#jessabroad ~ Dresden

September 26, 2016

   Our first morning in Dresden, we had a visit to the Semperoper and a city tour. I absolutely loved our tour guide, as she spoke with so much passion for the history of the art and music and culture of her city. The Semperoper was absolutely gorgeous, featuring painted ceilings, impressive colonnades, and immaculate detail in every way, shape, and form.





   After our tour of the Semperoper was finished, we reconvened to head off on our tour of the city itself. Dresden is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. We were able to visit various palaces, churches, see the Zwinger palace, and stroll down the streets of Dresden, absolutely immersed in the beauty and art of the city.
   Our tour concluded in the main city square, and we were able to break off into small groups to continue to explore the city. We decided to head up to the dome of the main cathedral to look out over the city.


   That afternoon, we decided to visit one of the castles just outside of Dresden. The best thing about this castle were the views--all around the castle were breathtaking panoramas of German countryside. From rolling hills to flowing rivers, there are few words to describe the actual beauty of the landscape.


   Dresden was definitely one of my favorite cities we visited. The culture, history, and music was absolutely amazing. My favorite memory of Dresden is after our final dinner in the city; due to issues with where we were originally supposed to eat, we'd ended up breaking off into small groups for dinner. When we all met up again that night, we headed to the bridge to catch a glimpse of the skyline over the water at night. That view was one of my favorites in all of Europe, and I would love to go back one day in the future and see it again.


   Dresden is definitely on my list of cities to revisit in the future, and I honestly decided while we were there I'd be completely fine picking up and moving there to settle for work or grad school. We'll see how that goal turns out!


After our time in Dresden, we packed up our stuff and boarded the bus to head to our final stop in Germany-- Berlin!


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#jessabroad ~ Weimar/Buchenwald

   Our second week in Osnabrück consisted of more classes, more shopping, and preparing ourselves for our long excursion. From fighting over the laundry machines to navigating our way through Kaufland's to gather snacks for the bus ride across Germany! We left around four in the morning on Wednesday, after a night of staying up all night so we would sleep on the bus ride, headed to our first destination--Weimar! The bus ride was filled with naps, charades, and card games as we made our way to Buchenwald.


   Once we arrived in Weimar and got to Buchenwald, the atmosphere completely changed. It sounds cliched to say, but it really does just feel heavier when you arrive at a place that was the site of so much hatred and suffering. Since we'd read Night by Elie Weisel in our class during the semester, this was a particularly heavy place to visit for us. The visit is hard to describe in words, and the value of the visit is more than I can describe in words; it's one thing to learn about the tragedies of the Holocaust in a classroom or from a book, but to see firsthand where these things actually took place is more valuable than all of the information you can read or absorb during a lecture.  


   After our visit at Buchenwald concluded, we boarded the bus once again to make our final drive to Dresden. We arrived at our hostel and unpacked our bags before heading off throughout the city to find a place for dinner. We ate as a class in a brauhaus, trying various traditional German foods and beers, before heading back to the hostel to get rest before the next day.
 
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#jessabroad ~ Munster and Bremen!

After our first week enjoying Osnabrück, we had our very first set of excursions. The weekend consisted of day trips to Munster and Bremen. Traveling by train, we passed the time playing cards, talking with our IFTs, and sneaking selfies with classmates who just so happened to fall asleep during the journey. 


Our morning in Munster consisted of a guided city tour around both the historic and modern parts of the city. We toured various churches, learned about the history of Night Watchmen in the city, and had the chance to view some palaces throughout the city. 




statue outside of Munster's city library
Stumbling Stones - dedicated to victims of the Holocaust




After the tour, we were free to split up into groups and explore the city on our own. With our IFTs, we headed off to find some lunch and to do a bit of shopping. One of the IFTs recommended some thrift shops, and we visited some tourist shops as well for postcards and souvenirs.



   That afternoon, we headed back to Osnabrück for a bit of rest before our excursion to Bremen the next day! 
   The next morning, we headed back to the train station to catch the train to Bremen. Once we arrived in the city, we split up into teams with our IFTs and, with only a map and our determination, were sent on a scavenger hunt to find various locations and facts about Bremen that were scattered throughout the city. 



   After winding our way from cathedrals to windmills, palaces to old medieval streets. we finished our hunt and stopped for a bite to eat. Yet again, doner kebabs were the meal of choice, and as we ate we talked about our time in Germany so far. 
   Once we'd finished lunch, we met up with our class at one of the Opera houses in Bremen to see Carmina Burana. Due to our non-stop schedule, most of our class unfortunately ended up napping through some (if not all) of the performance, and after its conclusion we headed back to the train station for the ride back to Osnabrück. 
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