Gettin' down in Dresden

So I don't think I even have to say how terrible I am at updating this blog thing cause I'm sure you all already have noticed haha BUT fear not. I have plenty of stories to put out all in one sitting (lets hope) so more reading for you hungry readers you. Hungry Readers. Now way back in April the 28th to be exact, the IUSP group and I headed out on our 2 of 3 trips we take while we here and this time it was to Dresden. Along with this great trip we were also accompanied by some great weather! So great in fact that when we got to our pitstop on our bus ride to Dresden I stepped off the bus into the sun and actually immediately felt my skin burning #irishproblems. Now one might think that that doesnt sound like the greatest weather BUT when you've been living in one third cold, one third rain, and one third cloudy weather for 2 months at this point the sun slowly damaging the outer layer of my skin was a Godsend. I almost shed a tear because of how happy I was, but it evaporated immediately exiting my eye. So after basking in the sun for a bit we all piled on to the bus and this is where things get sticky. Sticky, sweaty, smelly, and hot to be more accurate. Now i'm not saying the first half our trip wasn't it was just that after having the bus doors open to the elements and 50 or so already sun baked kids piled on to the bus things got a little hectic. The air conditioning trickled out of the vents like honey out of a refrigerated bottle and the only sort of cold relief i could get was when i simply put up my hand to the vent. But luckly I was to enveloped in my book really to notice. Now upon arrival we all, very quickly, stormed out of the bus and the organizer herded us all like lost american sheep to the front of the hostel and started getting groups together for rooms. Once my friends and I dropped off all of our essentials we grabbed the Frisbee, beers, and sunglasses and headed down to the river to enjoy such nice weather. Some people went out to venture into the old town right away which is normally what I do, but i thought heck we got a bus and walking tour all day tomorrow so i figured id indulge this time. Then we got back later in the day, had some dinner, and headed right back to the river but this time to just a quaint beer garden where we just all ordered a couple liters of beer, and relaxed in  chairs overlooking the river and the old town that as night approached was illuminated by lights pointed at the historical buildings. It was like I was in a romance movie or something. And after a nice night of relaxing in the nice cool breeze with some nice cool brews we all headed back to rest of for the next day. The bus tour started a little early for my liking and because of that i unfortunately passed out for the majority of the bus tour, I know I'm terrible for doing that, but hey a man needs his sleep haha. But I havent mastered sleeping and walking yet so for the walking part of the tour I was wide awake and absorbed information like a Sham-wow. From the city tour we took the bus to the Sandstone mountains and saw the most breath taking views i've ever seen. Took some bridges over deep trenches and did a little free climbing around the sand stones to take some pretty gnarly pictures. Then from there we headed to this fortress that has been around for centuries, but I believe the Nazi army used both to keep supplies and POW during the war. The walls were enormously tall so I figured if there's any place to hide out its here. Walked a little here, snapped a couple pictures there, and ate like 5 euros worth of ice cream which was very relieving if I do say so myself. And after a 7 hour day excursion we all piled back on the "sweat racer" and rode all the way back to Dresden just in time to scarf down some grub and head back down to the river for some more brew. Now one of my friends knew a german living in Dresden and said that she knew of this huge dance concert party thing going on that night and he had convinced us all that it wasnt that far. Had I known how far we walked and that we turned around before even getting there I would've stayed put, but as the young'ns say these days YOLO. And so we all just hung around the river again, but at this point I just wanted a nice bed so I stuck it out for as long as i could, and then headed back to the hostel and was out faster than you could say Schmetterlinge. Then just copy and paste the trip TO Dresden and cause it was just as hot, and sweaty, and filled with cranky smelly people, except this time for some reason I smelled myself half way through the trip and I seriously smelled like cheese. Everyone thought I was "overreacting" about smelling like cheese, like i really need to overreact about cheese stench, and everyone just blamed it on me being from Wisconsin, but I took that as a compliment. Then after I got home within the first 5 min of being in my room I had to jump on the bus to go pick up my friend from back home who was abroad in England since January and finished in April and has been travelling around and decided I was one of his stops, we both went to Munich for the weekend, but thats for the next post :) Till next time!

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they must be felt with the heart" Helen Keller