Karneval in Colonge
Spent the week travelling Germany and London. The 7 of us (that’s right, 7!!) Zhenyuan, Zhiyi, Fulin, Wing, Shoonghong, Kumar and yours truly) went to Colonge ( now known as Koln ) to meet Dave and Cailin. They were celebrating Karneval, an event which takes place before Ash Wednesday.
From the pics, I’m sure you can tell that it was a really crazy party! Hordes of people from all around Germany came to Colonge for the Karneval. Troops of people took part in the march past with the grandest people being the Prince, the Princess and the Farmer/Peasant (or at least that’s what I think).. Apparently you need to be worth something like 25K in order to qualify for either roles! (My goodness! That’s like telling the whole world that you’re loaded!)
There were many people dressed in quirky clothes! Some crossed dressed while others dressed as bumblebees! There was even a group of big burly men dressed as pirates! Can you imagine the excitement I was facing? Sweet!
Drank loads of beer and had my fair share of bratwursts! Note to all fellow Singaporeans, please DO NOT buy their ‘Currywurst’ unless you’re just getting it for fun! I expected something close to the prata-type curry but all I recieved was tomato ketchup and curry powder! It didn’t taste too good - bleh.
The day passed rather quickly when we were getting the free sweets from the passing ‘trucks’! Yes! Free sweets! The people distribute free sweets, chocolates, perfumes, soft toys etc during the karneval! And this goes on for 3-5 hours! All you have to do is wait along the roads for the trucks to come by and make sure you manage to catch the sweets they throw in the air! (Being a lil’ kiasu, I ended up using my pink willy-wonka lookalike cap to get the sweets! I still have a bagful even as I type this!)
Had dinner at a restaurant in Leverkeusen ( i think that’s how it’s spelt) with Dave, Cailin and their friends. Dinner was a tad bit expensive but Zhenyuan and I shared this huge meat platter.(Alas, I was so hungry I forgot to snap pictures of the food =(.. )
That’s about all for the Karneval in Koln. Overall a great experience but I doubt I’d want to go through it again. Too crowded. Bah.
