These lyrics are apart of the chorus to my favorite Karneval song: Viva Colonia. As you can tell, Karneval was this past week and it was a blast! The festivities started this past Thursday at 11:11, when all the women in the town stop working and head to the streets to take over the city. Before the parade started, our group met at the AIB to start the party early! They fed us Berliners, Karneval-famous donuts with a fruit filling which are just plain wonderful. It was fun getting to see everyone dressed up in their own costumes. I was dressed in a tiger onesie, which was amazing because it kept me very warm throughout the weekend. After finishing up touches on our costumes, we walked to to the town of Beuel where the main parade was being held. When we arrived, the craziness had already begun as floats and bands made their way down the street. We found our standing stop and started shouting "Camella" or candy in Germany, to fill our bags with treats. I was shocked at how much candy was thrown during that one hour parade. It must've been pounds upon pounds.
After the parade finished, myself and a group of others followed the parade to the town square where the women were knocking down the town hall doors. Unfortunately, it was quite crowded in that area and we were unable to see the event take place. However, a concert immediately followed the spectacle and we danced and danced to tall the different Karneval songs. By that point we had been out and about walking for hours and we were starving so we headed to do a nearby burger joint to grab some grub. Following lunch, all of us were exhausted and in much need of rejuvenation so we all went home to take a nap. That night, we went out on the town in our costumes which was a lot of fun.
This past Saturday a few of us went to the Venusburg Wildlife Park near Waldau, a quick 20 min bus ride away from the Hauptbahnhof. I don't know what I was expecting when we went to the park since we went with the intention of hiking and walking the trails, but there were quite a bit of animals in the park! There were huge elk, deer, goats, and wild pigs. We also got to feed some of the animals which was quite a treat. That night, we all went out on the town again and we danced our hearts out at the N8 club which was easily one of my favorite nights in Bonn yet.
From that Thursday all the way up til Rose Monday, parades fill the streets of all the major towns and cities of the Rhineland. On Sunday, my friend Whitney and I went to our neighborhood parade in Bad Godesberg. My host parents were dressed up and leading a group serving wine in the parade, and I knew I couldn't miss them. Thankfully, they were one of the first groups to pass along the parade and they were able to give me some of Bad Godesberg's own wine. Their costumes were also hilarious; however, I knew that my host mom was not thrilled to be wearing it. After the parade, I decided to rest up for the Rose Monday parade in Cologne the next day. I was able to get some rest and finish up my laundry which I desperately needed to do. I was little nervous for the next day, as the program coordinators warned us that Cologne could get insanely crazy.
Fortunately, the parade in Cologne was a BLAST! That morning we got up early and took the train to Cologne and got to the city with plenty of time to spare before the parade began. Some of the girls got drinks before we found a spot that we would be standing in for the next five hours (exhausting i know). Once the parade began, it became clear that this was no ordinary parade. The floats were extremely well made and sometimes they had political jabs which were amusing to see. There were many marching bands and cheerleaders that performed, and there were also many calvary hordes. We got the best candy while we there; I had no clue how many chocolate bars I ended up with because there was an immense amount. After watching the parade for four hours our poor legs needed a break so we went to a nearby Italian restaurant. I was trying to save money that day so I packed my own lunch. After eating we went back and stood by the cathedral to watch the end of the parade. It seemed like it was forever until the Prince of Karneval came by and closed out the ceremonies. The whole parade was just lovely and I had no problems with the crowds the whole day! However, heading to the Hauptbahnhof to head back was insane. I felt like we were cattle being herded into the station. Fortunately, a train back to Bonn arrived fairly quickly and it wasn't too crowded! It was such a nice way to end the Karneval festivities.
Having to wake up the next morning for school was dreadful. Being in the party mood for so long really unmotivated me to continue all the things I was working on but alas, I had to keep going. Fortunately, we didn't have much to do until Wednesday when we took our excursion to Bayer! It was very interesting to learn about the drug discovery and development processes. I thought it was insane that it costs around 1 billion euro to develop one drug to market. The rest of this week we have spent finishing up our VIBS 311 assignments while focusing on Pharm and German. We do have our first Physiology test coming up two weeks from today so we have that to look forward to. This upcoming weekend myself and a few others will be traveling to Amsterdam! We are all so pumped to walk around its famous canals, eat apple fritters, and visit the Anne Frank House among other things. I will talk about the whole trip on next week's post!
Until then,
Tschuss!!
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