Karneval in Germany? Ja!!!
Trip Start
Nov 02, 2006
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13
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Trip End
Dec 19, 2007
Cologne, Germany
Sunday, February 18, 2007
The city closes - stores board up their windows & none of the tourist sites we tried were open (The Dom - cathedral or Chocolate Museum). Everyone is in costume - day, night, young, old. Everyone is drinking beer - day, night, young, old. All I had to eat the entire weekend were 2.5 bratwurst and 1 weinerschnitzel. Other than that, there was beer. There were no vegetables in sight. The bars are packed, the streets are busy and there are private parties. And, there are German songs. Not just German songs, but Cologne songs - about 30 of them, which you hear over & over again. Not knowing German, we couldn't sing along like the rest of the city, but I learned a few key choruses. One was "Istanbul! Istanbul! Is-tan-bul!" Another was "Viva Colonia!!!" - still not sure if I've gotten that one out of my head. There was also one about how great San Francisco is - at least I knew it was about SF
01 - The Dom
. The rest of the songs were about Cologne, friendship, love and beer.I never figured out why, but there were definite costume favorites: monks and nuns, cowboys/girls, clowns (tons!). Also, funky hats & wigs counted as costumes.
Anyhow, my friend Liz from Copenhagen met me there & 4 of her friends from London. On Sat we also met up w/ a friend of a friend who was local to Cologne. I didn't have any costumes with me here in Sweden, so the 1st night I borrowed some wigs from the guys and the 2nd night I had purchased some Viking hats for Liz & I in honor of our living in Scandinavia - they actually were the best Viking hats we saw!
Good fun and I definitely recommend Karnival in Germany. For those with more time, it actually starts the Wed or Thur before w/ woman's day (women get to run around cutting -literally- off men's ties and then kissing them) and ends w/ Fat Tuesday.
