Karneval part II: "The Dark Side"

       After countless attempts and some wasted effort, I have found out how Karneval is celebrated "on the dark side," a.k.a. Düsseldorf. Cologne and Düsseldorf have had a long-standing rivalry in virtually all things--including but certainly not limited to Karneval, beer, and political importance--and as such, everyone I have asked about how Karneval is in Düsseldorf has replied with something along the lines of, "Oh, you don't want to go there! Cologne is bigger and better!" This has come from proper Cologners as well as their supporters in Bonn. Now I have a message for all of them: yes, Cologne is bigger, but they DO know how to have a good time in Düsseldorf. 

"cloud city"

       The train ride with the eight of us who went this weekend took about an hour, and we walked to the Hotel Metropol, where we would be spending the night to check in and leave our bags. This was followed by zigeunerschnitzel for lunch at Schweinske, a restaurant all about pork, in the Altstadt. Here, we were also educated as to the differences between the local Alt and Kölsch. I'll have to keep quiet about this, but I actually prefer Alt! Our big stop after lunch was the K20 museum of modern art, just a few tram stops from the Altstadt. Here, we saw the special exhibit "Haunted by Objects" by Zvi Goldstein, and then more popular modern works by such artists as Salvador Dali, Picasso, Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, Max Ernst, Roy Lichtenstein, and even a few of Piet Mondrian's ever-so-original "Composition with...." series. There was an interactive exhibit where we could contribute by making irregular polyhedral "clouds" to attach to the previously made ones, as a concept for a futuristic floating city. This was somewhat lost on me, but art is art, as I've been told. 
     Next, we went back to the hotel and napped, to prepare for the evening ahead of us! When we left for the Altstadt, we first went to a pizzeria for dinner, and I was introduced to Pizza Bolognese--cheese pizza with basically spaghetti meat sauce on top. Good stuff! After we left, we didn't have to walk far to find the heart of the party--a live marching band-of-sorts was playing in the street, and there were long lines at every door. We had heard about Im Füchschen as a place to go, but apparently so had everyone else; it had one of the longest lines on the street. There was not as much partying in the streets as Cologne, so they were a bit cleaner, which was nice. We eventually made it into a club that played oldies from as far back as the 70's as well as some modern music and traditional Karneval songs. This doesn't sound all that great, but everything was remixed, so it had a great dancing beat and we kept going for a few hours straight! After dancing to a remix of "Pirates of the Caribbean," half of the group decided to call it a night, so we returned to the hotel to a well-earned night of sleep.