Bach-Land

Today I started an adventure into the East. My taste in Berlin did not satisfy me, so I hopped on a train bound for Dresden. I got off in Leipzig to see what was there, and then continued on.

First, the train ride was absurdly long. I keep thinking “fast train=2 or 3 hours.” No. I got to sit on a train for 5. Not going to complain, because it was air conditioned, but I sort of got hungry, and my desire to not withdraw any more Euros has put me in austerity mode: that means no food from the BordBistro. Thank goodness I had packed my last (browning and mushy) banana, so that held me over until I made it to Leipzig. I’m also thankful that I bought a book (in English, I’m getting lazy), because I turned on my iPod to see the little red battery, so I decided to conserve it for the tedious ride home, which always takes 4x longer than the ride away from home.

Leipzig was surprisingly cool. The train station rivals Frankfurt and Munich (even though it handles probably ¼ of the traffic.) There are 3 floors of shopping in the front part of the station, and luckily there was an Aldi (one of my preferred grocery stores.) I bought my usual travelling meal of a bag of bread rolls (6 for 89 cents), a small jar of jelly (99 cents), and a bag of gummy bears (89 cents.) I have some disposable knives which I’ve acquired through my travels thus far. The bread will last me 2 meals, the jelly will probably be thrown away after the trip is over. The gummy bears were gone by the time I got to Dresden (oops.)

Anyway, I made my way to the fringes of town to the gigantic war memorial, then I peeped into the churches of Bach fame, perused the Forum for Contemporary History in Germany (End of WWII until today), and the former Stasi Headquarters in Leipzig. The penultimate was really cool, because it dealt with those banal details of everyday life that are actually quite interesting (at least to me.) I got to tour a DDR-era prefabricated apartment, look at some toys, watch some TV from the 70s in the east, and take a look at food selections. The Stasi Headquarters was OK, but I think the impact was lost because I already saw the “national” headquarters in Berlin (which was larger and more comprehensive). But it’s still really interesting (and disturbing) to see the machines designed for opening up and resealing mail without the recipient knowing it and gawking at the huge shredding/mulching machines for confiscated material (you know, such as newspapers from the West). Next door, there is a big archive of all the documents that the Leipzig Stasi kept. One can go in and read the files that the “Security Police” had kept on you – everything from notes from when they observed you to samples of your hair and fingerprints. I’m pretty sure I would have given it two thumbs up, but I didn’t have an appointment, nor do I have a file.

I then meandered back to the train station and finished the stretch to Dresden. I was immediately greeted by my good friend, the East German Crossing light. He makes me so happy. Checked into my hostel, received a free upgrade to a private room (because they had run out of dorm beds, with which I’m OK),and then I made my way around the city – a bridge from the 19^th century that survived the 2-day long bombing raid, the rows and rows of prefabricated apartment buildings (which are actually slightly appealing to me), and then the old city.

I was really worried that I was rushing my stay in Dresden, but since I crossed most everything off of my list after 3 hours, I know I made the right decision. I’m going to finish off my list and then I’ll flee to the complete other side of Germany.