Oh, I sleep just to dream...

Salutations, friends! How goes it? I'm doing well- it was a lovely, awesome day although I am in somewhat of a somber, contemplative mood. But I guess that's what happens when you spend hours looking at art haha...

Anyway, I woke up, amazingly, around 9 am. Thankfully, my dorm-mates wake up quite early and they function as my alarm clock as I, most regretfully, do not have a clock of any sort of my own. I got out of the hostel by 9:25 and made my way to the Hauptbonhof to catch my 9:55 bus to Worpswede. The ticket was 3,70 Euro one way. Sadly, or as per usual, I got off at the wrong stop and had to walk 5 minutes back in the opposite direction haha. Of course I got lost- if finding your way around a big city is confusing, finding you way around a village may be worse, but I'm not sure yet. Well, I found the first museum that I wanted to visit. It was right next door to the Tourist Info office, so I stopped in there first and bought a village map- nice.

The first museum, Worpsweder Kunsthalle, was small but nice. I enjoyed all of the art, which as per the 4-museum-large-exhibition, adhered mainly to the theme of art and soul and God, or something. Most of the art from Worpswede is of nature or of people in nature or in the countryside and from the early 1900s, so I think it most of the art contains this theme already. From there, I went to the Grosse Kunstschau, which was much better than the Kunsthalle; it had more art and the exhibitions there were amazing. Here, I fell in love with Heinrich Vogeler, and enjoyed many more paintings by Paula Modersohn-Becker, Otto Modersohn, and numerous other artists of the Worpswede community. The two exhibitions here were of Marc Chagall and Andres Fegler. Chagall, in the 1960s, did a series of work which portrayed the story of Moses- really interesting. Fegler, I had never heard of. His art is more modern- from the 70s to now- and really colorful and simple, with more of the recent stuff completely devoid of figuration. Looking at his art, I couldn't help but be reminded of Rothko and Mondrian, although his work is less structured than Rothko's and much more colorful and fun than Mondrian's.

After the two museums, and much purchasing of postcards and the exhibit's book (which is, sadly, in German), I decided to take a walking tour guided by the map which I had purchased. The directions were horrible, so I proceeded to get lost numerous times, but I got a really nice look at the village. It's one of those tiny places that makes one wonder where people buy their groceries, know what I mean? I decided that it's exactly the type of village which Wizards would inhabit unbeknownst to Muggles and I imagine Bad Aussee may be similar (one can only hope!). The church in Worpswede, the Zionkirche, which was designed by numerous artists, is the second prettiest church after the church in Neuchatel! When I visited the church, I found that the village is doing an art project of sorts where visiters to the church copy a verse from the Bible, hand written, and it will be displayed in Worpswede in 2010. Naturally, I had to take part. Of course, I made a writing mistake. Oopsie. But it was cool to be a part of it! My name will be in the exhibit! I saw some more sites, took some pics, but didn't quite finish the tour because I got lost and then got upset, which was compounded by my hunger.

At this time, I chose to eat, which screwed up my schedule because the waiter forgot to put my order in then I just took my sweet time eating/drinking. I tried to continue my walking tour, but, as before, I got lost lost lost and then it was getting too close to closing time (6 pm) of the remaining two museums I wanted to see, so I decided to drink a coffee and head for my bus. I got to the bus JUST IN TIME and made it back to Bremen in one piece!

Upon my return, I went to the hostel to chill for a little bit and then forced myself to go out to the Schlachte, because I was so tired (but I'm really glad that I went). Anyway, for the past two days I had been carrying around my bag, which had my umbrella in it, and of course when I venture out without my purse, that is also to say, without my umbrella, it rains. Not too bad though, so it was alright. On my way to the city center, I spotted one of those bags that say the city over and over (Bremen Bremen Bremen- you know what I mean, right?) in my favorite mint green color. Once I saw that the price was reduced to 8 Euro, I had to have it! Luckily I got there just in time because the dude was closing shop. Great purchase, I must say.

My trek to the city center continued... I got to take my picture with the "Bremen Town Musicians" statue. Nice. And now that I touched the donkey's leg, I'm all lucky and stuff so I'm excited to see what happens ;). I walked again through the Boettcherstrasse, because it is my favorite part of the town, and made my way to the Schlachte. I walked along the river for a bit as it got even more cloudy, which was lovely despite, or maybe because of, the weather. It's the perfect place to just walk and think, which is exactly what I did! And just as I was thinking how dead Bremen can be sometimes, I walked up some stairs and found the Schlachte Promenade, which is lined with Biergartens, and I found all of the Germans!... They WOULD be there (at the Biergartens)! I decided to join the fun and have a beer- yum! I also got an ice cream flavored "Blauer Engel": 1, because that's the name of the Marlene Dietrich film that I wrote a paper on and 2, because it looked like it would taste like Superman (incidentally, it did!). I then made my way back to the hostel and am now in the common room. For some reason, there seems to be a lot more people here today....

All in all, Bremen is a nice, enjoyable city and I'm really happy that I came. It looks like a big city that should be constantly bustling with people, but it is not. Even in Freiburg at 3 am when we're walking home from the bar, it doesn't feel as empty as Bremen does at 9 pm when I was walking home from the Biergarten. This makes it feel kind of depressing and downtrodden sometimes. Additionally, I feel quite safe here, but never in Freiburg has a random man said "Yo lady, wie geht es dir?" Hmm... But traveling alone is definitely great. It's fun doing whatever I want, at whatever pace I want and not having to worry about other people getting upset or stressed, but sometimes it's a little lonely. However, it gives me lots of time to think and contemplate life...and my next blog post ;) hahaha

Tomorrow, I journey to Luebeck. It's a smaller city, so I hope I'll get that nice small-town feel that I got in Worpswede, or even that I get from Freiburg (seems more my type of place). I'll let you all know how it goes (obviously)!

Anyway, hope everyone is well and having a good time :) Love and miss all!
Until next time...
Cheers,
Alaina :)

p.s. I failed to mention yesterday, but it might not need to be said, that the corpses I viewed are nearly as old, or older, than the USA! Creepy!!
p.p.s. Hilary, you might be pleased to know that there is a MANGO in Bremen and when I saw it, I thought of you! Miss you, lover :(
p.p.p.s. I also failed to mention yesterday that the Rathaus, along with the Roland statue out front, is an official UNESCO World Heritage Site! Neat-o! (this will mean more once I post pictures on Facebook and you can see what I mean!...)