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My Karneval experience was a blur of revisiting Bonn and my old host family, Kölsch, parades and spending time with people I hadn't seen since Berlin. Karneval really can't be explained, you just have to see it for yourself. All I can say is that it was absolutely the most insane weekend party I have ever been to, not to mention that this happens all over the country and beyond. I arrived on Thursday night with Niki in tow, where (almost) my entire host family picked me up, and seeing them was hands down the best part of the trip. We went to visit my host mom in her pharmacy where she was working through the night since at least some of the pharmacies needed to be open for Karneval weekend. The next few days were comprised of Karneval music and parades, spending time with friends and family, meeting the two new AIB exchange students staying at my old host house, and party, party, party. The small parade in Beuel, my part of the city, was on Saturday afternoon, so we dressed up and went to go watch it, where candy and other random objects were hurled at the masses. "Alaaf" is the official greeting for Karneval in the Rheinland, and it was basically the key to getting candy thrown at you. We ended up with (literally) laundry baskets full of candy and other things I would have never thought of, such as a can of Axe deodorant. Saturday night, Niki, her new found "host sister" currently living in her old host house, the friend of the host sister and I went to Cologne to get our authentic Karneval experience. Good times. Sunday morning was slow, as no one was awake after Cologne, and the rest of Sunday was spent just lazing around. We all ended up meeting at the cafe next to the Happy Hour döner place, having coffee and getting döner and falafel afterwards, along with a few surprise guests who had come into Bonn that weekend, i.e. Mason and Düsseldorf people.
Monday was Rosenmontag, also known as the big day for Karneval, and Hecko and I met in Bonn to catch the train to Cologne, where we had fuuuun times with the ticket controller. After convincing her that we were American exchange students and that we spoke absolutely no German except for "ich", "Deutsch" and "kein", she let us go when the other controller passed us off as stupid American exchange students. Next time we'll keep in mind to remember the name that's on the card! But hey, life is an adventure, right? ;) If Cologne was crazy on Saturday night, then it had nothing on Rosenmontag. Hecko and I met several Spanish people and of course I had no idea what they were saying, but it was still a good time and we got to see the parade with all of the ridiculous floats (Angela Merkel and more than anyone wants to see of her was on a float. Google image "Angela Merkel Karneval" if you want to get an idea). Entire boxes of chocolate and candy came flying at us, and it's always a conquest to see who can catch it all. It was fun, but after a while it admittedly got freezing cold and it was already wet, so I decided to catch a train home with some people who wanted to go back to Bonn for food and beer, since I had to leave at midnight anyway. I had dinner with my host family, packed up my things (along with a bajillion kilos of candy and a messenger bag that I'm assuming with the Brandenburger Tor on the front, gifted to me by my host dad) and went to meet Lindsay at the Hauptbahnhof to pick up Niki's phone charger. Grace's old host dad was playing with some of his band at a pub and we had planned to go there to see him. We stayed a bit and I had my last Kölsch for a while. We drove back to the Hauptbahnhof where we sat in the McCafé, part of McDonald's European attempt to make the previously trashy looking McDoof into a classy bistro, until my train came at 12:14. On the way back, I somehow got stuck sitting with a guy who was hallucinating and still had no idea where he was going to get off, but was thinking that Heidelberg would be a good place for him. I'm not usually one to judge, but it was 2:00 in the morning and that was the point where it got a bit creepy for a while...I'm so glad I had the time to make that trip since we'd been planning it since July. My only complaint would be that I wish it could have been longer. :)
