In the morning, I stored my luggage at Bahnhof Dresden-Neustadt so I didn’t need to go back to the hostel to pick it up when I went to Berlin that evening. The place we were going to hike was in a forest region on the border of Germany and Czech Republic. When I enjoyed the river, the forest, and the sandstone towers from the window on the train to Prague, I was already in love with it and said to myself I wanted to visit this place, only not knowing it was the one Caymin talked about. This region was climbers’ haven with big walls on those unique towers of distinct formations and rock features. It was where “free-climbing”, a “true” style of climbing when climbers do not use any equipment assist while scaling up, was invented by those crazy Europeans.
Mitchell and I took a regional train along River Elbe to Kurort Rathen. Then, we took a small ferry across the water to the side where the famous Bastei Bridge, a sandstone bridge connecting the top of a few pinnacles, located. We had a few trail options, and since we both had free-roamer’s spirits, we started wandering along the river hoping to find a less popular trail going up the mountain. We were so engaged in enjoying the tranquility along the river and in our conversations about the Pacific Northwest back at home that we walked a bit too far. On the way turning back, we randomly picked a trail and started heading up. While the forest felt like we were back in the trees on the west coast, the rock and earth certainly felt different. The trail of vegetations formed on top of sandstones felt a lot softer. The higher we went, the closer we were close to the rocks, the more sand we sank in. It was almost like walking on soft sand beach on some parts of the trail. Unfortunately, the trail became increasingly narrower, steeper and less distinct with almost no fresh footprints. We started being a bit worried of our route choice. After a brief discussion, it was to both of our interest and safety that we decided to head back on the main trail and find the crowd. Although reluctant to turn back, I realized where Caymin bivied for a night in a cave around this area - what a peaceful place she had! On the way down, while exploring some small side trails, I had the chance to be closer under those 500 feet sandstone walls. How could you blame the climbers for their love for this place! Back on the highway, we decided to check out a couple of main tourist destinations in that area: a waterfall and the Bastei Bridge on top. The hike was relatively easy except some parts were wet and muddy due to the recent rain fall. We walked by Amselsee (Blackbird Lake?) and reached Amselfall (Blackbird fall?) first. It was a tiny but cute waterfall with gentle flowing water-blind dripping down from hanging vines and moss. The rocks were carved by water into artistic shapes, from which one could tell the age of nature. Behind the fall, there was a house with exhibitions showing the geological background of this area. There were boxes of different kinds of stones. And they were selling some posters and calendars of photos of some of the world elite climbers spidering on those sandstone towers in that region. One interesting story of this waterfall was that the amount of water flow could be controlled by the people there. So if you paid them some donation, they would switch “on” the fall and a sudden flood of water would shoot out from behind the rocks. Mitchell and I took a break and had some sausages and fries (with Mayonnaise, European style) by the fall. Then, we headed up to the Bastei Bridge. Only by the time we reached the top did we realized that people could drive all the way up from behind the mountains to this place. Damn those cheaters. The view from the top of those towering stones was magnificent: River Elbe sneaked through the forest valley like music notes singing on green canvas. Adding more drama to the scenery, cloud thickened and a storm was forming not far away. I witnessed some of the most stunning lightnings striking from top of the sky all the way to the bottom of the valley, seemingly breaking the entire universe. I wished I had a capable camera and skills to capture those moments. As much as I wanted to stay up there enjoying those overtaking strikes, however, our safety became a concern with the storm closing in. Just after we walked across the Bastei Bridge on top, while Mitchell was chatting with her newly-met American fellows, a strike of lightning shattered the sky horizontally right above our heads, and seconds after, the most threatening rumble I had ever heard shook the sky, the ground, and all the way into my heart. It was so deafening that I felt the entire universe was going to collapse and suffocate us. Obviously, others felt the same. We only needed to give each other a stare in the eyes and we all knew it was time go get the hell out of there. We quickly descended into the forest and the thunders became wakening. As an adventurer, I was so regretted to escape those once-in-a-lifetime sceneries; but I had to be responsible for myself and the people around me. The descend through the forest was easy and pleasant. We were lucky the downpour didn’t arrive until we crossed the river and was back under the roof at the train station. When the rain came, it was like the sky just opened a hole. By that time, I was already used to the European summer thunderstorm, so it was more of an enjoyable event than a miserable encounter.
It was a great day with my new friend, only too soon that we had to separate to our ways. We said goodbye after getting back at Bahnhof Dresden-Neustadt and I picked up my luggage waiting for the train to Berlin. When I got onto the platform for the scheduled train, it was strangely empty. I only saw 2 or 3 other people waiting for this train to the capital. I was in the unfamiliar territory so I did not react to the situation. Suddenly, this German guy in a pair of sandals came onto the platform and talked to the couple of girls waiting on the same platform I was standing. Then, certainly noticed I didn’t understand German, he switched to English and hurriedly asked: “Are you going to Berlin?” “Yes,” I replied confusedly. “We had to go to Dresden main station. Come!” Already walking away, he waved me into the tunnel to go to another platform. I didn’t hesitate to follow him because the other two girls already took his advice and he obviously wanted to help. As we were running down and up the stairs to another platform, he tried to explain to me that the announcer at the train station just broadcasted that the thunderstorm had caused some damage on the power line, so the train to Berlin was to be rerouted and would no longer come to Dresden-Neustadt. They were not even sure whether that train was heading to Berlin, after all. We had to take a train to Dresden Hbf to find out. It was a panic situation for everyone as it was almost the scheduled leaving time for that train and it would take about 5 minutes from Dresden-Neustadt to Hbf. When we finally boarded a regional train, everybody looked confused, we could only kept our fingers crossed hoping for the best. Luckily, when we arrived at Dresden Hbf, that train to Berlin was still there. I ran frantically with that German guy who asked the conductor passing by to confirm the train was still going to Berlin. Seconds after we hopped on, the train left. Minutes later, the train stopped, and we realized that we were back at Neustadt. Nobody was on the platform because we were all rushed like hordes of sheep to take the train at Hbf! By that time, nevertheless, we were just glad to be on our way to Berlin and didn’t have any energy left to complain. After finally found our seats and settled down, I thanked that German guy, whose name was Stefan, for so graciously helping this non-German speaking tourist out of trouble - without his hospitality, I might still be waiting in Dresden wondering where the train was to Berlin. We chatted all the way on our ride; Unsurprisingly, Stefan was a backpacker and adventurer as well - who else would be so open and ready to help other travellers except one of his own?! He did have some crazy stories to tell, including driving a half-broken car, bought from his relative in Quebec, all the way across Canada to the West Coast, in winter! He told me how he and his buddy managed to go through the frozen Rockies with ice tubes hanging inside his car window, how they were gambling on their safety and health to sleep in the car under minus 20-30 degrees, how they climbed up a mountain (because they didn’t have enough money for the lift tickets) by a ski resort (probably Mt. Washington) to get some snowboarding fun, and how they met the beautiful west coaster who recruited them working for his fishing business on a boat - a true Canadian small town story. His stories went on, down the coast to San Francisco, across the world to Down Under (where he told me how travellers could buy and sell cars like a flee market transaction right outside the airport), and up in the Alps close to his home. Stefan was truly a living adventurer and we became friends instantly. Interesting enough, while we were on our sandals and hikers with wet dirty t-shirt under our backpacks, in the same cabin seated an English business gentleman who dressed in full suites and nice shirts with shiningly polished leather shoes. He had hotel booked and taxi ready for him in Berlin while I was going to find out a bus to my CouchSurfing host’s home. Stefan and I tried to engage him into our conversation of crazy travel adventures, but he was either confused or could not get our humor. With so many stories to share, the 3 hours train ride went fast enough not to be noticed. Since our train was delayed, Stefan had to run to his connection to Hamburg. We exchanged emails and he asked me to contact him whenever I was back in Dresden. I sent him an email later, thanked him again for saving my day, and asked him to give me a shot whenever he’d be back in Canada again. I was so happy to meet this amazing person.
Now, I was in Berlin! The day of hiking was so great, and accidentally, I met someone who made my day even better, how could it go to another level? It’s Berlin! I had heard so much about this city, nobody had told me a word of bad thing about it. Then, I was standing outside the state-of-art Berlin Hauptbahnhof. I caught a bus to Nordbahnhof, followed the instruction I was given and easily found my CS host Katja and Thomas’ place. The problem was, they didn’t give me their last name so I didn’t know which buzzer to call and let them know I was there. A friendly guy came out of the building let me in but was not sure which floor Katja was on. To make it worse, my phone died just when I turned it on and was ready to sacrifice a few dollars to Rogers to make a roaming international call. In the end, I decided to try my luck and randomly rang a bell. The odds were not on my side, the woman who opened the door with a baby in her arms (Who’s this sweaty Asian with a big backpack standing in front my door?) was not the one I was looking for. I felt so bad to randomly knock on a stranger’s door, yet continued to push my boundary. Luckily they spoke some English, so I asked if I could call Katja, a person who was supposed to live in this building. Nicely, she helped me dial the number. When Katja picked up, she was two stories up. I apologized for troubling the family and thanked them for the random help. Katja and Thomas welcomed me with open arms in their spacious one-bedroom spotlessly clean apartment, and served me a pizza after I took a shower. They were a bit worried why I hadn’t arrived till so late, so I told them the whole story with DB from Dresden to Berlin. It was getting late, so they set me up with the futon and we left our conversation to the next day.
