There are few city
skylines more striking than that of Dresden’s
I don’t often take
pleasure in adversity, but I must say, although my recent weekend away with my
very good friend Josefine (Fine) in the beautifully baroque Dresden happened to be filled
with misfortune, in true ‘Cristal-style’ accident
after accident, it was, indeed, an incredible weekend!
Fresh off the back of my tonsil tantrum, with antibiotika streaming through my blood, we ventured to Dresden by train, equipped with vegemite sandwiches and mandarins.
Although I had absolutely
no money in my account, I had a plan! Serendipitously (or suspiciously perhaps?),
last week sometime a bundle of money from the Australian Taxation Office landed
itself into my Australian bank account. What a dichotomy for me! My head was
saying ‘ohhh, Cristal, forget it- it might be a mistake, they might want this
cash back in the future, and then you’ll be truly screwed’, but my heart was
saying ‘created for you, Cristal, to spend in this otherwise financially
difficult period! GO ON! What are ya waitin’ for?!’
And in actual fact, I didn’t have much choice in the matter. My hands were tied. I needed that money.
SO, my plan was as follows: arrive in Dresden, go to ATM, withdraw money from Australian bank account. Have money.
Simple! Or so I thought...
And in actual fact, I didn’t have much choice in the matter. My hands were tied. I needed that money.
SO, my plan was as follows: arrive in Dresden, go to ATM, withdraw money from Australian bank account. Have money.
Simple! Or so I thought...
Firstly, it turns
out I’d been very clever through recording my Australian PIN (Personal Identification
Number) inconspicuously under the alias of a false person in my mobile phone
contact list. Okay, that’s good... Clever, even. I could remember the ‘persons’
name. I looked them up, only to have forgotten which permutation / combination within
the false number my PIN actually was! I tried once. I tried twice. I stopped
trying for fear of the ATM swallowing my card! Holy shit.
THEN it dawned on me! I realised that I was using the wrong card all together! I had done a little ‘purse clean out’ a few weeks earlier, because I realised I was carting around all of this superfluous crap from Australia not applicable to living in Germany. I’d taken out my Australian debit card because that account was fully drained anyway...BUT I’D NOT THOUGHT TO PUT IT BACK! And that was how I was going to access the ATO ‘birthday present’ (let’s call it that).
Wow. What to do? Waiting for my MacGyver instincts to kick in, to no avail, I soon realised I was screwed.
THEN it dawned on me! I realised that I was using the wrong card all together! I had done a little ‘purse clean out’ a few weeks earlier, because I realised I was carting around all of this superfluous crap from Australia not applicable to living in Germany. I’d taken out my Australian debit card because that account was fully drained anyway...BUT I’D NOT THOUGHT TO PUT IT BACK! And that was how I was going to access the ATO ‘birthday present’ (let’s call it that).
Wow. What to do? Waiting for my MacGyver instincts to kick in, to no avail, I soon realised I was screwed.
Fine had brought
along 100€ for the weekend. Bless her cotton socks, she offered to give me 50€
to borrow for the weekend, and so we both proceeded to tough out the duration
of the weekend in Dresden living a lifestyle more poverty stricken than I’d
even lived as a university student. Humbling, to say the least...and also not
so conducive to seeing the sights of a new, amazing city (insert emojicon here
of face embarrassingly clenching its teeth).
So, equipped with
50€, 17€ of which was immediately evaporated through accommodation costs (it
should be stated that we stayed in the most incredibly tacky hostel Dresden had
to offer, ‘Australia Stop’. It was, however, extremely comfortable and inviting.
Recommended to anybody travelling to Dresden. 5 stars), we began our
adventures.
Fine goes safari! 'Australia Stop' Hostel. Who KNEW Australia had lions and giraffes? They must be in Perth.
The weather in
Dresden (and Berlin also) had taken a turn for the worse this day, and,
although we were lucky that the rain was largely kept at bay, the gale force
winds alone were a force to be reckoned with!
Windy windy! This photo doesn't capture quite just how windy it was here...
With a spring in
our step, a wind on our tails, and very little cash in our pockets, we headed
to the Altstadt (Old City) to see some of the beautiful sites.
As Fine and I were
both equipped with cameras, it was quite humerous to later compare photos, only
to realise that often we’d captured each other capturing something else.
In
this image, I’d gotten down low to incorporate the daffodils into the shot as I
took photos of Augustusbrücke (August’s Bridge) leading into the Altstadt. In
doing so, I had inadvertently obliterated the mandarin in my jacket pocket...
sticky, wet, cold. Crrrrrristal!!! This is why YOU CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS!
Spot the camouflaged artistic Cristal, sacrificing comfort for art. Or, just a shitty photo with lots of lamp posts actually...
Now, as most of you know, the city of Dresden suffered terribly during the 3-day long devastating bombing raids by British and American planes in February 1945, which flattened most of the city. 3900 tonnes of explosives were unleashed on Dresden in four huge air raids, with ashes raining down on villages as far as 35km away. Consequently, tens of thousands of Dresdners lost their lives and 20 sq km of this once elegant baroque city lay in smouldering ruins.
Not content with a fate of ugliness, Dresden rose from the ashes and rebuilt, re-assembling nearly identically, many of the city’s most important landmarks.
Now, as most of you know, the city of Dresden suffered terribly during the 3-day long devastating bombing raids by British and American planes in February 1945, which flattened most of the city. 3900 tonnes of explosives were unleashed on Dresden in four huge air raids, with ashes raining down on villages as far as 35km away. Consequently, tens of thousands of Dresdners lost their lives and 20 sq km of this once elegant baroque city lay in smouldering ruins.
Not content with a fate of ugliness, Dresden rose from the ashes and rebuilt, re-assembling nearly identically, many of the city’s most important landmarks.
Frauenkirche- The
original ‘Women’s church’ lasted for 2 centuries before collapsing 2 days after
the February air raids. The East Germans elected to leave the church as rubble
as a war memorial, but eventually decided upon a consecration in November 2005.
The present day Frauenkirche is an identical replica.
Zwinger (~dungeon)-
Primarily a party place for royals commissioned in Dresden’s cultural heyday in
the 18th-century under the reign of Augustus der Stark (August the
Strong).
Feeling slightly
fatigued after an afternoon of intense sightseeing coupled with constant
physical battles against the wind, we eventually decided to cross back over to
the trendy Neustadt to get some cheap Vietnamese noodles (fortune cookies
provided with our bill proved to be incredibly insightful for both Fine and I),
have a beer in a bar, and head back to the hostel to kick back and fall asleep.
I still had my vodka from the night before, so as Fine retired to our 10-dorm room,
I sat in the communal area ‘gargling’ vodka and thinking about my future. A
typical Saturday night for a 30 year old I’d say.
In view of the evenings conversations, this 'fortune' proved to be very apt!
The next day, after
a leisurely sleep in and slow start, Fine and I had some loose plans to see a few
more sites in the Altstadt. With our plans largely dictated by our funds (or
lack thereof), we spent our last pennies going underground for some incredible,
400 year old catacombs- the
last preserved city gate of the former capital of Saxony, before electing on
one exhibition (the Grünes Gewölbe- Green Vault) to fritter the rest of the day
away in. A curious exhibition I thought filled with ludicrous and hideously ugly precious
objects wrought from gold, ivory, silver, diamonds and jewels... Not really my cup of tea, I was far more
impressed by another transient exhibition based on Dionysus, the Greek God of
the grape harvest, wine making and wine. I could relate far more to his ideals
on the importance of intoxication.
Dresden's Fortress /
Catacombs
Taken on the sly in the [no photos allowed] exhibition, I felt this explanation of Dionysus's life philosophy was remarkably poignant! We're totally samesies! We would have been good together...
“Through the drinking
of wine his presence became tangible, and in a state of intoxication his
divinity could be experienced”
As a side note, and
just to demonstrate further how determined I was to create as much drama and
stress in one weekend as possible, I then dropped my iPhone and shattered the
screen thoroughly. Acutely aware of just how annoying being in my prolonged
presence must have been for poor Fine, I concealed, quite effectively I think, the
internal panic attack this resulted in. I knew I had no money to have my phone
repaired, yet that, with my phone serving largely as my lifeline here in
Germany, its repair was compulsory. Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!
It hurt my heart as much as it hurt my screen, trust me!
In the face of this
constant drama, this wonderfully pleasant (inexplicably) weekend was topped off
with a rushed dart back to the hostel for our bags, before heading to Dresden’s
Hauptbahnhof to catch our train back to happy, non-stressful, Berlin.
Fine posting me my
ritual post card to myself (this time with a secret little message from her)
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