Potsdam and Dresden

Unfortunately I woke up this Thursday with an incredibly sore throat, body aches, and an annoying head cold, probably a result of a too fun Wednesday night that involved a lot of mojitos. Everyone in my program was getting this 'cold' though and my lack of sleep probably intensified it. Alas, for me, it is a very quiet Saturday night and I am sipping on a bottle of (legally bought) red wine in my apartment in Prenzlauer Berg...hard life, huh? I figured I should use this as an opportunity to write about my trip to Potsdam and Dresden. 

Potsdam is technically part of the metropolitan area of Berlin but when you step off the train platform, you feel like you are in another world. Berlin's metropolis feel can be overwhelming, to the point that one forgets or loses the fact that it is so old and rich with history. Of course there are reminders, when walking down the Unter den Linden or the Museum Island, but for the most part it is the boutiques, cafes, restaurants, and bars that grab hold of one's attention. However, in Potsdam, it is ALL about the history and the distinctly European feel. Potsdam is the Versailles of France. It was at one point the capital (before Berlin seized that title) and was the residence of the Prussian kings. Their we visited the New Palace, built in order to celebrate Prussia's win in the Seven Years War. The New Palace was built as a guest house with 200 rooms...........

A fragment of the New Palace.

We took a tour of the palace and they actually made us wear slippers over our shoes in order to preserve the floors. The rooms were beautiful, ornate, and over the top. It was amazing to see a room in which Voltaire once slept. The garden of the New Palace was also incredible...and huge. 

After the Palace, we went into town and passed through the Dutch Quarter, which is comprised of a few very narrow streets with a ton street vendors selling local goods. We also went to Babelberg Park which was picturesque to say the least. 

Babelsberg also housed the site where the Potsdam Conference took place, in which Truman, Churchill, and Stalin all met and decided what to do with Germany after the Nazi Party surrendered a few weeks before. (This site had previously been used as a torture center for the SS and has a rather gory history in addition to the Potsdam Conference.)

(Also, weirdly built to look like a face)

Since Dresden is about a 3 hour bus ride away, we stayed there for a full weekend...and it was spectacular. Just like Potsdam, it was impossible to forget you were in Europe...and an old Europe at that. Dresden has an incredible historical center and has essentially just finished (within the last few years) the repairs on buildings that were mostly destroyed during the fire bombings in WWII. (The city was air raided for two days in 1945 and killed mostly civilians.) Nonetheless, the city has regained it majestic feel and is an incredible place to visit. It is the home of the Albertinum Museum, which houses a Degas statue that I was very excited to see, and the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister. The Sistine Madonna is located in the latter, most famous for the two angels in the lower quadrant of the painting. 

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The other buildings in Dresden were amazing...you can tell which bricks are old and which are new by the color of the stones. The older ones will be darker and almost black (they are made of sandstone which oxidizes) while the newer ones will be a beige. It is also located on the water, so we took a boat cruise and I remember feeling purely euphoric, looking out onto the water on a beautiful day and having that be enough. 

One of the most exciting parts for me was seeing the Slaughterhouses in which the book, Slaughterhouse-five takes place! No one is sure which one Kurt Vonnegut was held in as a POW, but it was still great to be able to see where the novel I once was obsessed with took place.

And not to mention...the night life in Dresden was also pretty amazing. We grabbed some shots from the equivalent of a CVS (still so weird) and drank those on the streets and then headed into a really cool club where we got a nice dose of American Pop! We also did a tour of the VolksWagen (car of the people) factory...random but cool.