Saturday Lily and I wandered around Bremen some more, looking at pretty things and poking through shops. We saw a street that was saved from destruction during WW2 only because the Nazis considered it a good example of degenerate art. We went to Schnoor, which is this little old section of town that has lots of shops and medieval sized streets (I can't imagine anything other than people on these streets) and very old buildings. Very cool, and I'm not doing it justice, and I didn't take enough photos. Anyway, we spent several hours wandering and had some tasty lunch and looked at a lot of Bremen souvenirs and I tried to buy presents for people, which is proving to be very difficult.
At night we went to a party at Lily's roommate's twin sister's house. It wasn't very far away and we took the tram there with our bottles of various beverages. She's lived all over the place, and the guests spoke a variety of languages. Many spoke English, so I chatted a bit and someone complimented my German, even though I think it's terrible. We all sat on the roof (the ladder was scary with one arm and kind of drunk) and watched the sun set over Bremen (at like 1030 pm) and I listened to Lily have a conversation in German, Spanish and English and lots of people brought out instruments and there was drumming and guitarring and it was excellent. We went back home at something like 2am, in a cab because we were too lazy to walk the whole way.
Sunday 7/15:
Sunday we took the train to the Deutsches Auswandererhaus in Bremerhaven (and they never came for tickets so we didn't have to pay!). It's a museum of German emigration. You basically take the place of an emigrant, and the museum is made to look like a ship (in some parts, several different kinds of ships). When you go in, you get a card with an emigrant listed and the year they emigrated and when you place your card on the designated spots through the museum with earpieces, it tells you a story about whatever part of the boat you're in. After you do the initial "boarding" of the ship, there's a room with a bunch of drawers labeled with folks' names and the years they emigrated. I kind of skipped over all the 1800s ones and went straight for the year my grandparents left. I read a few of the older ones later, but I listened to the stories of all the emigrants who left around the same time as Oma and Opa. It was really cool. Then you continue walking and see more of the insides of various ships from various eras. Man did the trip get a lot easier with the invention of steamships! A week instead of three months! Anyway, it was all really cool to look at, and to listen to the little stories (most of which were excerpts from letters about life on the ships), though I felt a bit rushed because we got there too close to closing time, and I'd lost Lily along the way and was a bit worried about finding her in the maze of rooms. Then there was a wall of maps and graphs showing how many people from which countries went to which countries and when through Bremerhaven. Also, (random), the bathrooms played ocean sounds, and that was really weird. Then there was a room full of American phone books so Germans can look up their last names and find relatives, which was kind of weird. And then there was this little 9 minute movie with people who had emigrated and now live in America (or lived in America and went back to Europe), and their families, talking about it a little. There was this one scene where a little boy learned a song in German for his grandfather's birthday that made me really miss my Opa. He would be so proud of me here now. I'm getting all teary-eyed just thinking about it again. Anyway. I kind of forgot to continue taking pictures shortly into the museum because it was all so interesting. Um, and we missed the last room with the computers for looking up your family and getting more information and I-don't-know-what-else-because-we-missed-it because they closed on us. But I think I have pretty good information about my family, anyway. I feel like there was something else, too, but I forget.
After the museum closed on us we took the train back to Bremen (for free again!) and went out for some dinner along the river. Very pretty. We had German Mexican food. It was really strange to read the menu with random Spanish words and explanations in German. I kind of thought my brain was going to explode. The food was pretty good, if weird to be eating Mexican food German style. We walked home after eating and chatted with roommate+gf for a little bit and read some ridiculous magazines.
Monday 7/16:
I wrote most of this on a very fast train, having made my transfer in Hannover with only a little difficulty with the whole lots of baggage and one arm thing (and having screwed up my knitting again on the last train... must get Angelika to fix it for me). My German was passable enough to tell someone the seat next to me was, indeed, free, buy a snack, understand someone who thought I'd be a good person on the platform to ask whether the train there or the next one was the one to Karlsruhe (which I could only be helpful about because that's where I'm going) and tell her it was the next one, and get someone to help me lift my bag onto the luggage rack. \o/ Go me! I still feel like an idiot in German, though. I wish either people wouldn't speak so quickly or I'd understand more quickly! Clearly I need more practice.
Anyway. I have no idea what's in store when I get back to Engelsbrand at 4 something, but I am kind of sad to not be sleeping in a room by myself (I slept SO WELL at Lily's). But yes. Now I'm going to go read for the rest of my train ride.
Okay. Back in Engelsbrand now.
I had a whole conversation with Monika in German when everyone else wandered off. \o/ Then we three went walking to Bianca's house, which is beautiful and ginormous and old. I met her little kitty... Man do I miss my kitties. He purred at me, which was excellent. Best sound ever. Walked s'more around Engelsbrand and saw the oldest house, but I didn't have my camera with me. Encountered another purry kitty. Must be the day for it. And now I have to shower and go to bed because we are leaving for Neuschwanstein Castle at 530am, because Heiko doesn't believe in sleep. Oh, and apparently this weekend we are going to France for the day. Right. Tschuss!
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