Sometimes something great just comes out unexpectedly.
Kristof and I went to explore the old messy yet beautiful Yau Ma Tei on a romantic evening. It was romantic because we spent a moment in one of the roofs on an old building where we could see the beautiful full moon.
To my surprise, we’ve got quite a few good photos :)
This is one of them that impressed myself, haha. I love my camera!
It looks like a total different world, a Golden World, a hidden world from our eyes.
Chapter 2
Dresden was a very beautiful city! It’s known as “Florence on the Elbe”. I explored the city by bike - you can borrow it for free from the hostel I stayed in. The main problem that I had with the old bike was that, it wasn’t designed for a small Asian like me, it was slightly taller for my size! Though it was old, I had a great time riding it, going everywhere I wanted - I sort of felt like I was a whirlwind :)
90% of Dresden was destroyed back in the World War II, the restoration started in 1950s by the communist regime. It was a bit disappointing to see the Frauenkirche (picture on the right) looking as good as new, other than that, everything was quite to my taste - serene, beautiful and old. Picture on the left is the Hofkirche, one of the landmarks in Dresden (I didn’t get in when I was there though, it’s a pity!).
There was too much to see and feel in Dresen. The weather was wonderfully sunny, I went up to one of the museums in Zwinger overlooking the city.
Inside the Zwinger - you should note that the Galerie is closed on Mondays - it was not as huge as I imagined it to be, it didn’t even look very much like a castle, but well, I learned to enjoy myself. Besides, Jonas (the friend whom I bumped into in the tram when I first arrived) and I spent a good afternoon lost ourselves in all those great paintings. I felt very artistic :)
Here is a pictures of myself lost in the city… and was writing my friend an email (you can even see my old bike there!).
There was so much going on in Dresden, with all the construction work and those muscular young construction workers! Wah! It was all so lively! (Actually, there were so many galleries and exhibitions too)
I rode and rode and rode on. There I was, sitting by the River Elbe, enjoying the beautiful view, listening to the singing of birds, staring at the amazingly blue skies, looking at the casual passers-by and writing postcards to my friends. Everything was just perfect.
Watched the World Cup (Spain vs Holland) with a Spanish guy and his mother sitting in a beautiful restaurant (you can even see it in the picture below) , had a lot of good food (not so expensive!) and a beer. It was a bit weird because all the time I supported Holland but I couldn’t cheer for them with the Spanish sitting next to me, haha, I dozed off in the end because of jetlag.
At the beginning I thought Dresden was a bit boring, and couldn’t enjoy it much. Everything was old, the styles were more or less the same and I was feeling very lonely. Even my butt was hurting from riding the bike. However, after staying there for 3 days and saw more of the city, I fell in love with it. I think it is a very nice city to settle in if you love art and enjoy the quietness. (It wasn’t quiet where I stayed, there were so many pubs and bars!) Dresden has everything. It is one of the German cities which you just have to see and spend a good afternoon strolling the beautiful Elbe river bank.
Chapter 1
I was off to Europe again in July for 3 weeks. At the beginning I journeyed alone, then my best friend Yan joined me. I’ve seen a few more places, met and talked to some very interesting people, learned so much about Europe history and of course, took so many beautiful pictures!
Anyway, I will lift the veil now and show you what I saw.
The Schonefeld airport in Berlin was quite small, unfortunately. I had, however, successfully managed to find my way to the Berlin Hauptbahnhof for my train to my first stop - Dresden. I saved my yoghurt on the flight, and only swallowed it when I found the train to the Berlin city centre!
I was showered in the beautiful Berlin sunshine. The weather was so awfully nice! I had an hour or two walking around the Hauptbahnhof, I wrote my first journey entry sitting under the bridge shade, overlooking the beautiful River Spree.
A good start!
…or not. I wouldn’t say my short train ride from Berlin to Dresden wasn’t eventful. First, silly me forgot to bring the credit card which I used to buy my train tickets, so I had to buy a new ticket (and holy cow, I bought a few tickets using that credit card!); and second, the air-con on the train was kaputt! Now that was very unforgiveable! Those nice people who shared the little compartment with me on the train were really nice, they thought I could speak German - well, I sort of do, but it just wasn’t so good as expected - so they kept talking in German to me, haha, to my surprise I understood them quite well! The picture was a good one :) We had to fan ourselves! It was too damn hot! Even I was sweating!
Things got weirder.
After I arrived Dresden looking quite as un-beautiful as one can be (well, that’s how you’re gonna look after 13 hours on a plane), I bumped into my friend on the tram to my hostel. Now, that was a very curious thing. This German friend I had never met before, he’s a friend’s friend, whom I supposed to meet only afterwards. I was sitting there when he got up the train, we were staring at each other, he basically just came up and asked me “Are you Joey????!!” and I was dumbfounded. How small is Dresden! How amazing is this world! (Until now I still cannot explain why he could just recognise me as we had never met before, may be it was very obviously that I look like… a Joey!) Anyway, he was leaving town at that time, so we were to meet later on.
My hostel overlooking a beautiful European-style building.
So finally I was there in Dresden, alone! I managed it! This was the first time I travelled alone to so far away, alone. It was wonderful experience, I fell in love with it only afterwards - I didn’t enjoy it so much at the beginning, this I have to admit.