Erasmus year reflections, Teil 1.5: Dresden!

I'm back in the UK at the minute, and I have been since the early hours of Thursday morning. It's been amazing being at home with my family and friends and definitely worth the hideous twelve hour journey and terrible flight with Easy Jet, but I feel like I've not had a minute to myself trying to squeeze in seeing everyone. I'm going back to Germany tomorrow morning (at 4am, boooo!) but only for one week (sob!) before I move back to the UK for good. I'm taking my brother with me though so that should be nice. We're hoping to visit Nuremberg, Bamberg, Munich and Legoland whilst we're there but I have so much to sort out that it might be a little difficult to squeeze everything in. One thing I'm very excited about is the prospect of flying with a swanky airline. Well, Lufthansa is certainly swanky by my standards. Very much looking forward to the free hot snack and drink! I'm not really sure where I'm going with this or what point I was trying to make, so I'll continue with a little bit about my favourite-city-ever, DRESDEN!

September 2010: Dresden

I say September, because that was the first time I visited the city but I actually went loads during my first semester at Bayreuth, because of where my boyfriend was living. I fell in love from the first time we went, and I didn't even fall out of love with it when we were wandering round the packed Christmas Markets in the -17 degree weather trying to eat chocolate covered fruit that had just frozen over. I think I'd like to live and work in the city someday but we'll see how things go. The photos were uploaded in a strange order so they're not chronological, but I can't be bothered to rearrange them at the moment!

My birthday is on St. David's Day and, being Welsh, I was delighted to find that it was being celebrated in my favourite cafe England, England. Sadly we didn't discover the cafe until quite late in the year so we only got to visit a few times, but the place was decorated like a nanna's house (this is 100% a good thing!) and had a selection of British newspapers and books which provided a very welcome relief to all the German that we'd been surrounded with. After a beautiful British cuppa and cheddar cheese on toast (almost impossible to come by in Germany) we spent almost an hour looking round the cafe's little shop full of British delights like sweeties and Marmite. I desperately regret not buying the English Rose handcream they were selling as it was gorgeous, but I didn't quite have enough pennies on me. I could write about the cafe for hours - it's my absolute favourite place to go in Dresden and I'd go back to the city just to visit again.

I'm not normally one to be too taken with architecture, but the architecture in Dresden blew me away. So stunning! It's strange to think that the city was completely flattened during the Second World War.

You can't visit Germany without trying Currywurst and Pommes. So good!

I took this on the day we left for good. Tom was moving to be with me in Bayreuth and we were about the catch our train when I snapped this from the S-Bahn. It's by no means a good picture but it's one of my favourites as it was so beautiful that that was the last thing my eyes saw of Dresden. Pretty fitting too, but now I'm just getting cheesy!

Tea and Welsh cakes at England, England! :D

I thought I had more photos of Dresden and it made me quite sad that these were the only decent(ish) few because we spent so much time there. Again the photos don't do the city's beauty, amazing shops or amazing nightlife any justice and I can only urge you to go and try it for yourself. Forget Berlin and Munich, Dresden is the place to be!

Wish me a safe flight, and I'll be back next week with a post about Berlin so keep an eye out! Bis bald :)

Erasmus year reflections, Teil 1: Meissen.

I may not meet many of the requirements for Best Language Student the World Has Ever Seen, but I can certainly put a big tick in the Wanderlust box. I'm currently swimming around in the dregs of my Erasmus year in Germany and my biggest regret is that I didn't travel anywhere near as much as I'd have liked to (and that my German is still pretty shocking, but I can deal with that). I don't quite know how I managed to pilfer away almost £4000 of free money on top of my full student loan, but I did! Tom had a bit of a rough year on his placement and it ended up costing him almost a grand just to escape from that so that didn't help too much, but the main reason was probably that I just can't keep my hands to myself every time I visit H&M. Anyway, I digress. To help me get back into the swing of blogging (and not feel too depressed that the amazing experience is over) I've decided to compile a little account of all the places I have managed to visit during my Erasmus year. I'll post a little bit about each city in every post and try and include as many photos as I can! Sorry they're so tragic, my little point and shoot does get a 10/10 for effort...

September 2010: Meißen

This was always going to be the one with the most pictures seeing as it was the first place in Germany I saw in the light of day after I landed in Berlin. Tom had already been living there for a week when I joined him and he did a placement out there until March. To say it was turbulent would probably be something of an understatement. You see, Meissen is in Saxony and is a part of the former DDR and you can really tell. The city is gorgeous, but there isn't a great deal to do unless you want to take an hour train journey to Dresden (costing 11€ return) and very few young people because the economy has struggled to keep up with the former West Germany since the reunification. So he was stuck there internet-and-friend-less after I left in October. It was a damn struggle to keep our relationship going during that time, but Meissen is still the place I'm fondest of.

Luckily it was still summer whilst I was there and we were new to the city and also the country so it was nice to be able to spend the days exploring and practising the language. The cultural difference did shock me a little. I'm fully aware that British girls tend to leave little to the imagination when dressing, but vest tops or skirts without tights were a total no-go if you didn't want disapproving stares and overt gossiping. I'm very used to blending in in Britain, but everything about me seemed to scream 'foreigner' and the attention made me feel a little uncomfortable. Still, it was nice to be able to throw on my scruffiest clothes for an amble to the Eiscafe without being judged too severely.

We ate far too much ice cream whilst we were there. Eiscafes are such a big part of German culture and even now, eleven months later the novelty still hasn't worn off. We did take it a little too far though, nomming our way through a beaker of icecream every single day when we really should have just been eating a scoop. Not good for my bank balance or my waistline! But in a city famous for its porcelain, vineyards and notorious flooding, there wasn't a great deal else to do. Many evenings strolling up Albrechtsburg (shown in the photos) ensured that all the icecream didn't make me too much of a podge!

I had a brilliant time during my stay, but sadly this doesn't seem to have translated too well in my writing. But I honestly didn't do a great deal, it was just a nice little break spent with my boyfriend after a summer apart. It was also the perfect end to the summer before having to get used to the university routine again and I think I saw the most drastic improvement in my German in those four short weeks than in the ten months I lived in Bayreuth as a student. My writing skills still leave a lot to be desired and I'm actually a little bit sad that I can't do such a beautiful city the justice it deserves. If you ever find yourself anywhere near Dresden, Meissen is well worth a day trip!

I do hope my account of my time in Meissen wasn't too dull. I'll make a post about Dresden next time and my tales will hopefully be a little more animating!

Bis bald!

Una città bellisima!

Once upon a time (January) my boyfriend whisked me away to Milan for a weekend as part of my Christmas present and his birthday present. He is rather wonderful!

We stayed just outside of the city in Bergamo but sadly didn't get to experience much of it. Bergamo is famous for its Casoncelli dish and though we didn't find the time to try it, the manager of our hotel told us that it was an absolute must for those visiting the region. Instead we opted for the 'menu turistico' which was, at 20€ for three courses, coffee, water and a bottle of wine, significantly cheaper than the underwhelming food Milan had to offer peasants like us. The restaurant was called La Bruschetta the food alone was easily delicious enough to warrant a return.

Milan, I feel, needs no explanation. Two days in the city was definitely plenty of time to experience the major attractions that the city has to offer, and we learned the hard way that a cheap meal in the city is nigh on impossible to come by. We were lured in to a restaurant under the illusion that we'd be paying around 9€ for a bowl of pasta. Of course this was true, but at 6€ for a standard size glass of Coke, the cost begins to mount. The pasta wasn't awful, but I could have easily cooked up a dish of equal quality at home for a fraction of the price. Still, for a city like Milan, tourist traps are only to be expected.

Though it was very foggy during our stay, and the quality of my camera isn't the best, here are a few of the pictures we took during our stay:

This was taken at the very top of the Duomo. The views were really quite spectacular even on a day as foggy as that. I imagine that you could see for miles on a clear day.

It wouldn't be a trip to Italy without a visit to a Gelateria!

This is my boyfriend in the expensive restaurant I mentioned earlier. We felt ever so classy drinking our 8€ Prosecco.

Focaccia is delicious!

The Duomo in all its glory. It's so grand and imposing and I couldn't help but feel that its intricate architecture would look out of place and tacky in anywhere other than Milan. It suits the city perfectly though.

Prada!

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele.

Another view from the top of the Duomo. I took around a hundred from the top, but I managed to refrain from posting them all.


One thing that really surprised me was the willingness of the Italians to speak English to us. Like so many other nations without English as an official language, the gratitude shown for taking just half an hour to learn some key phrases is enough to justify doing it. I can't understand why so many people are still choosing the ignorance option. Then again I am a languages student. I can't recommend Milan enough though, and I have a feeling that this is only the beginning of a life-long love affair with Italy.

Ciao,
Sarah