Chemistry & Karneval

Wednesday we went on a group trip
to the Deutsches Museum to take part in a guided tour of an exhibition on
German chemist August Kekulé. Now, I don’t love studying chemistry
(honestly, I don’t see why anyone would), but it was interesting to hear about
his discoveries and the progress of ideas leading up to them. Also the giant
interactive benzene ring was admittedly pretty awesome to see.
In contrast
with that calm, intellectual atmosphere, the wild and sensational scene that is
Karneval made for an almost indescribable experience, but I’ll try and lend
some words to it. With nearly everyone in costume we all headed to Beuel to
catch the parade and cut ties with our inhibitions (see what I did there?).
Watching groups of performers and floats go by while it periodically rained
candy could’ve been a sweet day on its own, but Thursday that would be just the
beginning.

The next stop
for us was Köln where the party of all parties was
going down in.. well, just about everywhere. You know there’s something big
going on when you’re hard pressed to find anyone in normal clothing and parts
of the street that aren’t covered in confetti and trash. I would say it was
like a scene from a movie, but even writers would think it unrealistic to
script as hectic a sight as what was before us. At this point I’m still not
even sure how many police officers were there to keep everything under control,
because of all the guys dressed up as fake cops. My tram ride back looked like
a zombie apocalypse. If you have never been, this is something to put on your
bucket list.