The Carnival weekend

We shocked a few of our friends and colleagues when we said we are going to Koeln for the carnival. On looking up the program of the Faschings Karneval, we realized we cannot be in Koeln for the big Rosenmontag (rose monday) parade...so we may as well go for the Geisterzug (ghost parade) on Saturday 21st Feb & the Faschings Parade in Mannheim on Sunday 22nd.

(this was also in some way a celebration of clearing the theory tests for the drivers license on 19th :)

Koeln was quite an experience. Having parked our car almost at the entry of the city, we took the U-Bahn to Rodenkirschen. The U-Bahn station was full of people in costumes - so was the train itself. We were lucky we didnt have to get into a train from midway it was packed like a tin of sardines. On such a day, NOT having costumes is unique. We really stood out! :)

We got the chance to walk along with the ghost parade all the way till the end - winding along narrow residential streets...rythemic drumming, dancing...the entire city was in costumes. Parking places were all empty cos every other person was too drunk to drive ;) but quite well behaved nevertheless. Interestingly, we saw a few men wearing a Kurta - as a 'costume' :D :D -- so it wouldnt be too hard for us to wear a 'costume' ;)

V and I decided, we will go back next year with some costumes...on our train ride back to the car - we were discussing our options.

Mannheim parade was also interesting. But we were mostly just watching the parade pass by. I was ofcourse busy with my camera...everyone collected quite a bit of candies and things...

I really wanted to go to Basel for Morgestraich but we couldnt make it this time. Maybe next year!?!