Visit to Bremen

So a couple of weeks ago (yes I lag) we took the train to Bremen. It is known for a fairy tale about 4 aging animals that are about to be killed by their owners (it's a lovely story so far...right?) so they decide to run away and form a band in Bremen. You can look it up if you want to know more cuz I don't want to bore you. Anyway, there were several representations of this in the town but one famous one is outside the oldest part of the "city hall" and it's said if you grab both legs of the donkey and rub them while making a wish (I know what you're thinking) your wish will come true. So of course we had to do it. There were a lot of people doing this as you can imagine so purell came in handy!

I think it must have worked because the next day I found a $5 Euro bill on the street :)
Lots of other cool stuff to see there. One older section of town is known for its tiny streets. Now when I say tiny I don't mean short, I mean thin like one person at a time can walk through. It's crazy. Here is a picture of our USAC program director Soren in the smallest known street there.

and here's one more example

There were lots of cute shops there and great people watching as well. When you see a child trying to ride a giant brass pig....you just have to take a picture.

Again, amazing buildings and churches. There was a manhole on the main square that is actually a collection for needy people in the city. You drop coins through the slot in the middle and the a sound is heard of one of the four animals that are in the fairy tale story! We tried this several times and heard the donkey, cat, and rooster. It was really strange and cool :)

The last thing we did there was take a cruise on the river. Unfortunately the weather was horrible so we didn't get to hang out on the deck and take pictures, but in Holly's honor (cuz I was singing "I'm on a boat" the entire trip) I did take this shot after we got back. The guy in the cowboy hat is one of the students in our group.