Trip #2: Bremen

I think I mentioned Trip #1: Indianapolis at one point, but my weekend trip to Bremen was my first trip in or close to Europe.

I have a list of places that I want to visit this year, and Bremen was pretty high on my list. I knew that Bremen was one of the three city-states and had heard of the Stadtmusikanten (town musicians), but that was about the extent of my knowledge of the town. It turns out that J, one of my Berlin Fulbright friends, has a German friend in Bremen, and I tagged along with her.

Really, the only bad thing was that I had to wake up around 5:30 to get to the train, and I was up until 1:00 talking to my parents on Skype. I tried to sleep on the train, but there was a little girl with a piercing, obnoxious voice that narrated every event that was happening on the train. If you've ever seen the Youtube video "Kittens Inspired by Kittens," it was that voice but in German. I made it to Bremen on time and very, very sleep deprived.

F (J's German friend) gave us a walking tour of Bremen, and we hit the main sites: Die Sogestrasse, die Gedaechtniskapelle, die Stadtmusikanten (of course), Roland, and a Glockenspiel. By then, we were hungry and ready for food, so we stopped at a cafe and ate. It was so comfy and warm, and I was totally falling asleep over dinner. Oops!

We walked around a little more after getting food, and I convinced F to take us to the windmill, even though our legs were about to fall off. It turns out that a few of F's friends had driven to Bremen, so we packed into their car (breaking several laws, I'm pretty sure), where I promptly fell asleep on F's shoulder. (My only quote that made it onto a gymnastics t-shirt was, "I could drive, but I'm slightly narcoleptic," which pretty much sums up my sleeping habits in moving vehicles.)

F attends a private German college, where the main language is actually English. When we got back, we had a few minutes to relax (the guys took showers; I slept) before heading to Deepawali (Diwali). I enjoyed learning a little more about Diwali, but I have to admit that the Miami production was a lot more impressive. Afterwards, they had Indian food (I need to figure out what I'm allergic to; it must be a spice because there weren't any nuts in the dishes), and we went back to F's room to hang out before the fireworks!

German safety standards are not quite the same as the standards in the US, so some students launched fireworks from one side of the field while we stood at the other side. There was also a fire juggler (there has to be a technical name for that, right?), who appeared to toss his burning sticks or ropes on the ground every so often (they did a few fireworks, then the juggler did a few things, and they kept switching back and forth).

Let's see, what else? F, J, and F's cousin, also a J, wanted to go clubbing downtown, but I was exhausted and had already fallen asleep spontaneously three times that day, so I decided to stay in F's room. Since I was going to be asleep when they got in, they decided to give me the bed (still don't quite understand the logic of that), have J sleep on the couch, and have the guys share the air mattress. Anyway, I was sleeping very peacefully when something hit me on the head: a poster! I don't know what it is with me, sleeping, and things falling on my head, but I'm not liking this trend! :)

All of us woke up late on Sunday, so we just wandered down to breakfast, annoyed the lunch ladies because we took so long to choose food, ate, packed, and set off for the train.

Miscellaneous impressions of Bremen: it felt like a very stereotypical German city with old, beautiful architecture, a thriving cafe scene, and a pretty gemuetlich atmosphere. There are bizarre quirky statues scattered throughout the city; some are spinoffs of the Stadtmusikanten, and some are completely random. This mini-trip to Bremen definitely highlighted the things that I like and dislike about Berlin: Bremen felt very peaceful and relaxed-- and also very ethnically German!

Thanks for a great weekend, F and Js! :)