Last of Dresden, first of Berlin

So this may be long to make up for the very little amount of posting that has happened recently.

To begin, then, I absolutely loved staying in Dresden - my host took me to any number of wonderful places including a musical advent calendar, a friendly Christmas gathering and hiking in the woods near Dresden.

The musical advent was the best idea I have seen so far for the Christmas celebrations that I've witnessed in Europe. It involved large silver numbers being posted over the doorways of various shops and venues in the Neustadt, and as the night corresponding to each number fell a local band would appear from behind the door, play a set or two and then wish everyone a merry Christmas. While my host had seen jazz and other genres in the nights before our entertainment then was a generic slightly punk rock band that he'd never heard of. Small children bobbed on the shoulders of their fathers as they watched it.

Then we walked on to his friends' apartment through the rain, to find several welcoming couples and corresponding offspring in a tiny little room, eating potatoes and talking about philosophy and politics. Not the children, who were bundled off to bed as conversation continued and the owner of the house kept on crying out, "We must speak English for the minority!" (or, as more bottles where emptied, "we must speak Serbian for the minority! Russian! Flemish!") Which they didn't always remember to do as the arguments became passionate about musical tastes or Angela Merkel, but I really didn't mind.

The next day I walked through more rain to some castles build along the Elbe by businessmen of the 19th century. I suppose when you've earned enough the final thing missing is a castle, but we walked around them and were thrown out of one - turned into a 5 star hotel and restaurant, apparently our attire was not appropriate. Then back through the woods in time to be late for my train to Berlin.

So, I sat. And deleted messages from my phone, remembering all the while the people and places that were involved at the time. On the train I was hailed by a lady slightly drunk on glühwien, with a cry of "Australia! You're from Australia! Are you making a holiday here?" Thumbs up indeed, and thanks Pen for the flag patch!

One final thing for this post, the main train station in Berlin is the oddest place I've been. Had I not been warned that the place that I needed to be would be in exactly the opposite position in the building that I would find myself I can imagine wandering around there like a lonely cloud for quite some time. Picture a shopping centre that also has signs for trains where you might elsewhere find the sign for Best and Less or the toilets. Then find me next to the S-bahn.