Dresden - Land of Pork

after finding a seat and spending a couple of hours contemplating a better strategy for catching trains, i finally arrived in Dresden. b's brother pete met me and we immediately headed into Old Town to find some food. i had some yummy hungarian goulash (since i started the trip w/ellen in mind, i thot i would continue the theme by eating something she makes way too well!). this was officially the 3rd time i've had meat since arriving in europe. on our way to dinner we walked by the Kreuzkirche Church. i was uber lucky cuz pete has been studying german and the town of dresden all summer so i had THE BEST tour guide! pete, you'll have to let me know if i get stuff wrong!

i think pete put it best when i asked him what he thot of dresden. it's a city confused about itself. very confused. after getting bombed repeatedly and burned, it has rebuilt itself w/lots of modern buildings mixed in w/old ones that survived. this is the Frauenkirche Church that was recently rebuilt. the black portion on the far left is part of the original structure.

when i arrived there happened to be a party going on. dresden was celebrating it's 800th birthday (or something like that) so there was a gigantic festival in progress. we passed by this stage where a dude was singing 80s-rick-springsteen style. definitely NOT german. it was hilarious!

from there pete took me to Zwinger, which was a pig market back in the day. after looking over the menu at dinner and chatting w/pete, i'm convinced everything in this country is made w/pork.
this place has huge buildings! they are now used as museums for glass and porcelin collections.

there's also pretty fountains that work...

and some that don't...

despite the confused state of the city, it really is pretty. that's the Cathedral in the background.

this is the Semper Opera House. i think the white thing in the corner is a beer tent (remember, festival going on???)

eventually we weaved out way thru the crowd to the bridge so i could get a shot of the river and Brühlsche Terrasse.

afterwards we made our way back to the main station so i could catch an overnight ride to zurich (pete showed me EXACTLY which platform to go to cuz you know how good i am w/trains). the visit was short, but i got definitely got the highlights. danke pete!