We survived Karneval weekend and had a blast!
Karneval technically started in November but the big six-day party began last Thursday when the women in the town stormed Town Hall and cut the ties of the men (unfortunately we missed this event because Amy was taking her German test and Jeff was working… lame. But there were plenty of other events to enjoy!) On Thursday evening we scoped out the town and were quite impressed by the number people, costumes, police officers and ambulances present in Altstadt. The city was insane, but they were prepared for anything! During the weekend, we enjoyed dressing in our gnome costumes, participating in the festivities and of course people watching. We watched the kid’s parade in Düsseldorf and enjoyed seeing all of the homemade costumes as well as participating in the excitement of shouting “Helau!” in order to have candy tossed our way.
On Sunday, we took a train to Cologne and met up with some friends to watch the parade there and enjoy Cologne’s Kölsch beer. We quickly realized, that like the costumes during Karneval, anything goes when it comes to parade treats. We collected everything from candy and carrots to packs of Kleenexes, beauty facemasks, shelled peanuts and flowers. We also quickly learned that in Cologne you say “Kamelle” or “Alaaf” if you want candy and “Strüßjer” if you want flowers whereas in Düsseldorf you say “Helau”… Don’t mix that up, the rivalry between the two cities is real!
On Monday, we met up with some other friends to watch Düsseldorf’s Rose Monday parade where again, anything goes… crazy costumes, random treats and very non-PC parade floats. It was quite entertaining to say the least. Thankfully the rain held out and we had a nice cloudy weekend instead of the projected rainy weekend. We rocked our Colorado layers in order to show off our costumes and danced to the music when we needed to warm up. Just like everything else so far, this was another exciting and new adventure! And now we know what to expect for next year. We better start planning our costume!
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| We ended the weekend with more candy than a night out on Halloween! |
On Monday, we met up with some other friends to watch Düsseldorf’s Rose Monday parade where again, anything goes… crazy costumes, random treats and very non-PC parade floats. It was quite entertaining to say the least. Thankfully the rain held out and we had a nice cloudy weekend instead of the projected rainy weekend. We rocked our Colorado layers in order to show off our costumes and danced to the music when we needed to warm up. Just like everything else so far, this was another exciting and new adventure! And now we know what to expect for next year. We better start planning our costume!
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