Erin Explores Travel

February 17-20: Karneval

Karneval is one of the most exciting times here in Germany!  Its like their biggest holiday!  You get to dress up and its like one big party…all weekend long!  There are parades and festivals and parties like crazy! 

We saw people dressed up as early as Wednesday I think!  We saw this old drunk guy on the train that had those giant sunglasses, you know, and a captain sparrow hat!  He was yelling things in German and everyone was laughing!  Even us…although it would have been funnier if we could have actually understood what he was saying.  Mayela thought about asking him, “Bist du getrunken?” lol It was great!

Costume Shopping in Wiesbaden

Unfortunately, our crazy school decided to schedule classes all weekend!  All the other schools in Germany were on holiday and we had classes Thurs, Fri, Sat, and Mon!  Luckily we found a way to work around them!  On Saturday we had planned to go to a parade after class…however we decided since some people didn’t have costumes yet, we would go shopping and then hit up the other, larger parades on Sunday and Monday!  We went to a costume shop in Wiesbaden and it was huge!  There were so many different things to choose from.  Unfortunately, they were way over priced of course. 

I already had a mask, so I just bought some glitter spray for my hair and decided I would wear a dress that I already had that was the same colors as my mask.  The other girls got masks and wigs.  Then we went home to get ready and hit up a local party.  I went to a Turkish restaurant in Wiesbaden with some friends…Diana and I wore our masks!  We were the only ones in the restaurant dressed up!  There were several kids that were very excited to see us though.  When we got back to Oestrich-Winkel we decided to go to Keller because no one was having a good party, but it is always a good time at Keller!

Parade in Wiesbaden

Then on Sunday we went to the parade in Wiesbaden.  This was an interesting day.  We got there around 11 to realize the parade didn’t start until 1:11… and when we decided to leave around 3, the parade was still going on!  The weather that day was so weird.  When we realized we had time before the parade would start, we headed back to the main train station to grab something to drink.  On our way walking there, the weather went from being Sunny…to starting to Hail!!!  It was so crazy!  Then when we got back to the parade area, it was starting to get sunny again, but it was somewhat cloudy.  Then during the parade it was pretty nice, until about 3 when it started raining!  That is why we decided to leave; we were tired and we were getting wet! 

I can only begin to describe how amazing the parade was!  It was nothing compared to the parades in America!  Germany takes this stuff seriously!  In America, you know they occasionally throw out a little bit of candy, but that’s about it.  Not in Germany!!!  You better watch out or you could get hit with a book!    We caught not only candy, but books, spatulas, tissues, popcorn, bread, toys, keychains, and more!  It was Awesome!  One of the girls we were with, she is so cute!  She was catching stuff and opening it and then sharing with everyone!  She was like shoving popcorn and candy and stuff in our mouths while we were trying to catch more stuff!  It was so much fun!!! And this was the smaller parade…we didn’t even know what to expect in Mainz the next day!

Parade in Mainz

Monday, we went to the big Parade in Mainz!  It was insane as well!  There were so many people it was crazy!  And the roads were so full of confetti and trash and everything that you couldn’t even see them! 

We caught a ton of stuff again!  And we took pictures with random crazy people in cool costumes!  And it was so weird seeing everyone just drinking in the streets!  No open container laws here! 

After the parade we went home and a couple of us stopped in Wiesbaden for some Chinese food.  Then when I was getting off the train in Oestrich-Winkel, I ran into my buddy (German student that is like a go to person for any questions I may have).  He was asking where I was going and I said we wanted to find a party and he was like the party is in Mainz, come with us.  But Nasha wasn’t with me so I called her and we were gonna take the next train and meet them in Mainz. 

We headed back to Mainz and were amazed at what it looked like at night.  It was like an actual Carnival like you would go to in America, but better!  Some of the streets were closed off.  There were vendor booths everywhere selling alcohol and food.  There was some kind of ride lit up in the background and there was loud music playing from every which direction.  This random guy in costume walked up to me and I was like ooh yea pic, and he kept saying something in German…then Nasha was like I think he wants you to get on your knees…I was like “what is going on?!”

Eventually we found my buddy, Philipp, and he took us to this club.  It had 2 floors with 2 DJs and it was so much fun!  We spent hours dancing and we even got free beers from my buddy!  We took the last train back to Wiesbaden, but it was late so we missed our connection to home.  We ended up taking a cab, and my buddy was so sweet he paid it for us! 

All in all it was a crazy fun weekend!  I have never experienced anything like it!  The girls and I were talking about making it a reunion to come back here just for Karneval!