Volkswagen, AutoStadt, Gifhorn and Germans enjoying rap music

Gifhorn, Germany

2nd October 2002

On Saturday, Anja and I packed everything into the Mercedes and headed from Schafflund down to Gifhorn where my boss lives during the week. Anja had told me how she enjoyed Gangsta Rap so I had made her two CD's to listen to in the car. After 5 hours of driving we arrived, enjoyed a quick drink and headed to the VolksWagen plan. The place was absolutely huge, apartantly it's the size of Monoco. They had one section called "AutoStadt", or "Car City". It had two skyscrappers full of VW cars, it was absolutely amazing. Afterword we headed to a great greek restaurant for a fantastic meal. Then we headed back to my boss" place for a few more drinks. At one point I had gone to the washroom and Anja decided that she wanted to show off her new CD's to my boss and his wife. When I came out of the washroom they were all sitting in the living room with "Ice Cube - Wrong Nigga to Fuck with" playing on the stereo. My boss" wife was even bobbing her head a bit to the music.

The next morning we woke up at 6am and had breakfast. Afterword I signed some new contracts with my boss. It's not a good idea to sign things when your drunk, it's best to wait until your tired and hung over. Then Anja and I said Danke und Auf Weidersen and headed to our new flat in Bremen.

We arrived at the same time as Anja's brother, whom had drove a trailer down from Schafflund with our stuff. We got everything in the house and the lease signed in about an hour. The Landlord was nice enough to give us two bottles of Spainish Shampaigne and two really nice fluets. I think about how nice he was every time I drink some Fanta out of the nice wine fluets.

I spent the rest of the morning assembling the bed and this god-awful-overpriced-broken danish woredrobe. The bloody thing is lobsided and half the drawers fallout when you open them.

Afterword we went for a walk in town. Bremen is very nice, the weather is great, it's a very cosmopolitain city in some respects. It has a laid back atmosphere but you can find everything in Bremen that you would in London, and even a few things that you wouldn't find in London. There is a big lake with a windmill on an island right behind my house.

At one point we had walked down to the river and there was a mini-oktoberfest going on. There were beer tents, food and people everywhere. It's suprises me that I had never even heard of this city before.

We had some pasta and tomato soup for dinner and watched "Bernie und Ert", a knock off of Bert and Ernie from Seasme Street. Only these two do a lot of lude things. The show is pretty funny and my german is getting good enough to follow along.

On monday I did some more walking around Bremen. I walked along the river, there are hills of green grass that look onto the river with loads of people sun taning and hanging out. Behind them are huge trees and posh houses. There are also a few beaches along the river as well. As I walked though the town I saw an artist using spray paint to make really interesting and realistic paintings of space. And there were musicians in the background playing accordions and chellos, it sounded a bit like the god father. This place seems to have everything I've been looking for without the dangers that came with London.