Liberec, Czech Republic + Dresden, Germany

 

 

Hi there!

A few weeks ago I went on my NYU-sponsored trip to Liberec, Czech Republic and Dresden, Germany. Here's what I got up to:

Since this trip was organized by NYU, everything was planned and paid for beforehand, which was a really nice break compared to the hectic-ness of my other trips.  We started by taking a bus to a glass blowing factory near Liberec, where we got to see how the process works. From there, we went to a super random mountain and went bobsledding, which was initially terrifying and then super fun. It was a lot cheaper than the RA's who were with us thought it would be, so we all ended up going about 4 times! After bobsledding, we went to a mountain where the Liberec TV tower is, and we rode the cable car to the top. The views were absolutely incredible. We could see the entire city as well as the snowy countryside. We got a tour of the TV tower, which weirdly doubles as a hotel, and then took the bus back to our hotel in the city. 

Our hotel was right next to Town Hall, which is absolutely incredible looking. We went to dinner with all of the students and RA's, and NYU gave us around $16 to spend, which in Liberec is a TON of money for food! The restaurant was actually really good (I wish I could remember the name) and after that some of the students went out, but Avi and I were so exhausted that we crashed back at the hotel. It was so nice staying in an actual hotel, rather than a hostel! 

The next day, we had breakfast at the hotel before getting on the bus and heading to Dresden. I wasn't expecting to love Dresden as much as I did. We started by getting a tour of all of the main attractions in the Old Town, which includes the Zwinger museum, the Opera house, the Procession of Princes, churches, etc. After the tour, we were given a couple of hours to explore on our own. Avi and I crossed the bridge into the newer area of the city, and walked around a beautiful shopping area filled with flowers. We ended up at a small pub place in a hostel for lunch, which was surprisingly amazing! We went from there to a passageway called Kunthsofpassage, which is filled with multi-colored buildings with artwork. It has this famous building that is bright blue and plays music when it rains. The surrounding area had really cool graffiti and buildings. The RA's had given us tickets to Zwinger, so we went back to where we started and walked around the porcelain collection for a bit. Around 6pm, we got back on the bus to head back to Prague. It was only a two hour bus ride; I was shocked we got home so quickly! This was definitely one of my favorite trips so far. 

xo, Sophie