It's a German Trip
Let me start off by saying this will be a long read but I'll break it up as best as I can.
Phill gifted me with a trip for graduation!! So of course I took this opportunity to go to Germany to visit my birth place, but that wasn't all that happened.
I invited some of my girlfriends to go with since the timing was bad for Phill, he ended up getting sick again! Even though not all of them could come this was still going to be a fun trip, we just didn't how fun! *Note sarcasm, but it really was fun.
We left Papa around noon on Monday and had to drive about 7 hours to Dresden, which was fine but still rough. We finally made it to our Air BnB Host's house to get the keys and from this point I will just say that it was not a pleasant experience. They try to charge us a deposit that was out of Air BnB's rules and did not want to give us the keys, mind you this is around 2200 (10pm). We called AirBnB and long story short they let us stay the night. We thought everything was fine and the next day all we needed to was pay the city tax. Well we got up and went to brunch and left for Bayreuth, my birth place, and forgot about the city tax (I planned to do it when we got back because I thought it was through Air BnB not in cash so that was my bad). Bayreuth is about 2 hours from Dresden. We stopped before getting into town at the old Army Post that my Dad was stationed at almost 30 years ago and where me and my brother were born! It was so cool to see some old buildings still around and apartment complexes that use to be old barracks and just outside of the Post was the armory.
This was such a serial moment for me because I have no memory of what this place looked like when my parents lived here but it was just so cool to see it and still be able to see parts of the Post that where still there when they were here.
Now on to Bayreuth, the place I was born at! I was more excited to go there than anything. It is a college town now so probably a little bigger than it use to be but it was just so cute! However, as soon as we got to town I got a message from the Host that we had to leave the apartment immediately because they were evicting us. Their reasons were that we did not pay the deposit, after we were told not too, did not pay the city tax by noon, that was partly my bad but I also did not hear them say that, and that we had an unexpected 6th person show up...when did they get there because we did not see them. Anyway we just did not know what to do so we called Air BnB again and they told us they would take care of it and that we should just enjoy our day. So we did. We walked around town for a little bit but since it was a 2 hour drive we wanted to leave before it got to late. So the main square, a castle, dinner and a wine shop were the top things we did, priorities just saying.
On our way back we did not hear much from Air BnB so we did not know what to expect when we got back to the apartment other than that is what they told us to do. But we got back and everything still seemed to be fine except we had to call Air BnB again a couple more times. They just kept telling us they would take care of it and to not leave and it will be fine. It was not fine. Right as we were all ready to go to bed after staying up waiting for Air BnB to call back, we got a message from the Host saying that if we are not gone by noon the next day then they will cut the power and water off. We were all just taken back and what was suppose to be a fun trip away from Papa because a nightmare! We called Air BnB yet again and they said that they will just transfer us to the a Germany case manager. We did not hear back from them that night. In the morning we started getting up and talking about what we were going to do, this was around 0830-0900. Called Air BnB again and they just said do not leave we will take care of it. By 1030 we all decided we best get ready and pack because if they did cut the power then we were not going back and if anything we would just unpack again later that night. So the most impressive thing happened, 5 yes only 5 ladies and 1 baby got ready for the day, packed and cleaned the apartment in an hour and half!! Guys we all worked to well together to make sure we got everything and out the door and as we left around 1215 they cut the power but we were all done! But the drama does not end, sadly! As we were packing the cars up we saw someone taking pictures of us. We confronted them and they just kinda shrugged and walked away. We were extremely mad about this and just confirmed that we would not be going back to this apartment. We left and called Air BnB yet again, told them everything that happened in the last 20 minutes and they just did not do anything about it. We get in town a little bit and park so we could talk to Air BnB and figure out what to do. It took two different people yelling, explaining, over and over for them to finally do something! The saddest part of the whole trip was how poorly Air BnB treated us! But we finally got a refund and gift coupon and a new place to stay. Returned the keys to other apartment, because we still paid for it, and went to go eat and this was just around 1300 (1pm). Needless to say we were all glad to be done with that Host and apartment, even though it was a beautiful place to stay I would not recommend it to anyone because the Host was just difficult.
Now for Dresden, a beautiful town filled with so much history! I'm so glad we staid in this town because there is way more to do there than in Bayreuth! Our NEW Air BnB was right in the heart of town, with parking and a great view!
This is what was right outside of window!
We went to the Panometer, which the building that has this 360 image is from an old gas chamber that exploded years ago. They gutted it and repurposed it to show the history of Dresden. It was the coolest thing to see and a must if you visit Dresden. If you do not know much about Dresden know that it was bomb and almost flattened during WWII, only a handful of builds still stand otherwise the whole town has been rebuilt.
We walked around at night and visited a local festival that just so happened to have been the Hungarian Festival! We all became more relaxed and enjoyed the trip a lot more at this point. We ventured out to see the famous wall that makes noise when it rains and in that courtyard was a craft beer store so of course we had to get some drinks. We ate street food and had Starbucks and laughed just had a great time. I even got some of the girls to model for me.
I am just so thankful for this trip, even with the drama with AirBnB, it was such a memorable trip! Each of the ladies that came, and those that were not able too, mean so much to me and it was fun to make memories together!
