Karneval!

So I'm going to back up a bit (got a little distracted because my family was visiting!!) to a couple weekends ago and describe probably the second craziest time in Germany (after Oktoberfest, of course).
Up here in north-western Germany, the end of February gets pretty insane. Germany is traditionally a very Christian country, and so many of the Christian holidays are celebrated a lot more intensely than I'm used to in the US. Karneval is the time surrounding the beginning of Lent.
So Karneval officially began this year on Thursday February 23rd at 11:11 AM. A lot of younger people use this long weekend as an excuse to party non-stop, which I (fortunately? unfortunately? not quite sure) did not choose to do. Thursday is the women's day of celebration where women go around cutting off pieces of men's ties in exchange for kisses. Again, did not partake lol. Instead, I was at work where we celebrated with Berliners (fun fact: Berliners may be the term used for people who live in Berlin, but they are more commonly known as yummy jelly doughnuts traditionally eaten during Karneval).

Berliner at work!

The next day was a little less anti-climactic (no Berliners, but still had work).

On Saturday I decided to go shopping in the Altstadt part of Düsseldorf and LITERALLY ran into a parade. The parade was mostly children from various Kindergartens and school groups with themed costumes, which was cute but not suuuuper entertaining, so I watched for a bit and then decided to go back to shopping.

I actually went to a similar parade on Sunday with one of my coworkers and her family and I truthfully have not seen so much candy in my life. The people in the parade rained candy down on us, and even threw out some coloring books, stuffed animals and toys for all the kids that were watching. I let the kids take most of the candy (generous, I know), but I ended up with a keychain that randomly has the Argentinean flag on it, and a candy bar that I'm saving for souvenir purposes. 

Monday (Rosenmontag) was the real party day though. Nearly everyone has Monday off from work (myself included), and I decided to go out to Cologne to see what is known as the biggest and most impressive Karneval parade in Germany. And it definitely didn't disappoint. After waiting roughly three hours (bad planning on my part) the parade finally started, and it was insane. Each group that marched was massive, had their own band, most had people on horses, and each group threw handful upon handful of candy into the crowd. Another tradition is to throw or hand out flowers in return for a kiss of the cheek. People in the crowd scream for candy (Kamelle) and flowers (Strüßjer), sing along to the songs that the bands play, drink beer, and have a good time doing so. Most people are dressed up in costume as well (again, chose not to, idk, sue me), so the whole thing has sort of a Halloween-y vibe. Another cool thing about the Rosenmontag parade is the floats. Some of them have political messages, some make social statements, and others are just plain fun. Here are some of my favorites:

Minion float!

The whole Karneval time was really exciting because you'd see people randomly dressed up in the streets, everyone was in a good mood, I seriously just stumbled upon a parade. It was great. Definitely a must-do if you're in the area during Karneval time!!