Music and Churches For Dayz

We have a problem. As the days progress, we keep naming each day "the best day ever." Not that we're being dramatic, though a few of us are notorious of that (Yeebz), each experience has become increasingly interesting, beautiful, and memorable- and to think, we have only been here for a few days! I would define the last few days as days of musicians and churches- which is a relief since we came on a music and Bible trip!

I'll catch you up on the past two days, beginning with Thursday. We began with our two early morning classes, and a few of us had the opportunity to talk to an ACU professor who was in Leipzig for another trip about the history of some of the places we are visiting in regards to WWII and the Cold War. He also explained the purpose of this mural that I am quite fascinated with, which we pass every morning on our way to class.

Later, since we had never trekked outside of our dear city center, we went exploring down some cool streets. We had spotted the top steeple of a gothic cathedral from far away before, and decided to find the source of this mysterious "spire." When we got close, we realized it was St. Peter's church (Peterskirche) and decided to walk in. The mood was eerie inside because of the drone of an organ playing in the background, but the gorgeous architecture and stained glass took our breath away, and the beauty of the church astounded us. We weren't sure if we were allowed to be in the sanctuary, but then an English-speaking German man, who happened to be the only other person in the room at the time, approached us, and talked to us about the church. He found out that we were all musicians and requested that we play on the organ. He explained that because it was Ascension Day, there was a 12 hour "concert" going on in the church and different people walking through were asked to play on the organ to add to the concert. All of us (even Jack) played, then he brought us to a grand piano backstage, and a few of us played on that as well. The experience of playing music in the most beautiful church I had ever stepped foot in, in addition to the flawless acoustics, while getting to meet the cool German man, made for a memorable experience.

Friday was our class's day trip to Dresden. We rode on our first train through some countrysides (YAY) that were bright green and exactly what I envisioned while naming this blog site. We arrived in Dresden, having no idea that the city was FULL of history. Elaborate castles and cathedrals were everywhere. But something was wrong. Many of them looked black, covered in burn marks, or looked like a mix of the parts from the original cathedrals and reconstruction. We found out that this city had been severely firebombed during WWII, destroying almost everything. The class participated in a German worship service in one of the crazy cathedrals. Then we were free to go exploring for the rest of the day. At one point, after seeing a ton of churches, Alex, Mikayla, Jack, and I decided we wanted get to the top of the tower of the castle. While in line to buy a castle ticket, three adorable old ladies gave us their tickets to an exhibit inside the castle. We all teared up a bit I'm sure, then checked out the exhibit. It happened to be the collection of the treasures of the castle that had existed since the 1500's- ivory carvings, diamond jewelry, mother of pearl trinket boxes, and gold shields, was only the beginning of this collection, and the security to even enter the exhibit was intense. We learned so much about the Kings of Saxony and the royalty that possessed these fancy items. I began to hate the firebombs that destroyed most of the castle and the city of Dresden.

The two above are in the church we worshiped in.