Lost with no translations

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After spending 5 nights in the thriving city of Berlin i headed off to Dresden, a much smaller, quieter city in Germany. When the bus first arrived i thought...ahh...well this is nice, quieter, no tourists...a little grungy but i'm sure we're on the outskirts. Arrived at about 11:30am and headed straight out into town which was about a 40ish minute walk and all of a sudden the graffiti started to fade and i was struck by a beautiful city that sits right on a river with baroque and medieval architecture all around. i was also unfortunately struck by about 1000 tourists all walking with maps in hand and cameras around necks. So much for getting away from the tourists. And no...backpackers don't count as tourists. We can blend in. Ha. Dresden was actually completely destroyed and ruined during WWII, but has been reconstructed in it's original style. A beautiful sight. I walked all over not quite sure of what exactly i was seeing. Such a nice day...i found a skate park, a little market on the outskirts of town where even for a vegetarian it was hard to resist all the sausages cooking in every other family owned stand. And let it be known that the proper way to eat a sausage consists of a giant sausage (or two) held by the tiniest bun that functions more as a handle for passing from seller to consumer. After this moment the sausage is removed from bun and eaten by itself and dipped in a choice sauce. The bun is really an afterthought...a sort of side dish just to make sure you get in those ever important carbohydrates. So...we're doing it all wrong. I was hoping to find some veggie sausages..but no luck...although i did find a veggie restaurant with a nice 'biergarten' to have a drink and late lunch. Mmmmmm...proper food! I pretty much walked around for 6 hours just seeing the city...went through another part of down that was a bit more alternative and found some cool shops...one in particular i actually wanted to buy one of everything in the store...and i'm really not a big clothes person...there stuff was just so cool! and all a local brand! good thing my backpack has absolutely no space. Also saw tons of punks hangin around so there must be some sort of scene there. Wasn't around long enough to find a show unfortunately.

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MY second day there i decided to get out of the city and take a day trip to greener hills, mountains and fresh air. Only about 40 minutes by train i arrived in a place called Saxon Switzerland, probably because it has the beauty of the nearby country. And wow...it was that beautiful. Especially after trekking through cities for so long...i happily embraced surrounding trees, moss and all things green. I found a path to follow and half knowing my way started off. Not long into the walk i ran into another walker. We soon realized that neither of us could speak any of the other's language. I thought...ahh well...would have been nice...but this guy was determined (and very energetic!) to show me the way. So...for the next few hours we walked along desperately trying to communicate...it was hilarious. ANd the walk that should take about 2 hours...took over 3...every time i couldn't understand what he was saying, he would stop and throuhg hand motions we would try to piece things together. I also got a chance to try out my german skills using my little guidebook...this was also hilarious. and as you may have guessed, "every time i didn't understand" was...well...everytime. hahaha...ohh...i just laugh thinking about it. i really though...ahhh...we'll just walk and it will be nice to have the company...but he just rattled on in german for the entire time! we did manage to get some information shared such as our age, family members, what we were doing in life...both agreed that we don't like Bush and would like to see him kicked out (i did a dropkick motion to illustrate and he actually hugged me for this). I'm pretty sure this 63 year old dude used to be a serious climber and hiker and had a wealth of information about the area...only wish the lines of communication could have been more easily crossed. But the hike was unbelievable...reminded me of yosemite except more enclosed and surrounded by greenery and sheer cliffs all around. Was definitely lost in the beauty. We exchanged addresses beacuse he is determined to send me a christmas card...i hope to do the same and he kindly left me with a clear path to my destination which was a small town along the river that was having a little festival that day. How great! i didn't even know about it! I was surely the only person there who spoke (or even knew any) english. Wlaked around to all the different food stands and made a properly authentic dinner: Had a delicious pretzel, some sort of homemade doughnut thing, a buttery, garlicy baguette and finally drank a beer out on a terrace while watching the people mingle as the sun went down over the river in a forested valley.

"every time i didn't understand" was...well...everytime.