Hotel Stadt Bremen

... and the main market area. After looking at about 10 places to eat we finally decided on a restaurant. We walked in and waited to be seated only to find out that it was the type of restaurant (like most in Germany) where you seat yourselves, we looked silly. The meal was really good. I had Bremer Knipp, which is a speciality in the area. It was basically a patty of ground meat and onions and stuff overtop of amazing potatoes with tons of spices. We couldn’t figure out ...

... this area seemed like a **** hole. It was dirty and of course dark and cold. So after a few blocks I headed back to the train station to sit around and wait to call Norbert, a guy who works for our company in Bremen. While sitting in the train station I realized I could charge my phone off my computer with a cord that wasn’t built for my phone, so that was nice. I also was able to people watch for a few hours and just listen to music. So what cool ...

What can I say - I really love Germany and this little town is no exception. Actually stayed here a couple of nights mainly to catch up on emails and sleep. This is a cute little town that is most well known for its travelling musicians of Bremen which is a rooster atop the cat atop the dog who is standing on the donkey (apparently they were scaring robbers who invaded their house). They have a statue of this in the centre of town. Aside from this the town is ...

... is the same, we can all come together on common ground.

interesting to think about when just today our cross cultural mgt professor was talking about divisions in Europe. take for instance the conflict along the Serbian-Croatian border takes it roots from when Christian crusaders sacked Constantinople... nights like tonight serve as proof that with understanding, compassion and a little booze, the world might know peace.

so today, around 5pm... local time we all did a bit of pregaming and around 8 we decided to go to a bar that has shots for a euro a piece.. along the way we stopped to get a doner, that's 3/3 for anyone keeping track at home... well Eric and i went to find the Euro Bar without much success.. after ...

... a glass elevator that Willy Wonka might be jealous of. However, I think my favorite feature is the microscope room on the second floor, which has an entire wall made of clear glass, and puts the workstations with people peering through microscopes in full view, even from the foyer. It's impossible to walk by and not peek in, and the room makes for a surprising metaphor for the act of using a microscope...Whoever designed it had a wicked sense of humor.

My guide kindly took me ...

... and finding meat-free food?) before returning to Northern California in late September. So! That's the background info, and now to the blog!

California to Europe is a long flight! Though since I flew KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) it was amusing watching "17 again" subtitled in Dutch. They had good-ish food, but I was more impressed when they went around at 10pm (San Francisco time) to hand out ice cream! I'd never gotten ice cream on a plane before. Also, we didn't ...

... tour because i was so freaking tired from the night before and truth be told I was not feeling tooooo well (yeah i know can you believe that!!!!!) But the whole tour was quite amazing! We went through EVERYTHINg and then we had TASTE TESTING!!! YES! I was so pumped! And JENNIFER got a NO ALCOHOLIC BEER! i think she wanted to intentionally hurt me- I even had to take a photo of her because i could NOT ...

... I now have that feeling after you've been to all-you-can-eat at Pizza Hut, where you wake up the next day and wished you'd eaten more, despite being disgustingly full at the time). I still dont quite know how i made it home with all the stuff I aquired there. Getting off the plane at heathrow a man laughed at all my bags and coats, and said "early christmas?" i replied "no...Lebkuchen".

... I wasn't all that impressed with the place at the time. Maybe it was the bleak, grey weather in the middle of summer, maybe it was the comparatively tiny old town. Whatever the case though, I've always said that I'll never write off visiting a place a second time. And it turns out, it's actually a much more pleasant place than I recall it being. It's still fairly small in terms of sightseeing attractions compared to other, similarly-sized ...