Has any of your heard of Saxon Switzerland or, in actual German, die sächsische Schweiz? For starters, I’ve mentioned it in this post of mine two months ago. At the moment, I thought of it to be quite a beautiful area and wanted to go. So, when I could apply, I did. A few days before the trip, I had a few doubts in my head. I thought maybe I would be too tired afterwards and would fall sick before the finals. But I was proven wrong. So glad I decided to come along. It was certainly one hell of a trip and a totally new experience to me. I think it’s important to tell you I don’t think I’ve ever really hiked in my life. At least if I have, I don’t think it was this high and I haven’t done so for a very long time. So this hiking totally killed me.
Too bad this guy is in the way 🙁
First off, let me just tell you that both Mimi and I — yes, she came too — had to wake up extra early in the morning because we needed to get to the train station before 7 AM. In the tram, we met accidentally with our trip leader, Iza. She was carrying a huge bag of gift bags for everyone then gave one to each of us. On the way, the stupid tram experienced a little bit of a traffic jam and we had to walk all the way to the train station. I was left behind since I was tired so early in the morning.
So, anyway, as soon as we got to the train station, we got on the train. We had to transit in Leipzig and had too much time to spare since the train got delayed for 20 minutes. Long story short, we finally got to Dresden and took the light rail to Schmilka — originally we were to get off at Bad Schandau but it was too late.
As soon as we got off the train, we met with our trip guide — whose name escapes me, I’m sorry. Then he led us to the ferry station and we got on — quite crumpled into, actually — the ferry to cross the river. Afterwards, we started walking a few blocks until we started hiking. The first round made my heart race like the Road Runner. But then the next ones made it fly away. As usual, Mimi picked up things from the ground, this time being a long stick to make hiking easier. A behaviour which then became a trend and, before you knew it, everyone carried sticks — including me. One guy even cleaned up the stick with his swiss army knife. It looked neat!
The guide took us to rocky places and gave us worthy information. He told us that this whole area was once under water in the sea. All over this area, there are thousands of sandstones and he told us that people usually climb around this area but with a few ground rules which are different from the usual rules since these sandstones are rather fragile.
Meet Peter! He’s the young son of our trip guide. He was carried in a rucksack all the time that we hiked. He was shy and sour at first but then became friendlier as the time went by. He had a green pacifier that didn’t keep him from talking. He was extra adorable! I wanted to bring him home. Toward the end of our trip, he looked at me and said: “Hübsch!” (Pretty!) in front of everyone. I swear I just blushed.
Iza giving Peter white grapes
In the end, we finally got to the very top. Seeing the view, I must say it was worth it. Highly amazing! It was very, very rocky, indeed. In the distance, we could see there were two men on top of a small rock hundreds of metres away from the ground. You could see it on the first picture there. The rock looked like it could fall any minute but those guys didn’t look like they were leaving anytime soon. It was a great wonder to all of us who saw them. Being up there, I was proud of myself and highly amazed by everyone else because, I should tell you, they were all stronger than I was and we all made it to the top. You guys should go here. The view from this angle is simply breathtaking. Just like when I was in Köln, my legs shook on the way down. But it was a whole lot better than getting up.
Whilst walking all the way to the ferry port, the guide took us into town in Bad Schandau and showed us a house that recorded all the floods that had happened since the 19th century in Saxon Switzerland. The river overflowed once in a while and it created floods. The worst was in 2002, where the water level reached the second floor of every building. The electricity went out for four weeks then. Such an impact. Our feet were almost ready to gave up as we finally reached the port and waited for the ferry to come and take us to the train station. We boarded the train and started our trip back. We said goodbye to the guide and Peter as they got off in Pirna.
We switched train in Dresden main train station — said goodbye to Stefan who was off to see his girlfriend who lived there — and spent the whole trip back to Halle playing Werewolf, using its real cards. I played this game with my friends many times before — using bridge cards — but it was a whole lot different from the real game. A whole lot more fun using the real cards. I got to play with people from different countries as well, no Indonesians too. It was less emotional playing with them — which is the way it’s supposed to be. Afterwards, we arrived in Halle around 10 PM and I quickly passed out once I arrived home. That’s about it about last weekend. Hope you have a great one this week!
Has any of your heard of Saxon Switzerland or, in actual German, die sächsische Schweiz? For starters, I’ve mentioned it in this post of mine two months ago. At the moment, I thought of it to be quite a beautiful area and wanted to go. So, when I could apply, I did. A few days before the trip, I had a few doubts in my head. I thought maybe I would be too tired afterwards and would fall sick before the finals. But I was proven wrong. So glad I decided to come along. It was certainly one hell of a trip and a totally new experience to me. I think it’s important to tell you I don’t think I’ve ever really hiked in my life. At least if I have, I don’t think it was this high and I haven’t done so for a very long time. So this hiking totally killed me.
Too bad this guy is in the way 🙁
First off, let me just tell you that both Mimi and I — yes, she came too — had to wake up extra early in the morning because we needed to get to the train station before 7 AM. In the tram, we met accidentally with our trip leader, Iza. She was carrying a huge bag of gift bags for everyone then gave one to each of us. On the way, the stupid tram experienced a little bit of a traffic jam and we had to walk all the way to the train station. I was left behind since I was tired so early in the morning.
So, anyway, as soon as we got to the train station, we got on the train. We had to transit in Leipzig and had too much time to spare since the train got delayed for 20 minutes. Long story short, we finally got to Dresden and took the light rail to Schmilka — originally we were to get off at Bad Schandau but it was too late.
As soon as we got off the train, we met with our trip guide — whose name escapes me, I’m sorry. Then he led us to the ferry station and we got on — quite crumpled into, actually — the ferry to cross the river. Afterwards, we started walking a few blocks until we started hiking. The first round made my heart race like the Road Runner. But then the next ones made it fly away. As usual, Mimi picked up things from the ground, this time being a long stick to make hiking easier. A behaviour which then became a trend and, before you knew it, everyone carried sticks — including me. One guy even cleaned up the stick with his swiss army knife. It looked neat!
The guide took us to rocky places and gave us worthy information. He told us that this whole area was once under water in the sea. All over this area, there are thousands of sandstones and he told us that people usually climb around this area but with a few ground rules which are different from the usual rules since these sandstones are rather fragile.
Meet Peter! He’s the young son of our trip guide. He was carried in a rucksack all the time that we hiked. He was shy and sour at first but then became friendlier as the time went by. He had a green pacifier that didn’t keep him from talking. He was extra adorable! I wanted to bring him home. Toward the end of our trip, he looked at me and said: “Hübsch!” (Pretty!) in front of everyone. I swear I just blushed.
Iza giving Peter white grapes
In the end, we finally got to the very top. Seeing the view, I must say it was worth it. Highly amazing! It was very, very rocky, indeed. In the distance, we could see there were two men on top of a small rock hundreds of metres away from the ground. You could see it on the first picture there. The rock looked like it could fall any minute but those guys didn’t look like they were leaving anytime soon. It was a great wonder to all of us who saw them. Being up there, I was proud of myself and highly amazed by everyone else because, I should tell you, they were all stronger than I was and we all made it to the top. You guys should go here. The view from this angle is simply breathtaking. Just like when I was in Köln, my legs shook on the way down. But it was a whole lot better than getting up.
Whilst walking all the way to the ferry port, the guide took us into town in Bad Schandau and showed us a house that recorded all the floods that had happened since the 19th century in Saxon Switzerland. The river overflowed once in a while and it created floods. The worst was in 2002, where the water level reached the second floor of every building. The electricity went out for four weeks then. Such an impact. Our feet were almost ready to gave up as we finally reached the port and waited for the ferry to come and take us to the train station. We boarded the train and started our trip back. We said goodbye to the guide and Peter as they got off in Pirna.
We switched train in Dresden main train station — said goodbye to Stefan who was off to see his girlfriend who lived there — and spent the whole trip back to Halle playing Werewolf, using its real cards. I played this game with my friends many times before — using bridge cards — but it was a whole lot different from the real game. A whole lot more fun using the real cards. I got to play with people from different countries as well, no Indonesians too. It was less emotional playing with them — which is the way it’s supposed to be. Afterwards, we arrived in Halle around 10 PM and I quickly passed out once I arrived home. That’s about it about last weekend. Hope you have a great one this week!