Fastelovendzusammen
Alaaf! Greetings from the Karneval-crazed Rheinland.
Thursday was Wieberfastnacht, the first day in the last leg of the German (or more precisely, Rheinland) Karneval season. My lab headed up to Köln, the center of the Karneval season. (In Köln there are three seasons: before Karneval, Karneval, and after Karneval.) We headed out in an attempt to make the official beginning at 11:11 in the Altmarkt. As you can see, there are alot of people in the Altmarkt.
Once we realized there was no chance to reach the stage, which is on the other side of the risers, we headed into our first pub, had a beer, and danced to some Karneval songs. There are specific german folk songs which are sung around Karneval, and they are awful. How such cheezy music come from the land of Beethoven, Brahms, and Mahler, I don't understand.
Then it was time to play the bathroom game. Namely there are way more people than are normally in Köln and all of them are drinking way more than they usually would. After taking care of that problem, we headed to our usual place: Hard Rock Cafe. Here we met up with a former Digitallabor engineer and continued the consumption of way too much Kölsch. Anyone who's been to Germany knows the Germans are a very reserved people but not during Karneval.
Here I am with a Kölsch in my ladybug costume (but wearing Andreas's dwarf hat).
Here's a view of the general chaos in Hard Rock. Not really all that bad actually compared to later in the evening.
Once we were fed up with the crazy loud music, we decided it was time to eat, so we grabbed pizzas. Then we went to a bar which was ridiculously full. Way too full for me. At this point the group split up. Some of us swung by the Hard Rock and then proceeded to the train station. Somehow my coworker and I made it back to Bonn.
Meanwhile the situation at my apartment had exploded. My landlord discovered the new roommate and ordered her out. The whole thing was completely mishandled, and she ended up moving out on Friday evening. I'm rather glad I wasn't there.
The rest of the weekend has been quiet. Today there was a small Karneval parade in my neighborhood. It was actually really good for being so small.
This afternoon I also read up a bit on the Carneval in New Orleans. It sounds like there are some similarities. New Orleans has lots of clubs that organize floats for the Carneval parades, and there are many similar such clubs here in this area.
Tomorrow I'm heading up Köln again to see the Rosenmontag parade. More from the chaos later!
Thursday was Wieberfastnacht, the first day in the last leg of the German (or more precisely, Rheinland) Karneval season. My lab headed up to Köln, the center of the Karneval season. (In Köln there are three seasons: before Karneval, Karneval, and after Karneval.) We headed out in an attempt to make the official beginning at 11:11 in the Altmarkt. As you can see, there are alot of people in the Altmarkt.
Once we realized there was no chance to reach the stage, which is on the other side of the risers, we headed into our first pub, had a beer, and danced to some Karneval songs. There are specific german folk songs which are sung around Karneval, and they are awful. How such cheezy music come from the land of Beethoven, Brahms, and Mahler, I don't understand.
Then it was time to play the bathroom game. Namely there are way more people than are normally in Köln and all of them are drinking way more than they usually would. After taking care of that problem, we headed to our usual place: Hard Rock Cafe. Here we met up with a former Digitallabor engineer and continued the consumption of way too much Kölsch. Anyone who's been to Germany knows the Germans are a very reserved people but not during Karneval.
Here I am with a Kölsch in my ladybug costume (but wearing Andreas's dwarf hat).
Here's a view of the general chaos in Hard Rock. Not really all that bad actually compared to later in the evening.
Once we were fed up with the crazy loud music, we decided it was time to eat, so we grabbed pizzas. Then we went to a bar which was ridiculously full. Way too full for me. At this point the group split up. Some of us swung by the Hard Rock and then proceeded to the train station. Somehow my coworker and I made it back to Bonn.
Meanwhile the situation at my apartment had exploded. My landlord discovered the new roommate and ordered her out. The whole thing was completely mishandled, and she ended up moving out on Friday evening. I'm rather glad I wasn't there.
The rest of the weekend has been quiet. Today there was a small Karneval parade in my neighborhood. It was actually really good for being so small.
This afternoon I also read up a bit on the Carneval in New Orleans. It sounds like there are some similarities. New Orleans has lots of clubs that organize floats for the Carneval parades, and there are many similar such clubs here in this area.
Tomorrow I'm heading up Köln again to see the Rosenmontag parade. More from the chaos later!
posted by laura s at 1:21 PM
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