A Year Abroad: Brandenburg.

Leaving Prague today, we travelled to Dresden for a stopover. The city, being predominantly a uni town, had the most young people I've seen in a while, and a cool vibe to it. We did some shopping, but mum and I spent a fair bit of the time exploring the Dresden castle gardens. We discovered a way up onto the top of the wall, so we circled the gardens from up high, and them headed down to the centre. It was so incredibly hot! Built during the 1200's, for 400 years, it had been the home of past kings and rules of Saxony.
The city centre was quite a cool place, as it had a mixture of both old school and contemporary buildings. The city had been a haven for 600,000 refugees during the war and at the end of the second world war, an allied aerial bombing killed 25,000 people and destroyed the entire city centre. It wasn't actually just a normal bombing though, it was firebombing. The temperature of the city was at a sustained period of 1000 degrees. We heard stories of people trying to escape by jumping into the local water tank and drowning from being unable to get out. And other who fled via the motorway we were driving in on, and the tar melting and there feet getting stuck in the road.

Dresden after the bombings

Arriving in Dresden

Dresden castle

Centre of town

Watching tutus being made in the shopping

centre

On top of the castle

Garden views

Walking around the top

The moat!

Arriving in Berlin, we're staying incredibly close to the the city centre. That night, mum, Kendra and I went on the optional dinner excursion to a Greek restaurant. The food and dancing were good, and mum got picked to sing a song in front of everyone haha it was pretty entertaining.

Afterwards, we drove to the Brandenburg gate for its illumination. The gate used to be the site for royal processions throughout history. Most people think it does, but it doesn't actually have anything to do with the Berlin Wall. It was just situated near the wall, so a lot of photos are of the wall and gate.

We also went passed the German parliament, and the angel statue thing.

Afterwards, mum, Kendra, I, our tour guide, and an older couple went to a local pub/restaurant, Al Capone, for drinks. I tried a European liqueur, aperol spritz, which tastes orangey and very popular in Vienna. It was quite nice, but the late night to bed wasn't.