Europe Summer 2017 9/17 - Germany : Explore Dresden in 4 hours and Beautiful Night View at Prague

"It's Never Too Late.

Never Too Late to Start Over,

Never Too Late to Be Happy."

- Jane Fonda

Welcome to Dresden! :)

Day 10 - Friday, 23 June 2017

BERLIN

I booked my bus, Regiojet (6.9 Euro) to Dresden already and the bus leaving at 9 AM from Berlin ZOB am Funkturm, again, I almost late and had another morning exercise which is running. The journey will took about 2.5 hours to Dresden. There is no Free Wifi on the bus to Dresden since they will turn on Wifi from Dresden to Prague, sounds weird for me but nice they offer us a drink like capuccino, coffee or tea. Well, Goodbye Berlin!

Ticket vending machine, Berlin

Berlin ZOB am Funkturm Bus Terminal

my bus Regiojet to Dresden, 6.9 Euro

inside the bus

DRESDEN

The bus will stop at Dresden Hbf Bayrische Str. which is just next to Dresden Hauptbahnhof (Central Station), I arrived around 11.30 AM. You can put your bags on the locker inside the station. This station looks very nice, there are so many cafe, market, shops in front of station. The exterior of the station also looks old design but good, pretty similar like Amsterdam central station. From Central Station I took tram No.8 (2.3 Euro) from Hauptbahnhof Station to Theaterplatz, bought the single ticket via vending machine, getting inside the tram and don't forget to validate your ticket.

Bus will stop there, next to the station

Dresden Hauptbahnhof from outside :)

inside the station

yum!

ticket vending machine, Dresden

Get off from the tram and the view is totally different comparing with Berlin. I just wandering around that area and so many beautiful buildings, this area called Innere Altstadt (Old Town) and if you passing the Augustus Bridge (Augustusbrücke) it become Innere Neustadt (New Town) where more modern, sounds awesome. So in this old town area, everything looks classic yet beautiful, I love the ambience around here, even though somehow I don't know the name of those buildings but it looks so lovely.

Exploring the area around made me so happy, looking at those buildings like Cathedral Church, Dresden Castle, and most people telling me not to missed this one, Zwinger complex. Zwinger Complex is so spectacular and rank among Germany's most well-known Baroque buildings of Germany and it is a most famous monument building in Dresden. Heading out from Zwinger Complex, I went to Schloßplatz where you can see another beautiful buildings.

inside Zwinger Complex <333

my backpack, just bought the pink one at Berlin :D

Opera :)

Schloßplatz area

I continue my walk and sitting on the banks, enjoying the view and took a break. Then I am heading to Neumarkt, getting down through the stairs and passing Munzgasse and I saw cafe or shops area which looks very nice,  and I saw  this wonderful church where famous in Dresden, Frauenkirche "Church of Our Lady", a Lutheran Church and you can spotted Martin Luther statue in front of it. 

It's a big square where full of cafe or shops, I like this area. Walking this area on Landhausstrasse to go to the tram station Dresden Pirnaischer Platz, taking Tram no. 3 or 7 which taking me back to the main station Hauptbahnhof (2.3 Euro).

me loveee it <333

Frauenkirche "Church of Our Lady" and Martin Luther Statue

I decided to stroll around the station, Wiener Platz, it's still Germany so no wonder if you still found Currywurst (2.3 Euro), I had one there in front of Rewe Market, so cheap. I also went inside to the market to buy couple things. Anyway, they have free Wifi inside this market. I love trying milk coffee or milk tea or any kind of drinks or dessert so I had various while in Europe haha.

I initially spare 6 hours to explore Dresden and ended up spent like 4 hours instead. Seeing Dresden in a glimpse was lucky enough for me. My bus leaving for Prague at 5.45 PM and it's still 3 PM so in order to spend more time at Prague, I bought another ticket to Prague using Flixbus (16 Euro) directly on the counter next to Dresden Station for the closest departure which is 3.45 PM and not using the ticket that I bought before for 5.45 PM. The bus was delayed pretty long and thankfully I bought another ticket because the but that I initially will took was delayed too.

Finally Flixbus came and there was some issue when I want to put my backpack on the baggage because the officer won't let me so I need to bring my 2 backpack inside the bus where I don't know where to put it but finally the driver saw my bag and asked his friend to store my backpack on the baggage, well, thank you, Sir! 

Currrywurst (2.3 Euro)

The journey will take around 2 hours and when we already passed the border there was passport control, so the bus stopped at gas station and there were few officers came inside the bus and check your passport, some of friends said usually there are no passport check especially if you go to another country in Europe on land, because no passport control when I went from Amsterdam to Paris using bus. I saw one people had an issue and he need to get off from the bus and followed the officer.

PRAGUE

After 2 hours, finally Prague! We arrived around 6.30 PM, get off at Prague UAN Florenc Bus Terminal and since the currency is different, I need to withdraw my money from ATM. I prefer withdraw my money from ATM rather than exchange on the money changer. There was money changer inside the bus terminal but I don't feel it's a good option. Currency in Prague is Czech Crowns (CZK), I took 500 CZK (Rate CZK 1 (per Jun 2017) = Rp565). It was a bit confusing to calculate between EUR and CZK, haha. This bus station is really close with the Metro Station Florenc, and there are only 3 lines of Metro in Prague, divided by colors, Red, Green and Yellow so it's really easy to differetiate.

I bought the Metro Tram Ticket for 30 minutes (24 CZK) because I will just use it once for that day. In Prague, I stayed using Couchsurfing. Anyway, typical people who go to Florenc Station is tourist so they will have big nominal of money and will need a shop to exchange into small money, some shop have signs telling they can't serve exchange money so we need to buy things, in my case, I bought this Banana bread, 70 CZK, in small shop which looks friendly, the shopkeeper was nice and she already prepared giving changes with small money :)

Prague UAN Florenc

This is CZK :p

ticket vending machine

waiting for the Metro

At night, we strolled around the Letná Park at Letenské area and the park were fulled with lot of young people, there are also some bars and they selling out beers, one thing that you must try while in Prague, Czech people love to drink beers, and beers are cheaper than water. Even they have this cart where in order to have your beers flow you need to pedal the cart together haha. There are also some restaurants, and from this park you can see city center of Prague and Vltava river from the top which so beautiful especially at night and feel glad to see that view on my first night in Prague. It's night already but it's not that cold, my friend said the weather in Prague especially when summer are very nice. And the sunset come earlier which is around 9 PM.

seeing city center of Prague

woww..too much ^^;;

Stunning Prague at night!

bit hungry at night :D

Thank you for reading my travel diaries and I'll see you soon, hope you enjoy reading it.

Have a blast!

MJ