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What can we make out of Bremen? A pie? A bedtime story? Or a historical document of a famous female crime?
Bremen looks so creamy like a fantastic tourist's guide. A mixture of a good hang out, of gothic architecture, and of an asylum for the black. Amazing how well it all blends in a general frame of universal need to move on. Being the lonely traveler, I had no trouble in finding my way to the casual communities exported from my homeland. Being usually the lonely writer, I had the privilege of the company of two pregnant Bremen women who excelled in the feminist approach towards the female traveler.
Bremen is a nice museum for the interested in zoological studies, in the connotations related to childish imagination. Perhaps this is why the Japanese take better photos than the British standing in front of the minimalist monument of creatures who invented their own song. And a buttoh gesture would very much fit with the background of Bremen rathaus.
The university is far out, on the outskirts of the centre of daily knowledge, the streets, where wisdom is not so hard to get. On the streets no one will have known Fassbinder, yet all will recognize Geisha Gottfried, the inspiration of "Bremen Freiheit", especially those who come from Egypt, where the phenomenon is not so rare. Of women killing their husbands but with no poison, only with daggers and knives, and later - mercifully- packing their parts into plastic bags. If there were middle-eastern female migrants in her time, Geisha could have definitely learnt something from them. But unfortunately, there were only Western women travelers, mainly French extending their nation's expedition to a sentimental level of cross-cultural marriage. Nevertheless, our local female hero could easily figure out the common aspects of patriarchy whether in Northern Germany or in Southern Egypt: The woman has to kill the husband, become crazy -if she originally isn't- and bear the sign of shame, of liberty and of inspiration for the male playwright. It has already been several decades, yet nobody can forget the German vampire, and the theme of madness in literature grows more fiercely with time.
It isn't usually bad in Bremen, I mean with the weather, but it isn't either your best weekend spot. It's perfect for port lovers, the beer is there, the one night stand, and the table dance. All within reach from the Hauptbahnhof if you like. The atmosphere is easy, even when the call shop's Indian owner resists heavily the offer of marrying a Taiwanese girl to facilitate her stay permit. "This is one thing and Tsunami relief is another, the Germans have donated 600 millions but we are Indian and we can only handle one wife." He announces in the middle of the international crowd squeezed in the shop alert for a bomb detection alarm.
I love the women here; they are much more relaxed than elsewhere. Compared to Berlin's women, they easily cope with hard situations, know how to get over men, and use their powerful port- intuition to adapt to the new fashion of belly dance. They also get friendly with you even if you have been there for only one night; the history of Bremen is a melting pot for women who are willing to know what they are afraid of. The Turkish here are more German than in Berlin, 'cause the Black are the real model of segregation, of their own invented apartheid.
I wander alone at night, and see my Arabs waiting around dark corners of empty streets. They look at me, I recognize the Egyptians, and they know that we are descendant of the same blood. But we know that our minds don't match. We can promptly become friends but I will not be able to live up to my promise and table dance. Although it looks like paradise, but I hate to be the next slave under the umbrella of protecting the national flesh. I hesitate because I prefer to be the lonely writer -with two women pregnant with ideas escorting me- than be the popular flesh escorting men.
The wonders of Bremen can be far beyond your expectations, they can teach you a lot about human behavior in a nut shell. The samples embrace Russian seductive Americanistics, Argentinean philosophy drinkers and British prominent Arabistics. All you have to do is keep your eyes wide open, and carry with you your notebook. A day of sightseeing in Bremen will certainly bring you closer to global knowledge.