Ich hab' es geschafft!

This past week was definitely a busy one. It felt like I had two [incredibly busy] weekends, because we left for Dresden on Wednesday morning and returned Friday evening. Not that I'm complaining about having two weekends! It just threw off my schedule a little bit.

The three day trip to Dresden was a total success. The weather was (mostly) very nice, and I learned so much about the city. We had a lot of tours (one city tour and three museum tours), which were interesting but also a little exhausting. There's plenty I could say but I think it would be most interesting if I share some of the highlights and a little of my reaction to the city before I talk about the 10k I ran on Saturday in Berlin.

On a bridge over the Elbe River with Dresden behind me

Wednesday afternoon our first activity was a walking tour of the Dresden Innenstadt, which is where are the old buildings are/were. Our guide also gave us a good overview of Dresden history. Dresden was bombed by the Allies in February of 1945. Immediately prior to that there was an influx of refugees in Dresden, because everyone considered Dresden to be a cultural city and not a target, especially at that point in the war. Sadly they were wrong, and because there were so many people in Dresden without paperwork at the time of the February bombings there is no way to get an accurate count of how many lives were lost in the bombings.

Dresden after the February 1945 bombings

Today Dresden looks much like it did before the bombings--which gave the city, to me, a fascinating but also slightly strange feeling after a few days. To walk around and see all these buildings with old architecture styles, and to realize they were built within the past fifty years or less made the city feel like a shell, or a recreation of a city that used to be. There are three main opinions about the rebuilding: one group says that rebuilding as things were is a tribute to the past and we can't forgot Dresden's history. Another group says it's kitschy. And a third opinion points out that never before have humans built backwards. That is, never before has architecture been an exact replica of the past. Sometimes it draws from elements of earlier styles, but always in an attempt to create something new. This opinion also says that we need to show that Dresden is a modern city and that its people live in the present. They are all three very interesting points to consider.

Of course I found a lookout tower.

One of my favorite museums was the Grünes Gewölbe, and it is located in a castle that is still being rebuilt. They think it will be finished around 2019 or 2023. This castle is not going to be an exact replica of its former self, but the sections will be built in different sections to reflect the architecture of the epochs since the castle was originally constructed.

A porcelain "tapestry" on the outside of the castle showing all the rulers of Saxony from 12th century to the 19th century. It is the longest tile mural in the world. 

The Grünes Gewölbe is a collection of the treasures of Sächsischen kings. The 4,000 piece collection is the biggest in Europe. The entire collection was taken by the Soviets after WWII, but they returned every single piece in 1958. Even the green diamond that is the only one of its kind, which one of the kings bought for more than he spent building his castle, was returned. Goes to show you the friendship that existed between East Germany and the Soviets in the 50s--pretty unbelieveable.

The building on the right is part of the castle, where the Grünes Gewölbe can be found today.
The building on the right is the Katholische Hofkirche.

Both the Hofkirche (the Catholic church) and the Frauenkirche (the Protestant church) were really interesting stories, and beautiful churches. The Katholische Hofkirche was built in 1739, in the baroque style, because there was a Protestant church but the king's bride-to-be was Catholic and wanted a Catholic church. This church was rebuilt surprisingly quickly after the war: by 1947 a small side section of the church was already rebuilt. It's still not completely done, because they didn't work on it nonstop after that first section. But it is a beautiful church.

The Frauenkirche (so-named because it was dedicated to Mary) is beautiful, especially on the inside, because it's so colorful. Sadly, we couldn't photograph the inside of this church. After the bombings in 1945 only two sections were still standing. For years the space sat just that way, with two sections and a lot of grass, as a memorial to those who died when the church burned and collapsed and as a warning against the cruel consequences of war. But in the 1990s there was a big movement to rebuild the Frauenkirche, and in 2006 they finished. Right now you can see the pieces of the old church that they salvaged and incorporated into the new church, because they're the darker pieces. However it's a quality of this sandstone that it darkens relatively quickly, so in about 40 years you won't be able to tell the old from the new. That just blows my mind. We went into the church on Thursday afternoon because we thought we would be catching an organ concert and introduction to the church, but Thursdays they have a prayer service in the "Unterkirche" (it's a chamber below the main church) so we checked that out instead. Pretty cool.

After the bombing, before the rebuilding

I think this shot is from about the same spot as the one above.
Dresden  has seen a lot of changes.

We also saw two different art museums, covering everything from the Renaissance to modern art. Quite a collection! Thursday night we attended  modernized Romeo and Juliet. It was entertaining but I seem to prefer original settings. I guess I'm just boring like that.

Then Saturday was the Frauenlauf! My first 10k ever. And it was a success! I had so much fun, and I even did better than I hoped. My host mom and two of her neighbors ran too, so I met up with them before the race (which started at 6pm). I ran my 10k in 48:39. In my age group I was 34th out of 882. The weather started out great--a little cloudy, cool, with a slight breeze. It didn't stay that way though. It started sprinkling, just a little bit, then stopped, then the last 2km the rain was pretty heavy. I was soaked and freezing by the time I'd collected my finisher's medal and all my free goodies and got on the train home.

The start of the 10k. See the Brandenburger Tor in the distance? (not my photo)

There were 17,000 people who participated in one of the runs (there were walking events as well as a 5k and 10k run) and 4,300 of them were in the 10k. And there were so many people there watching! The atmosphere was awesome. For a minute or so I ran behind a woman who every 20 feet or so would cheer and raise her arms to get the crowd of onlookers to cheer too, and I couldn't help but smile (until I passed her). It just made the running so easy, to have so many people there. Sprinting across the finish line, I felt like I hadn't even been running that long. I could have done without the rain, but the rain in no way spoiled the afternoon. I'm so glad I signed up!

PS re: Title: translation means "I did it!" They had plenty of signs all over the Frauenlauf saying You did it! and such, and lots of cheers from the public saying the same thing. It actually really invigorated me!