carnivale

*Carnival* marks the beginning of lent or the end of eating rich foods, drinking alcohol and being merry until Easter.(look it up in wiki) Some of the largest celebrations of the carnival include the mardi gras in New Orleans, the Venice carnivale and in the Rhine region in germany. My carnivale was in bonn-coln and dusseldorf.

Day 0 - friday, bonn (arrived) and Koln (party)
8. danced from 11pm to 5am with a group of 30 people - was with aiesec bonn, we stayed at ina, radika and francisco's flat. its two storey and the boys (below stayed upstairs while irma, myself and john slept at the living room, that couch was my bed)
3. dressed as bee and have seen people dressed as bees, cows, cheerleaders, Mario brothers, angels, pirates, clowns, soldiers, spider man, etc - didnt have time to put make up on.. we had to run to the last train leaving at 11pm.. i have never sweat that much since i arrived here in germany.
2. drank kölsch beer - first glass should be drank in one qulp, second glass in two gulps, third etc.. see the small glass im hollding, thats what they use for this type of beer.
12. seen Germans act un-German-like - germans are supposed to be very calm and orderly.. there carnivale was neither
13. gotten super squished in a train thrice, ran after it thrice - this story has to be told personally.. not really. 1.people "staged" dived to get out of the train 2. there was someone on the luggage rack.. go figure!
Day 1 - saturday, bonn, outside bonn (drachenfels castle)and Koln (parade)
15. climbed 10kms up a hill and attended a parade all in one day - seriously thought lenka was kidding when she said we were climbing up 10kms..(we are not the walking type culture! tsk tsk) it was worth it =)) beautiful rhine!
5. seen a castle/s - i knew we wouldnt see the inside but i didnt expect the grounds of the castle would be closed as well.. it was too bad. other castle no pic.. it was covered / being renovated..?
6. seen snakes, alligators, and a statue of a dragon - we had to go through a museum of folklore and go through a cave to get to the zoo... how cool, right? check out the window on the bottom left picture.. this is rare.
7. seen the Rhine
10. been in Beethoven’s house - yes, walang banyo sa loob... i regret not taking the museum guide headsets. was so busy with picture taking.

11. eaten 0,50 euro pizza slice - pizza can be found behind this castle(?) in bonn
14. danced in a parade for two hours dressed as a bee again

Day 2 - sunday, dussseldorf and coln (no party)
1. been to three cities – bonn, köln, and dusseldorf
4. seen Otto von Bismarck’s statue
9. seen the Cologne Cathedral

this is bonn
dusseldorf
Otto von bismark
the only pic i have of cologne.. it was raining when we arrived and it was dark already.. although the music was really good.
thanks to.. the kind hosts
francisco (mexico) and ina (ukraine)
riteeka (indian) and of course svilen (who drove frankfurt-bonn-koln-dusseldorf-frankfurt) =)
for more photos.. kroa.multiply.com (its a cheesy website, so no complaints. uve been warned)
cutest picture =)
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mom, get well soon