Karneval. It was definitely something special. Every year approximately a million people flock to the city of Koeln to celebrate Karneval. People dress up in costumes, have a couple of drinks, and watch the parade. This year I was one of the one million participants.
Karneval has the potential to be a really fun experience. Unfortunately, my experience really was not all that great. I had a great time at the bad Godesberg celebration that happened on Sunday. There we watched the parade, stole candy from kids, and were generally in a good mood.
In Koeln we were with a large group of people from the Goethe Institute. Mistake number one. Never, do anything with a large group of people. We were planning on leaving at ten so that we could get a spot for the parade. We didn't leave until noon.
Once we got to Koeln we were following one of the Zivis who has lived in the Bonn / Koeln area for a while. We assumed he had a specific viewing spot in mind and that he knew some back area where we could watch the parade. Mistake number two. He led us around and we followed. At one point in time we even had a pretty good view of the parade. Then he led us across the parade route, we were thinking some super secret viewing. Nope, he just wanted to find some cigarettes.
After we procured cigarettes he led us to a large plaze packed with people and no view of the parade. Really not a whole lot of fun. Then it started raining, and that pretty much put me and a couple of other people over the edge. We all left and came back to small, quite Bad Godesberg.
Even thought I didn't have so much fun, Karneval was definitely an experience. And it was an experience that I would definitely like to have again, just on my own terms next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment