Karneval

So yes..I am aware that it has been quite some time since I last blogged, but really nothing new or exciting was happening for a couple weeks and then my life turned crazy hectic so I'm just now catching everyone up...sorry for the delay!

Karneval = crazy madness all over Cologne, Germany where kids and adults and grandparents dress up in strange costumes for 5 days straight and participate in "heavy celebrations." Karneval started 2 weeks ago on Thursday, March 3rd. Everyone dressed up for school on that day, and school was actually cut short because of Karneval. Students only had their first 3 lessons Thursday, then a big Karneval party in the auditorium. The party was a little odd for me, Karneval is a very traditional German thing, but the party had a lot of American and British music. So, I think it just ended up being an excuse to have a party that didn't really pertain to Karneval.

Thursday night we all dressed as sailors and went to the Live Music Hall. It opened at 6 that night, so we left at like 4:30 to start waiting in line. It actually wasn't bad, we were near the front so we get in pretty quickly once they opened the doors. However, we were standing in line for over an hour and it was freezing. The Live Music Hall was fun as always. It was decorated all for Karneval and playing all German Karneval music, so it was very festive. Our group got there early enough to get a table for all 11 of us which was nice. So on Thursday night we just stayed there and had a lot of fun.

Friday my parents and sister came to visit me! Once they got here we got checked into the hotel, they were able to freshen up some since they just traveled for quite some time, then we went to eat dinner. I showed them around Cologne some after dinner, then we came back to the dorm and met up with my friends. They were all getting ready to go out again so we got to see all of them dressed and ready to go, but we decided to stay at the dorm Friday night since we were all so tired.

Saturday we decided to bail on Karneval all together and go to Paris! We were in Paris Saturday and Sunday...there will be a separate blog post dedicated to this trip...don't worry!

Monday was the big Karneval parade. It was the longest parade of my life! 5 and a half hours...of parade! We got there about 30-45 minutes before the parade started so that we could get a good spot because they throw candy! Now, they throw serious candy...like boxes of stuff and whole candy bars. It's kind of dangerous, I got hit in the head with a candy bar and it really hurt. But it was an interesting experience for sure. The floats were pretty impressive but after a while, it just got old. Not even halfway through the parade, although it had been going on for about 2.5 hours by this point in time, some of us decided to go back to the dorm for a break and then catch the end of the parade. My family had already bailed on the parade about an hour into it and they were headed back to their hotel for awhile. After the parade was over, some of my friends and I started walking around some and found a little fair in the middle of town, so of course we participated in that and rode rides. Once we were done with fair, we started the search for food...every place was packed with people dressed up in costumes. There was music playing the streets and random, open-air, dance parties everywhere. We eventually found a little pizza place down by the Rhine that we ate in and just hung out in for a few hours. Everyone was so tired from all the Karneval festivities that after dinner we all just went to the dorm to chill for the rest of the night. I went to my parents' hotel and hung there for the rest of the night.

Overall, Karneval was a very interesting experience. Something that we definitely don't have in the States, but I was very glad to be able to experience it here!