Karnival

Karnival in the Rheinland is a very popular pastime. Dating back to the celebrations of spring by the Romans, it has a long history and by the looks of it things have only gotten crazier over time. While walking to the main parade in Bonn on Thursday we stopped in to the local store and everyone bought a 6-pack of beer. You may think this is strange (especially since it was 11 in the morning) but everyone who partakes of Karnival brings beer if they can. This is mainly because around the festivites the cost of beer is very high. And everyone drinks beer. The locals who were showing us around went in and bought beer also, except they already had several in their backpacks.

After our stop, it was off to the festival. There was a parade and the streets were packed with people drinking, laughing, and generally having a good time. The people in the parade threw candy but also sponges, plastic wrapped waffles, and tissues to name a few of the strange items. After several hours of hanging out in the street with all the other festival goers I headed back to my house because being out in the cold weather and already having a sore throat was not doing good things for me.

Friday hit me with the cold that the previous day had worsened and it would continue to haunt me the rest of the festival. I stayed in most of Friday and went to a local pub for a drink with some friends that night. We met some other english speakers(on from London and the other from the US) and we decided all meet up the next night in Koln for the ghost parade.

Saturday Michael, Justin, and I headed to Koln to see the parade. The only problem was we were not told what stop to get off on so we headed to the main station. When we arrived we called our friends and they told us we had to go back 2 stops. Once we arrived the parade was over already so we got some beer and stood in the street with everyone else and watched the crazyness. Eventually we found out where our friends were and got in line with them to get into a club. After about 2 hrs of waiting in line we get it and it was packed...very packed...

To move anywhere you had to force your way through and the air was hot, humid, and not too pleasant smelling. The music was random techno and 80s and 90s hits. I had fun for a while just taking it all in. Imagin a room packed with people in elaborate costumes drinking and dancing to techno with bright, colored lights everywhere. Eventually I got kinda bored so I headed home, which was an adventure in itself.

I made it to the train station without a problem. The train wouldnt arrive for 30 minutes so I grabbed some gummybears out of the vending machine and waited. The platform started to get very crowded and when the train arrived there was a rush to get on. This resulted in a mild traffic jam of people. Everyone started to fill every corner of the train. It was packed as tight as possible and people just kept pushing in because the next train was an hr away and going to be more packed than this one. After 30 minutes the police came and basically shoved us until the doors would close. At that point everyone started singing. It was basically a sardine can of people drunkenly singing karnival drinking songs. 30 minutes after that we arrived in Bonn where the train empied to more singing. At the bus station I had another wait(25 min). Side note: When using public transportation to get around, you do a lot of waiting...you have to arrive early and wait...then sit on the bus/train...then arrive at your destination and if you have a meeting time you have to wait again...and repeat on the way back...30 min seems to be my normal waiting time...ok back on topic...while sitting at the bus a group of drunk germans came and were waiting too...one proceeded to ask me the same joke I had heard 2 previous times over karnival that seem to make every german laugh(maybe not every but most enjoy it)...and the joke is..."Do you want a beer?" other person,"ya sure" joker,"me too! you should go get some!"(after that the proceed to laugh at you) I dont really understand why it is so funny or popular. After that I got on the bus and went home.

Sunday and Monday were uneventful for me because my cold just kept getting worse so I stayed in and tried to get better. Monday is the biggest day of Karnival, with a big parade in Koln and everything but I awoke with no voice and a bad cough so I didnt get to go. I saw some of it on the tv, did homework, cleaned my room and bathroom, and generally just layed around.

I guess I will give my overall impression of Karnival even though I didnt get to see it all. It is an interesting thing to partake in. Every age group dresses up, from newborn to 70, and if you are old enough to drink you more than likely do. There are people who don't like it or don't really get into it. Many people leave town for the 4 or 5 days which is understandable. The celebration is really along the same idea as many other festivals during this time of the year. It is a celebration of the coming of spring and (Koln being a catholic region) a last fling before the Lent season. Think of it as a German Mardi Gras...with Kolsch...lots and lots of Kolsch(if you dont know Kolsch is the local beer that they are very proud of...Ill write about it later)