Hello and Goodbye: A Short Trip to Dresden

On Thursday we had our optional day trip to Dresden, Germany. I was really excited because I loved Germany when I stayed there for a month in 2012. I remembered the beauty and all the great food I loved. Kate and I had essentially three missions: find the delicious candy I loved, get doners,  and eat gelato.

We finally arrived in Dresden in the early afternoon after a long bus ride from Prague. Unlike all the other cities we had already been to, our guided tour was going to be after our free time. Dresden, like most of the other cities we've visited, is situated on two sides of a gorgeous river. We were on the side with most of the old, historical buildings that also led to a great shopping area. Most people stayed around this area, but Kate and I, along with Alysha, decided to cross the bridge and explore the other side in hopes of accomplishing our three goals.

The Opera House, basically the only building we actually knew the name of

A bridge!

A river!

Found Alysha!

It was a really beautiful day. There was green grass and pink blossoms, and the buildings looked gorgeous right up above the water. We were enjoying just walking and taking in the sights, but we were starting to get hungry and there weren't any doners in sight. This was strange to me because in Erlangen where I stayed in Germany last time, doner stands and shops were everywhere!

I just think it's so beautiful

We stopped into a supermarket to go to the bathroom and continue our search, and ended up buying the candy I wanted and picking up some baked goods from an awesome German bakery.

Posing with blossoms

On the other side of the bridge

The crew

On our way back over the river, we of course stopped to take some photos of blossoms and rivers and whatnot.

Chillin like a villain

Your basic girl pose

Woohoo Europe!

 

 

Classic girl pose Take 2

Adorable and picture perfect
(side note: we do not know these people)

Back on the other side, we were still on the hunt for doners. We asked some of the souvenir sellers if they knew where we could find them, but they didn't understand me. Apparently, I can't pronounce the word correctly, so I had to type it out on my phone before they knew what I was talking about. One guy knew where we could find some and told us to walk straight in one direction for about fifteen minutes.

The largest porcelain mural in the world.
Check it

We started our walk, but by this time we were supposed to meet back where we started in thirty minutes for our guided tour. We kept on walking, but after fifteen minutes, we didn't see any sign of doners. We decided to cut our losses and go to a food court in the mall to eat.

We went up to the food court, and there were the doners! We were super excited and immediately ordered what I will say is the biggest sandwich I have ever seen and eaten in my life. I can safely tell you that I will not be wanting a doner any time soon.

Doner time!

So of course, right after we finished our doners, we headed over to another place in the food court to get our gelato fill. This was also delicious and I have no regrets.

There's always room for gelato

The guided tour was well underway before we even got our doners, so we decided to sit this one out and spend the last hour wandering around. We browsed through a couple shops, and if I had tons of money to spend, Dresden would be a great place to spend it. Lots of cute clothes and jewelry and shoes, but sadly I do not have the funds sufficient for a massive shopping trip. I know, I have a hard life.

And that was my trip to Dresden! Probably not my favorite place we visited, but I think that was more due to the limited amount of time we had there rather than the quality of the city itself. It was a beautiful city and a beautiful day. We spent the rest of the day driving back to Prague to pick up those who didn't go to Dresden, and then continued on to Poland where we spent the night. Three countries in one day! Yay for Europe!