KARNEVAL!!!!

I've got to hand it to the Germans for knowing how to party. Karneval first takes place on 11/11 with the awakening of some gnome and then in February, the season ends with an even bigger celebration to mark the beginning of the Lenten season as well as the burning of the gnome (weird). All of the sins committed during Karneval are burned along with him. It was my twin neighbors' 21st so it definitely added to the celebration. We were told that people wear crazy costumes to Karneval but were a little apprehensive after the relatively small showing in Bonn for Halloween. However, Karneval was almost at the very top of our list of things to do while in Bonn so we all woke up early (around 9:30am), dressed up, and took the 10:32am train from Bonn to Cologne. We were kind of unsure where to go until we saw large crowds of costumed people walking in the same general direction and then decided to follow them. For what Germans lack in Halloween they make up in Karneval. The streets of Cologne were packed with silly Germans in even sillier costumes- Minnie Mouse, doctors with IVs full of beer, some guy was even a kissing booth which I thought was the smartest costume I saw all day.

When Germans party, they like to start early, as I noticed earlier on this year at Oktoberfest. We got to the Hauptbahnhof at about 10:20AM and ther were already people drinking bottles of beer, wine, and even hard alcohol for some. Once we got to Cologne we sort of just made our way to this area where they had set up a large screen showing the concert that was going on elsewhere in Cologne and just people watched initially. We danced in the middle of the crowd to German music that we couldn't understand for awhile but had more fun just looking at all of the crazy outfits. It was actually really funny because the police kept carding my friend Sam who was carrying around alcohol. It made her day because she had turned 21 that day and the police asked for her ID like 3 different times. Of course we had to take pictures with them. Luckily the German police have a good sense of humor.

After we had had our fill at people watching we decided to walk around and see what else Karneval had to offer. The bars were all open and crowded; advertising discounted drinks. We attempted to go into one but the bouncer told us that mostly people were in there so we decided to look elsewhere. We were walking down and street and heard thumping music (my cue to enter). We went in through a random opening in the street where we found a dj in the back. At first she has playing German music but then I think she noticed that we were Americans I decided to cater to our needs. It was really fun but really strange at the same time. We literally walked in through an opening in the street to a room full of dancing Germans and a bar to the side. We were in there for about an hour or 2 and then my friends got a little bit too hot and tired so we moved out from there.














It was still light when we stepped outside, although it was evident that night was quickly approaching. We went back to the screen area which was far less crowded than it had been in the morning and danced in front of it. I got hungry so I got Danish? ice cream that was super good and super cheap. It was pretty much the first thing I had eaten all day. After eating my ice cream, my friends decided that it was time to go home. At 5:30pm it had already been quite the day. I'm really glad I got to go. It was definitely one of my favorite experiences in Bonn so far!