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January 8, 2011

I’ve been sick all week with a cold, but Mia and I decided to go on a day trip this Saturday with the school anyway. Goethe arranged everything and all we had to pay was 5 Euro, so it was a pretty good deal. Pilnitz is quarter of Southeast Dresden and the Pilnitz Palace was what we set out to see. The palace was huge and even had a park connected to it. We took a tour through the palace and saw the kitchens, which have flooded many times. There were even tallies on the wall with how high the flooding was for different years. In 2002 it was all the way up to the ceiling. We also saw some of the fancy halls and dining rooms, the ice rooms, and it even had a small church inside with a really beautiful stained glass window. The outside palace's architecture is heavily Japanese influenced so it was nice to feel back in Asia for a little bit.

We ate lunch at the Pilnitz Castle Café on site. I had deer ragout, which was pretty delicious. Afterwards, we had extra time to wander by ourselves so Mia and I walked to the back of the palace on the riverside. This side was especially beautiful and had an awesome little stairway down to the river. When everyone finished we walked through the palace park, back to the buses we came in on. From there we took the bus to a cable car station that took us up a big hill. From there we walked around looking at the awesome houses on top of the hill until we reached a lookout point where we could see all of Dresden from high up. We got to see the sunset before we turned back to head home.

Since I’ve been so sick I’ve been watching a lot of my favorite movies in German, like the Lord of the Rings. The dubbing into German was done really really well and the characters sound just like the originals. Hopefully, I’ll get better soon so I can get out and do more active stuff.


January 9, 2010

Since almost everything is closed on Sundays, Mia and I went to the zoo on Sunday! The lions were particularly active today. The male and female started pacing the enclosure right next to our window. I think they must have been hungry. It was actually kind of chilling looking a lion directly in the eyes from that close.

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