Visiting Dresden on a budget! - The Old Center

Just like I did with my trip to Prague, I also planned one to Dresden. It all started when I looked on the map to see what are cities are close to Wroclaw and so I picked Dresden. I love Germany, mostly the German language so travelling there was also an opportunity to speak the language. I looked on Airbnb for a nice, private host. I found one that suited my budget for 3 days in the city completely destroyed during the WWII. For transportation I went to Blablacar and found there a nice ride to, and later also from Dresden.

Once in Dresden I started visiting the city by night, right before going to my host and into bed. The lights, amazing, all the way home, amazing.

The best part of visiting Dresden is that there are two parts of the city, the Old and the New one, separated by a river, connected by bridges, and in both places the main attractions are in a very small area. So the time you need to see all you want to does not get wasted on wandering for ages.

The Old Center

Early in the morning of my second day in Dresden I started visiting by firstly going to the main attraction, St. John`s Cathedral which was completely destroyed during the war and impressively rebuilt. I benefitted from a student discount, and for 5 euros I went to the top and saw the whole city in the morning light. After that I went to the Fehrkehrsmuseum to see a long history of vehicles in Germany. Once out of there I headed towards the Ethnological Museum. It was the most impressive museum I have lately been in. Not only the expositions, but the architecture of the building was impressive. The collection of artefacts was so rich that one day is just not enough if anyone plans on seeing every little thing in very little detail. I saw from jewelry belonging to princes and princesses of the Kingdom of Prussia to belongings which were taken from the Turks whenever they lost a war against the formerly mentioned nation. It was really impressive to just switch rooms in a building and immerse myself in a completely new world. Not to mention that on the last floor of the museum there was an exhibition of photos taken in Italy during WWII. I can say, the main theme of most expositions in Dresden at the time of my visit was WWII. That was good, because I managed to find out more about what happened during those times.  

The ticket which allowed me to get into this museum was actually a pack ticket valid for all the museums in Dresden. The good thing about buying something like this is that it saves you money, but one disadvantage is that it is valid for only 24 hours, so you have to be hasty, however, the silver lining of this drawback is that all the museum are in the Old Center and within very little walking distance. So, all in all, you can do it if you want it. Where I stopped for lunch, you might ask. Well, no where. On the night of my arrival I went to Lidl, Germany is the mother of cheap supermarkets, and from there I bought vegetarian cheese and salami so I did some nice sandwiches to have not only in the morning, but also during the day. The only things I spent money on were the tickets for the museums and coffee.