Germany                     Dresden-Neustadt                 18 May 2025


   Yesterday I was in Dresden with Anton, where I went so he could show
   me around the city.  We had been planning this trip since March, and
   I decided it was finally time to meet in person and wander through
   the city.  I'm embarrassed to admit that in Dresden, I had
   essentially only explored the Altstadt, while the rest of the city
   remained unknown to me until now.  The walk, by the way, turned out
   to be extremely productive, and we covered a total of 35 kilometres.
   This was despite the sky constantly threatening to unleash rain upon
   us.  All in all, we got properly soaked at times, but as they say,
   was für ein Spaß!

   We met at Dresden-Neustadt station, which is named after the district
   where it's located.  Naturally, our first destination was exploring
   Neustadt itself.  I must admit, this was exactly the Dresden I had
   been waiting to see: lively and colourful, thoroughly plastered with
   stickers, generously sprinkled with attributes of the Soviet past.
   Combined with the overcast weather, it looked doubly otherworldly.
   Overall, such an energetic start to our walk set the pace, and
   afterwards we began to roam the city's spaces almost non-stop,
   wherever we happened to find ourselves.  That's how we ended up on
   the banks of the River Elbe.

   Visiting the riverbank revealed stunning natural views, and I took
   quite a number of photographs that I'm now very pleased with.  We
   also noticed a kestrel hovering in the air: it looked as if the
   Matrix had glitched.  The bird seemed to be frozen in place while
   flying.  Speaking of birds: we also observed a whole gaggle of geese
   on the shore.  How they got there isn't entirely clear, but there
   were truly lots of them.  Leaving the riverbank, we wandered towards
   the cemetery, which turned out to be surprisingly large and
   beautiful.  The crematorium building alone is worth seeing.  The
   prevailing silence was occasionally interrupted by the ghostly,
   prolonged horn of the "Gräfin Cosel" riverboat.

   All day we were surrounded by various sounds that fit interestingly
   into the context of what was happening to us and created a particular
   atmosphere.  First, the riverboat horn at the cemetery, then the
   equally ghostly whistles of the park railway in the Großen Garten,
   followed by the sound of bells during a thunderstorm.  Because of
   this, sometimes there was a sense of unreality, a feeling of complete
   derealisation, as if we were in some kind of film.  The emptiness in
   the city, sponsored by the weather conditions, intensified this
   feeling even more.  The peak of this derealisation sensation was
   reached when we found ourselves in a district dotted with Soviet-
   style apartment blocks, a Russian shop, and Russian speech coming
   from all directions.

   Then we went for a stroll around the Dresden Technical University
   campus.  I was drawn to the sight of one high-rise student
   accommodation building, and I suggested we try to get inside.  It
   wasn't particularly difficult - we just needed to wait for a group of
   returning students.  This happened quite soon, not even five minutes
   had passed.  We took the lift to the top floor, and something
   slightly amusing happened: a female student leaving the lift, having
   heard us speaking Russian, said goodbye to us in Russian with "Good
   luck!"  My brain tried to interpret what was said as German speech
   and automatically responded with "bitte".  But then it dawned on us.
   It was funny.

   We didn't go to the top floor for nothing: the doors to the balconies
   were open, and getting there presented no difficulty at all.  It was
   the first time I'd been able to look at Dresden from such a height,
   and it looked very interesting, especially in the overcast weather.
   And beautiful, yes.  After descending to the ground, we wandered
   around the campus a bit more, after which we returned to the central
   station and said our goodbyes.  The walk was truly wonderful, and I'm
   pleased that I finally got to see Dresden through the eyes of a
   resident rather than a tourist.  Even though not everyone likes this
   other Dresden - not the one that gleams and sparkles in the Altstadt
   - I liked this city.  Un jour je serai de retour près de toi.





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