Sightseeing in Dresden with Polina

Sorry I fell behind in my writing!  My friend Polina came to visit last Wednesday, and we had an intense five days of sightseeing and partying.  On Wednesday I showed her some of the Dresden basics, like the Frauenkirche and the Albertinum.  I finally got a chance to go to the top of the church!  What a view!  I just wish the sun had been out.  Polina had her first traditional German meal, a Thüringer Bratwurst mit Bratkartoffeln und Sauerkraut.  I ended up eating most of her sauerkraut, even though it had a little bit of pork in it.  I love that stuff!  The baked potatoes have a really good seasoning too.

That night we went to a halloween party at a student club not far from my dorm.  Even though it was already Nov 3, this was a legit halloween party.  I wasn't expecting anyone to dress up that much, but the students there went all-out with their costumes, American-style (although the girls actually chose creative over sexy!)  I let Polina wear my German girl Dirndel, so I had to buy a last minute costume from the Euroshop.  They only had Xmas stuff out, so I got jingle bell reindeer antlers and red fuzzy handcuffs.  It was a half-assed costume, and the only thing I could think of to call myself was eine böse Rentier, but Polina and I still received our free drinks for having a costume on!  They were actually really delicious.  Some sort of fruit juice mixed with vodka, with vodka-soaked cherries sitting on the bottom.  They all came with a marshmallow eyeball poking over the top too.  Not bad for being free!

We wanted to dance, but the DJ was playing old German rock songs that we didn't know, so we decided to just go back to the Gutz Club in my dorm and hang out there.  We sat down and had a beer, but nothing was going on so we left pretty shortly.  As we were on our way out, this guy came up to us and asked if we'd like to sit with him and his friends at their table.  We had nothing else to do, and Polina wanted to meet some real Germans, so we joined them.  They were three guys and one girl, all from the Dresden area.  Polina decided that she wanted to try to teach them to play King's Cup, so we got some cards and beer, but as you can imagine the translations didn't go over that smoothly.  I don't think they cared though.  You know Germans, always happy with an excuse to drink more beer!  Polina also tried Diesel (cola and beer) for the first time, and although she was hesitant, she said that she ended up really loving it.

Me, Polina, and Lin in Altstadt

On Friday we did some more sightseeing in Dresden.  We went to the Zwinger, which has like 5 different museums in it, but we ended up just going to the Grünes Gewölbe (the Green Vault.)  It was a collection of all of the historic treasures from kings and aristocrats in the area.  There was pearl, ivory, gold, silver, emeralds, rubies, diamonds, exotic seashells and coral, etc.  Basically everything that you could imagine in a treasure room.  Of course the security was very high and the museum ticket was kinda pricey, but I would suggest a visit for anyone else who loves opulence and beauty.

Building Artwork in Neustadt

We walked into Neustadt with Lin to look around at the shops and artwork.  Unfortunately it's already started getting dark by 4 pm here, so we had to see everything at night.  We had dinner at Babo's so Polina could try a Turkish Döner, but I think she liked the authentic German food better.  We also went to a cocktail bar that was having Ladies Night, but none of us were really in the mood to do more drinking after the night before.

Even though we didn't drink much, we still went to the Gutz that night for Poland Night (they have a different themed country night every week.)  It was really packed, and actually the dancing was really good for the Gutz (Polish girls love to grind apparently.)  Vodka shots were really cheap, but I didn't drink anything.  Then at 11 pm the Polish students started their presentation on Poland.  It was just a powerpoint with basic facts, and they wanted to do it in English too for whatever reason.  That wasn't so bad, but then they started doing karaoke to Polish songs, and everyone began to cringe.  I lasted about two songs before I said I needed to leave.  I wonder how long they kept going for.