Some French Folk on the Train Trip to Weimar

On the train to Weimar, I met Guillaume & Celine, two friends travelling together from Strasburg, France. They’d been to Romania, Prague, Hungary in search of the wildness in the East of Europe. Even though they were once attacked by a dog, & found travelling around Romania devoid of tourism elements (semi-wild), they were surprised to find that the places they’d visited were fairly similar to towns in Western Europe.
We had a wonderful conversation the whole trip, discussing everything from whether to buy residential property in the current economic crisis, to the continuing plight of Australian Aboriginals, to where we’d been on our travel journeys. Best of all, we had some great laughs. It was just a pity I couldn’t have continued the train trip with them to Frankfurt. I did enjoy their company.

A Coffee Incident in Dresden

When all else fails, go grab a coffee. So I went to a nice little café & ordered a latte. The women didn’t know what I meant, so I explained what a latte was & she said that what I wanted was, in fact, a latte macchiato. Who knows? Each country has different names for the same type of coffee. She’d said the coffee costs 1.80 euro. The coffee was weak - more like a hot milkshake. And when I went to pay, she said the price was now 2.60 euro. I asked “why the increase”? And she got quite narky - “coffee shouldn’t be made with milk; it’s not real coffee; you should go back to America if you want to drink that coffee”. I was gob smacked. I told her that what she’d served me wasn’t really coffee - it was crap. And made clear to her, in no uncertain terms, that I wasn’t an American. She seemed a bit stunned afterwards. I paid & left.
And as I walked down the street, more than ready to get out of this town, I heard some beautiful classical but funky sounds emanating from this little alley. A small group of three - a violin, an oboe, a clarinet - belting out some great tunes. I gave a tip & walked away smiling.

One Night in Dresden

I finally managed to find my way to the A&O hostel I’d booked. Fairly near to the station (500m), it was a good location for a one night stay.
Up till 12:30 writing on my notebook, I still managed to get up fairly early for breakfast. I planned to spend about 3 hours in the old part of town before my train trip at just before 2pm.
So, off I went, jumped on a tram, & found myself amongst old buildings in about 10 mins. And all I did then was wander. There were heaps of tourists about, many of them looked retired - it was as if Dresden was one big retirement village.
I bought a postcard from a little shop & the guy was a complete grump & yelled at me when I asked him how much it cost. I told him he should cheer up & not be so grumpy - his look said he didn’t like me.
Again, another town with extensive renovation work going on in peak tourist season - just don’t get that at all. And many of the sites were either closed or had a quite expensive entrance fee.

Train to Dresden

The train was 30 mins late. When it did arrive I realised most people had a reserved seat & I didn’t. A walk through the crowded first train car & no seats were available, with many people scrambling to find a free seat themselves.
Finally at the end of the next car, I found a single seat. I turned on my ipod, & watched the gorgeous Czech countryside go by to the tunes of Missy Higgins & Norah Jones. Beautiful & relaxing!
I don’t know how it managed to do it, but the train gained the 30 mins to make it to Dresden just about on time - amazing.