Since it is the first time for me to visit Dresden, I used the day to get a first overview and impression. And I must say – I fell in love with it! For the short time that I stayed there, I focused on 2 areas – the old town (Altstadt) and the new town (Neustadt).

In the old town, you’ll find all the must see sights like Semperoper, Zwinger, Frauenkirche and the Royal Palace. The buildings are super impressive and I was particularly surprised by the Zwinger due to the extended outside park. Unfortunately, the entire area is being rebuilt and there are construction sites in front of all the buildings which takes a bit of the charm. Around the Frauenkirche, streets have been reconstructed based on their origin in Baroque style. While it’s beautiful and reminded me of Vienna, I found it nearly to perfect and flawless.

The new town, however, blew me away. It’s very left wing, alternative with graffiti on the walls, funky boutiques and quirky cafes. There was an incredible atmosphere, especially during the mild summer evening with many young people sitting outside bars or kiosks, on the pavement or other free spaces. There’s definitely a lively night scene and this was just during the week. What impressed me as well was how children played a big part in society. This showed in the normal gardens but also in an extended adventure playgrounds with various animals and a ‘parent-free’ zone.

What adds also to the flair of Dresden is the fact that the river Elbe runs right through it and is being heavily used for leisure time. The cycling path is very famous and goes up to Hamburg. There, you’ll find hundreds of cyclists of all age groups, in-line skaters and a few rare pedestrians. The city as such is in general dominated by cyclists.

Overall, it has been a beautiful day in Dresden, it was great fun to cycle through the city and along the Elbe and it will for sure not be the only time for me to visit this place!

Accommodation: https://www.louise20.de/en/

With COVID-19 putting my travel plans to a sudden hold after Brazil, I now packed my bags again and am off to the next adventure. Due to the circumstances, I had to adjust my plans and decided to go for a different challenge – this time more on the physical side. As I always feel attracted to water and since I don’t really know the North Eastern part of Germany, I am now on my way to Dresden. After a day of site seeing, I’ll leave the city on Wednesday and will walk along the Elbe to Hamburg. The trip is roughly 611km and with 29 days of walking, I have to complete 21km per day on average. While it certainly will be tough, I am super excited to be out in nature, reduce my belongings to the bare minimum and just keep putting one foot in front of the other. I aim to send regular updates with the pictures to share the beauty of the trip with you. And so the adventure continues….

Here I am, sitting on the bed in my temporary accommodation in Lagos, Santa Catarina, to take in the last moments before I meet a group of 30 passionate yogis who will be my company for the next four weeks.

The last days on the island of Florianopolis have been great to arrive not only physically but also mentally and even more so to take in the sun and warmth of the Brazilian summer. Lagoa is a very special place which is strongly influenced by the surfer and backpacker community. You can tell right away that I am not from here as a. I am still super pale, b. I don’t have dreadlocks and even more importantly c. I don’t have ANY tattoos which seems to be an absolute must. Apart from the first point, I don’t intend to change any of that but who knows? 😃

The place is stunningly beautiful with a lot of green, blue sky, white beaches and a lot of colours inbetween. Overall, it’s a very colourful and vibrant place but still very laid back due to the people. What impressed me the most so far is the kindness of the people. And if language is a barrier, they find someone who speaks English or we use Google translate. So I had already some intense conversations without a spoken word which is a quite bizarre feeling.

I am glad that I had the opportunity to come a few days earlier to explore the area, understand a bit more about the culture before we leave to the retreat centre which is very excluded on the ‚Montanha Encantada‘, the enchanted mountains. An area in the mountains of Florianopolis, surrounded by the rain forest with waterfalls, natural lakes and beaches close by. I don’t expect the internet to be strong there, so it could well be that I write my next update afterwards.

I’ll leave you with a few pictures so that you can see the beauty of this place.

Sabine

As I will embark on new adventures over the next months, I wanted to share my thoughts and experience in this blog for everyone wants to be part of this journey.

Please follow this block if you want to be informed about my postings in the future.

All the best,
Sabine