Wandering in Dresden

Yesterday, broad readership, I bid a tearful farewell to Berlin and moved on to Dresden, where I find myself now and where I´ll be leaving soon for Prague. I chose to spend a day here in part because it seemed like a good halfway point between Berlin and Prague, but also because I am an aficionado of the darker side of history and really wanted to see some evidence of the 1945 fire bombing (N.B.: mission accomplished).

Dresden is in Saxony, which was, at a time when the DDR still existed, deepest darkest Eastern Germany. They loved being commies and the Eastern Bloc loved their love of it; Berliners still suspect that many Saxons were less than thrilled about reunification with the FRG. It´s not hard to find evidence of the commie past all around; except for the picturesque old city center, most of the town was built up after it was flattened by allied firebombs in efficient but unlovely Brezhnev-era style. Lots of cinderblocks, not a lot of zazz.

But while much of Dresden is derided for this supposed lack of character, I´d say that the city does have character, only of a different sort than one is used to expecting from a European town. Take, by way of example, the tourist hotel where I stayed last night. The Robotron City-Herberge is a kick not only becuase it is named after an old video game from the early 80s, but also because it was obviously at some point in the not-too-distant past (GDR´s only been gone like 15 years) a housing point for itinerant troupes of traveling communist dignitaries or possibly competing East German gymnastic or swimming teams, on their way to winning loads of medals at some Olympics thanks to Volksgeist, solidarity, and a whole lotta steroids.

Though Dresden has more than its share of heilige-sheiße moments of beauty with the Frauenkirche and the Semperoper and the various reconstructed classical buildings along the mighty Elbe, to me it was more memorable for the hours and hours I spent last night wandering in a vain search for a single damned sports bar that would show the England-USA international soccer friendly match. I first traveled by tram and bus all the way to the outskirts of town, where the American bar, Chicago´s, declined to show the US team in action because the German league cup final was on (even though the latter was being televised at countless other non-American-themed bars in the vicinity). I then returned to the city center, which took forever with the busses that stopped running for no apparent reason and the trams that didn´t come on time, until I finally canned the plan to see the game and instead decided to seek only some food.

To my frustration, this too turned out to be a failure, as there was not a single reasonably priced Imbiß (snack stand) in the city center, nor a convenience store that could sell me a snack. Cursing the various fancypants restaurants that mocked me as I wandered throughout the city center in search of nonexorbitant sustenance, I finally just gave in and went back to the hotel, where I purchased a water, an ice-cream bar (the "Nogger" that has created some race-related issues, but which was quite delicious regardless), and called it a damned night.

Thus for my day in Dresden, I ate: one chocolate croissant, one bratwurst, one "Nogger," and several Diet Cokes. I may lose those unsightly pounds and inches yet!