weekend update

my first weekend of random fun.

woke up saturday to find that it was culture weekend here in bremerhaven. no apparent reason: no anniversary of the founding of the city, no first day of summer, just for fun. and it was.

we started off the celebration by going to a rock concert with a few people from the lab. we piled into a crowded community center theatre filled with punks and rockers of all ages fueled by a shanty of a bar erected in the corner. the first of four bands came on in all their leather clad glory, and started into their 80's hair metal style tunes. two screamed german songs later, we decided to bail.

we went over to the bremerhaven historical museum, which was open until midnight for the occassion, and wandered around inside. we explored the amazing old fishing machinery on display while being serenaded by an elvis impersonater they had hired (who was actually pretty good!).

when we finished with the museum, we headed over to the main shopping strip of town. all up and down the street little performance booths were set up. we spent some time watching a marching band and a middle school dance troupe (in strappy raver pants and big red sweaters that read kiss my 4rse. very very sparkle motion), and went into the church to hear their choir sing for a while. we were passed by four white clad jesters, on stilts with beautiful giant bird beak masks on, who were carrying lanterns and lighting the way for their lady who followed behind, also on stilts and in mask. so pretty! so mirrormask.

we decided to go next to the shipyard museum, which was huge. we saw a ship from 1300 that had been dug out of the mud in the harbor and reconstructed (miraculously it was about 75% intact) and played with the various interactive exhibits they had set up for kids. when we got tired we went and had fries and beers in a nearby greasy spoon.

and just when i thought the night was winding down, we decided to stop in at one more place to see another musical performance. we had no idea what we would see. and we would have never been able to guess what we found. apparently, the venue had brought in a band from st. petersburg. a group of four incredibly drunk russian men singing old russian and french oompa type songs. the accordianist was dressed in a russian military uniform which had been torn open in the back to fit his wider frame, and he wore no shoes or socks. the lead singer had his hair slicked back in a ponytail, the saxophonist wore a striped shirt and a barret, and the drummer looked like he could have played with nine inch nails. it was amazing. they were so good, they had the whole crowd dancing and "ra ta ta ta ta HEY!"-ing along.

finally, at 2am, after two hours and two encores, we disbanded and headed home.

who said bremerhaven was boring?