There are two things in myself that made impossible to not fall in love with Dresden. First, I am passionate for Arts and Culture; second, I am quite fond of some dark and morbid atmospheres. In Dresden I found both and I completely fell for it.
Of course we cannot really know a city by being in there only for 8 hours. I am only a wanderer, writing about the first impressions of Dresden scenario. The weather was a great influence. It was cloudy when I get there, the sun only started to peek during the afternoon. When I saw the forecast I was thinking “noooo, the photos will look terrible with this weather”. But I was wrong. I don’t think I would be able to capture the true essence of this city without that rare light coming through my camera lenses.
The baroque style coming from the old part of the city inspires moments of greatness. The Zwinger is beautiful, a place that seems to belong to a fairy tale with happy endings. Yet, the noir bricks, the towers stained with black keep the memories of the war pretty much alive, and don’t look like fairy tales to me. At least not one with a happy ending. They were the constant reminder of how mere moments of war can destroy centuries of light. I was able to recall the moments of terror, put myself in the shoes of someone that was from that wonderful city and had to see it being destroyed without being able to do nothing. I find myself very distressed when it comes to destroy what humans did of most beautiful, ripping out pages of History. We can’t forget we are made of memories, even of those we weren’t able to experience. It is human identity, the one who differentiates us from animals. It is culture, and those landmarks were (and are) Art,
After having once more a bad experience on Subway during lunch time (come on, being nice doesn’t hurt), we walked to the modern part of the city – maybe not modern, but more artsy if I can say so. There, the feeling I got was so different. I could sense the spirit of hippie communities, where we will find art galleries, walls painted with bright colors, some groove seems to be waving in the air. Creativity and originality were everywhere. I saw a building that plays music when it rains. I saw students walking the streets with paintings wrapped in brown paper under their arms. I launched envy looks for some bars that seemed quite cozy, bohemian styled.
I do love places where the paradox reigns. Regarding Dresden, I liked both sides of the paradox.
P.S. One of the thing s that usually takes longer for me to post an article is the process of selecting the pictures 😦
Dresden, Germany (2015)
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