Reading (For Dummies)

Figuring out Dresden

Yesterday, October 3rd, was German Reunification Day, the day celebrating the re-joining of East and West Germany just 12 years ago. This weekend is going to be a crazy one, I think.

At the Altstadt Markt, there is a huge..well..carnival. Just no rides. There are beer stands everywhere, people running around at 1 o'clock in the morning drunk, eating cotton candy, listening to American cover bands playing the hits of the 80s. There are games, polka music...the markt really is a mixing of old-school Germany and American kitsch culture. The back end of the markt features these old "tents" made of wood, serving old fashioned bratwursts cooked over huge fire pits on these gigantic circular grill platters. I'll have to get some pictures of those out tomorrow.

We want to be Americans!

I thought some of it was sad, in a strange way. Dresdeners do seem to like America, and are very eager to play catch-up. I've been formulating the idea in my head that Dresden really is the way the United States was 10 years ago (albeit with much better public transportation). Everybody smokes. The food hasn't caught up with the organic craze trends in the US. People trust their water, and they drink from the tap. Maybe they have managed to keep their environmental damage down, but I somehow doubt it -- there are still cars everywhere. To be fair, though, a car here with a 2.0L engine is considered wasteful, and folks make fun of the penis size of the driver. "He's driving a 2 liter. Must be making up for something." In the US a 2.0L is rather small and economical. Here, they have 0.8L and 1.0L cars for the economical/environmentally conscious. So maybe the water is safe to drink? I'd still be happier finding a water pitcher.

After wandering around the markt for a few hours and being tempted to try some beer, I wandered across the river to the Theaterstrasse district.

Which building is this again?

They had quite a few of the historic buildings lit up for the reunification festivities, and there were tons of people walking around it. It took me quite a while of waiting for the view of the church above to clear up. And it took a few tries to get my hands steady enough for the 1 second exposure time I needed to get enough light!

After spending some time sightseeing and listening to some music (horn members of the Dresdner Philharmonie were playing out in the streets), I wandered up to Neuestadt, to a little bar called Katy's Garage. My brother and I had gone there to play some foosball, so I thought I would try to go meet a few people.

I met a few people, but most of them weren't so hot at English. My lack of basic grammatical understanding of German keeps me back from just sitting down with people and trying to talk to them. Maybe as I learn a little more, I'll find some unwitting victims that will listen to me as I page through my dictionary...

The Foosball was pretty fun, though

Posted by reid at October 4, 2002 07:29 PM