Karneval Craze

Alright, so the Karneval theme in blog posts is now pretty established, but I don't foresee that stopping any time soon, because today was incredible! I've never really been to any big Mardi Gras celebrations (so I don't have any way to calibrate my scale of crazy celebrations), but I'm pretty sure this would have blown everything away anyway. This morning as I was getting dressed (as a cat, complete with ears, whiskers, a tail, and claws) I was kind of worried that I would look silly riding on the tram in my costume. I mean, I knew that people would understand since it was Karneval, but it seems that I vastly underestimated the German spirit of festivity. When I got on the tram, EVERYONE was in costume. Even the elderly grandmother types were wearing crazy hats and scarves.

The whole group started off the day walking from the AIB to Beuel for a parade. It was a lot of fun to see the mass exodus of costumed people as crowds walked out of Bonn and over the bridge. Although the drizzly weather wasn't the most enjoyable, there was enough music and candy to more than make up for it. The parade itself was similar to what we have back home in the states, with bands, parades, horse-drawn carriages and floats. It's kind of like combining costumes from Halloween with parades from the Fourth of July, adding traditional well-known songs akin to Christmas music and topping it off with the general craziness of Mardi Gras. After the parade, most of us went to Köln. The streets were absolutely packed full of revelers. We popped in a few places and had some fun dancing, but sooner or later we all trickled back home.

Earlier this week, we went to the Deutsches museum, which was pretty interesting. I'm not a huge fan of chemistry, but it's hard not to be impressed by the hard work and research of chemists who made such novel discoveries. So much knowledge is taken for granted and memorized by rote in chemistry classes that it's really neat to stop and think about how such ideas came about.

Anyway, so that's where I am in my week- with hot cup of tea and reflecting on a fun day. I know people are planning on doing a lot of Karnival-centered activities this weekend, but I'm actually taking a cheap flight to London to meet a friend who's studying abroad near there this semester. I am so excited! London is in the number one spot on my list of cities to visit, and there is so much I want to do that I'm sure this trip will just inspire another. I'll let you know how everything goes in the next post. Tchüss-