Day Trip to Leipzig and Dresden.

I can't sleep so I decided to blog about the day trip my parents and I went on to Leipzig and Dresden, both German cities situated south of Berlin. Even though these two cities were both part of former East Germany, there was such contrast between the present atmosphere of these two places! I really like living in Berlin, I guess because I feel it's a rather cosmopolitan city. As a result, my overall feeling of Germany is quite positive, despite the cultural differences in attitudes, etc. However, every so often, my bubble is burst when I'm confronted with news of the current Neo-Nazi movementand controversial attitudes of discrimination towards foreigners (the latter I know to be an aspect that may be present in all communities, to a certain extent).

Anyway, the reason I mentioned this is because I believe we came across such attitudes while in Leipzig. I really did not like the place, the atmosphere just felt weird and tense yesterday. For example, we went into a cafe to have brunch and I felt we were treated somewhat differently, it was extremely subtle but it was there. I wasn't the only one who thought this!Maybe it's like a "small town" mentality, who knows! Whatever it is, it did not give me a good impression of Leipzig. Anyway, don't really want to talk too much about it, since it could all just be in my head. The only thing that I got from the visit was the interestingly designed buildings, shown in the photo below!

So next stop, Dresden! I was so glad to have gone to this city, being in Leipzig left such a bad taste in my mouth, that Dresden was like the delicious sweet that overcame that!Dresden celebrated its 800th birthday last year, I think. It's a beautiful place (with a friendly atmosphere!), well-known for its Baroque architecture, especially in die Altstadt (The Old City) where numerous monumentous religious buildings are situated, such as the Frauenkirche, Kreuzkirche and Hofkirche. The following two photos are of the Dresdner Frauenkirche, which is actually the largest religious building in Dresden. Hence, this city is one of the few places where the Cathedral is not the largest sacred building in a city. You can see my parents and Jun (the driver) in the first photo!

If you look closely at the photos of the Frauenkirche, you can see that the majority of the building is newer in appearance. The dark part is actually the original church but because of the bombings in World War II, many buildings in Dresden were destroyed. Therefore, projects are currently underway in order to reconstruct many buildings to their original state.

The next photos are of die Brühlsche Terrasse (the Brühlsche Terrace) which is built on the banks of the River Elbe. You can see the Hofkirche in the background.

Well, overall, it was an interesting and fun day, despite the initial unpleasantness.I got to spend time with my parents, take a break from studying for my viva and learn some news things about the world, hehe! I'm finally feeling sleepy, so I'm going to sign off now! Gute nacht!