Vacationing from Vacation

Just spent a lovely week exploring Germany! I went with 7 other IES students, and I was able to hang out with some people I don’t usually hang out with, which was really cool. On the trip, we went to Weimar and Dresden. In between cities, we saw the historic Wartburg Castle where Martin Luther translated the Bible and we also visited the Buchenwald concentration camp, which was a really moving experience to say the least. I took tons of pictures of the castle, but I didn’t feel right taking photos of Buchenwald.

Of the cities, Weimar was by far the most boring. My friends and I tried to find food at only 7:30 in the evening, but the only place that was open was a Subway! And there were hardly any people walking around, like it was a ghost town. I recommended that in the future, IES skips going to that city altogether. However, Dresden was absolutely gorgeous. The weather was finicky, but lucky for us, it worked out so that we got a beautiful day in Dresden.

On the first night in Dresden we got really cheap tickets to see Romeo and Juliet at the opera house. Although I could really only hear the music, and if I wanted to see I had to lean over the people in front of me just to glimpse one half of the stage, the experience was really cool. The opera house is so gorgeous! I’m so impressed that it got reconstructed after the war to mirror the original opera house.

The next day in Dresden we went down the Art Passage which has really cool buildings, although I’m not really sure why it exists other than it looks really cool. We also went wine tasting with the whole group which was really fun. We had fresh bread, cheese, and olives, and we tried three different types of white wine. My favorite was the Riesling, but I don’t know if I actually could taste the difference if you gave me them all at once. Maybe one day I will learn how to distinguish them!

I wish we had had more time to see the rest of Dresden. It’s history is so interesting, and the city is really beautiful. Every time I think of Dresden, I can’t help but think of Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut. Ever since I read that book, I had wanted to visit Dresden and now I can finally say I have!