Tiki bar, and they were SO GOOD. 
They gave us some power to continue our journey - at this point, there was only Kartoffel Gallery and Canaletto Blick left. 
They were closer to the Old Town, and of course, we walked there. I only now remembered that we actually bought 24 Hours ticket for public transport fot this day.
It was, in fact, one of our biggest defeats.
Canaletto Blick offers a nice view over city and Kartoffel Gallery is nice, free gallery, translatable as Potato Gallery. They had nice merch and didn´t take too long to walk through, which was nice as we were increasingly tired.

Suddenly, we realised it's not even 6 PM yet and we are already finished. So we went to a mall, naturally, mainly looking for souvenirs. We always bring some food (typical local cuisine, ideally) and fridge magnets. We had a clear plan - wursts for dad and grandma, Bretzels for mom. It´s the only thing piercing through her health freak tendencies. 

I really like the Praguer Street. It may speak to my inner capitalist, but if you ever get tired of all the amazing museums and history in Dresden, some shopping is very rejuvenating. 

I got a claw clip from Primark, and Denda bought herself new bathrobe. It was hard to pack later, but it made her very happy.
Also, we got ourselves dinner in Carrefour, since both of us would probably rather die than walk another kilometer to Netto. 

On our last day, we started at a Chocolate Museum. What can I say, gluttony is our one way ticket to hell :). Our journey there was traditionally rocky, but we got there first, so we had the entire thing for ourselves. Most of the material was written in German, but we (my pitiful German skills and my sister´s Google Translate) powered through this. Did you know that chocolate bars were made in Dresden first? It used to be one of the choco capitals.
One of the most amusing activities there was a taste test between cheap chocolate and expensive one with instructions of what to look for. Cheap chocolate was represented by Milka, which is funny, as both me and my sister see Milka as some fine stuff. If the notion of no more sweet samples makes you sad, don´t worry - the souvenir shop had some good and rather cheap speciments. I tried the champagne truffle that catched my interest so much in the museum. It didn´t taste very champagny to me, though. 
There´s also a coffee shop under the museum. The service was average (just your run of the mill exploitation of sad local students) but the hot chocolate was very good. 

Also, we felt increasingly more pressed about out need to get fridge magnets. I don´t know for sure if we eould even be allowed back home without them. Luckily, you don´t have to pay admission for Zwingler Gallery gift shop. We got a milkgirl for our granny, and snail for us, which didn´t amuse our mom even a little bit.

And because there´s not such a thing as too much museums (even if you´re as tired as I was already), we visited Hygiene Museum as our last stop. You should definitely go there even if it´s not your thing, as it was both informative and interative. There was also exbition about revolutions, featuring a lot of Czech history. It was nice to feel a little bit of national pride. 
The only thing left to do was to go home, after this. (But first, of course, we went to Backwerk for one last time.) 

I have to say, it was amazing weekend and I would be happy to go back to Dresden again. There´s history, shopping to do and great food all around the town, so I can definitely recommend Dresden for everyone. 

There was another nice surprise awaiting us. Originally, we were supposed to get to Prague and walk around for two hours (probably go to Knedlín), which would mean that Denda would have to change trains in Ostrava, probably miss her bus from train station and then get home waaay after midnight. But just we were approaching ÚAN Florenc, our stop, our mom called us that if we will be able to make it, she will buy us tickets for train that leaves in 30 minutes. That was great for both of us. I had to finish article for zine I was working on, so I was very happy to get to my computer so much sooner. 

Dresden was amazing. It had so much to offer, even if it was not always prepared for international tourists. Just try to plan ahead any demonstrations, please :).

Bye!

I hope everyone enjoyed Valentine as much as we did! 
Also, I hope I will make myself finish more articles soon :D. I´m working on few of them - some of them about our travels. I feel like I should definitely write about Berlin, Vienna, Athens, or maybe even the article about cheap travel around Europe.

See you soon!