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Dark Skies.
I think this picture is the best summary of Dresden I can capture. Beautiful buildings cornered by the Triffids of construction! I get to be so very geeky with these blog titles, I love it. But did anyone actually watch the Dresden Files? It was awful. Enough said about that, but the real life Dresden is, like I said yesterday, beautiful.
I only intended to stay in Dresden for a day and even then, that was on a spur of the moment type thing. However, I've found myself really enjoying the city, much more so than Berlin. The Dresden Hostel, called "Lollis Homestay" is great and I'd pass the recommendation on to however finds themselves in Dresden. The hostel is based about a kilometre outside of the centre, actually maybe more like two. Whichever it is, the walk between is great, running you through the old town, new town and then the 'kewl' quarter. Lol, kewl. Louise Ross, that's your fault.
As I'm sure you can see from the photos (which might well run onto two pages, so stay alert folks), Dresden is packed with some really beautiful areas. Towering structures dominate the landscape, but hidden around them is a patchwork of large spaces given over to reconstruction, archeological digs and miles of metal fencing. The city is in
German Juggernauts
Great big massive trains are cool. Oh crap, I can feel the lull of trainspotting pulling me in! Must resist... transit. I really wasn't sure what to expect after the weight of Berlin, but Dresden's phoenix-from-the-flames (sigh) is impressive and saddening all at once. I can't help but keep imagining that the blackened wear on the remaining buildings is the scorch marks of that terrible event. To obliterate a city is absolutely wrong - I only had the vague sense of the events before I came here, but to walk around the city knowing it was once a screaming inferno is certainly food for thought.
Speaking of food, they do a pretty good steak here.
Okay, quick thing - you all know I've got, uh, eclectic music taste, so just as a self-gratifying victory, here's a snippet of the songs I'm walking the world to (not all of them, just the first ten that appear on the screen):
Black Dog by Led Zep;
Bodies in Flight by Biffy Clyro;
Do One by Gomez;
Dog Faced Boy by Eels;
Glitter and Trauma by Biffy Clyro (again);
I'll Find You by Hundred Reasons;
Immigrant Song by Led Zep;
One Angry Dwarf etc by Ben Folds;
Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt by We Are Scientists;
Polythene Girl by Feeder.
Serial Experiments Lain
My first view in Dresden. It's like the streets have a ceiling of wires in certain places. Looking back at that, they're all fairly normal. Sigh.
Oh yeah, I was sat in a bar after finishing The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall - what a great book, have a go at this one guys. I want to be a Crypto-conceptual Oceanologist! Anyway, was sat there and a few people came in and sat down, and an impromptu Celtic band kicked into action, complete with fiddle, banjo and a mighty electric bagpipes. It was surreal and an odd moment, but I couldn't help smiling. And they were pretty good to boot.
The hostel has been great for meeting people - ranging from a couple of Americans who I dragged to the cocktail bar over the road (and then they left and I sat there, not thinking ahead to the hangover the next day). If you're reading this then good luck guys, and all the best for the music writing buddy. The most interesting were two guys who were working on the Somali Documentary Project. A writer and a photographer. The idea being to follow and document the relocation of Somali families from the refugee camps to America, part and parcel of this was to find
Un-space.
Walking through the city centre, you have all the usuals, but then turn a corner and a vast crater of development sits there. These un-spaces are everywhere. Somali communities across the world - thus, Dresden. Though apparently they hadn't found any here yet. Good luck guys, 3 months to go 😊 An amazing project, I'm sure you'll agree. And the prints that I had the opportunity to flick through were really fantastic. The website is www.somaliproject.org
So, where to next? Prague. I'm leaving tomorrow to pursue the intangible deadline I've set myself for Istanbul. I'm roughly on schedule, though Claudio forgot to put film in his camera and failed his bike test again, the bloody idiot. I knew he was useless.
Dresden has been wonderful - I thought that I'd find my travelling feet in Amsterdam, though I spent most of my time completely spaced out not knowing one day, from the next... so, it's all come together here. It really feels like the beginning now (I was number crunching today and I'm 2% complete... or is that 98% to go? Or 98% of abstract nothingness? Eek). From here on in it'll really start to get crazy, this has been all safe so far. The majority speak English, we all love Euros and football is the great unifier (though that won't change). But ahead lay
Sculpture.
A little away from the centre, this is a cheeky shopping street, which seemed appropriate for a quick camera-over-the-shoulder shot. cities that are going to really knock me sideways, and I don't mean in just an indigestion sense... I don't know what to expect, but my plan of no-plans is becoming eerily functional. Lets hope it carries me as far as I believe it can.
Until the next issue ---same bat time, same bat place--- everyone take care. Your comments have been wonderful so far, please keep them coming.
Cheerio for now.
Tom
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maxine
non-member comment
that shop looks amazing.