Karneval in Germany

February has been a crazy month.  You might have been able to tell that simply from the low post count so far in February, but I've been a busy bee lately.  February started off with me in Paris, and I was greeted back in the school in Hannover with an extra large workload because of the number of teachers who are out right now.  My host teacher, Martina, broke her ankle on a huge patch of ice and has been out since.  Another teacher I work with, Louisa, has been having respiratory problems with bronchitis and asthma thrown in.  I also had two reports to finish for the Fulbright and the German Pädagogischer Austauschdienst, and I've always enrolled at the Leibniz Unversität Hannover to take a few seminar courses.

Enough of the boring stuff--the recent highlight of my stay in Germany was Karneval.  Karneval is an old tradition in Germany as well as in Europe and across the world (similar to celebrations like Carnevale in Venice, Mardi Gras in New Orleans or Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro).  In Germany, Karneval is particularly important in the Rhineland and in southern Germany where it's called Fasching.  The most famous Karneval celebrations in Germany are in Köln and Düsseldorf, where I was last weekend!

The whole week was a bit of a double treat/adventure, first Libby flew into Frankfurt on Wednesday and spent two nights with me in Hannover before we headed out to Düsseldorf on Friday for Karneval.  We met up with her friend Nora who now lives in Düsseldorf (Libby and Nora did a high school exchange, and we visited Nora in Leverkusen after our exchange in Wittenberg in 2006).  The best part of this whole Karneval am Rhein was that Libby and I got to meet all of Nora's friends who still live in the area and party with the "locals".  Friday we were immediately whisked away to the tiny village of Hitdorf where we caught the tail-end of the Hitdorf parade and then continued celebrating at a friend's house and then at a tiny Cafe/Beer garden that had been decked out for a huge Karneval party.  We had so much fun that night and stayed out pretty late, but little did I know at the time that this was just the beginning.

Saturday afternoon we met back up with Nora and friends and had a quick dinner before heading down to Köln for the famous Geisterzug (ghost parade) which is a nighttime "ghoulish" parade and some more partying in Köln.  Sunday we went to Langel, which is a village across the Rhine from Hitdorf and even smaller!  The Langel parade was one of my favorite moments, and definitely the hardest I've laughed in a while, because at this parade instead of throwing things out to the crowd they threw them at the crowd.  Not just small candy but also giant bars of chocolates and granola bars and stuff.  Imagine bending down for an awesome grab of a full-sized chocolate bar only to be pelted (seriously, pelted) with tons of bon bons and other small candies.  It was ridiculous.  After the parade we took a ferry across the Rhine and headed back to Hitdorf before we celebrated all night in a small beer brewery that was having a special Karneval party.  

By the time Monday morning rolled around, I was starting to get a cold, and since most of the locals had to work the following day, we took Rosenmontag a bit easier.  After going to the major Rosenmontag parade in Düsseldorf we grabbed a few drinks, sang a few more Karnevalslieder and grabbed food before heading out separate ways.  Tuesday meant saying goodbye to Libby after a great trip, and I headed back to Hannover and tried to recover from the marathon party that is Karneval.

A Short Foray into France

Excusing the forced alliterative title, I decided to take advantage of our two-day Halbjahresferien (the midpoint in the German school calendar) and had an awesome long weekend in Paris.  Right after finishing classes Thursday afternoon, I ran to the train station and made my way to Paris via several action-packed transfers including a frantic sprint to my TGV at the Frankfurt Central Station.  The best part about the whole trip is that I know a few people currently living in/around Paris, so not only did I get to stay with Kerry in her flat in Montparnasse, but I also got to meet up with several other USC alumni friends.

Highlights from Friday included going to Notre Dame de Paris and then meeting up with Kate at her apartment and seeing a really cool (if not overly edgy) temporary exhibit at the Pompidou Centre on women in art.  After a brief detour back to Montparnasse to greet Kerry who had been in London training for a new job, I met up with Kate and Travis and some of their Paris friends for a pint.  Saturday morning Kerry took me to the "good French bakery" where we picked up a baguette and assorted items for breakfast and sandwiches.  We then met up with Travis at Ladurée, the original Parisian tearoom, for some of it's famous macarons, which we ate in the Tuileries gardens before walking along the Seine for a bit.  We then ventured to Sacré-Cœur in Montmarte which has an amazing view of Paris and found some great quiches at a nearby bakery which we washed down with these amazing beers we bought a market stall (a little preparty before the "Sock Hop" party Travis's friends were hosting).

 

 

Sunday was fun day of sight-seeing with Travis including a Playmobil exhibit, going to the top of the Arc de Triomphe and walking around the Champ de Mars and the Eiffel Tower.  We explored Montparnasse for a bit before grabbing pizzas and resting our feet for a bit before Travis had to make his way back to Chartres for school the next day.

Monday and Tuesday were mostly spent at museums around Paris like the Louvre, Hôtel des Invalides and the Musee d'Orsay.  I especially liked the Musee d'Orsay which was formerly a train station that slowly fell into disuse in the 1930s since it couldn't accommodate the longer modern trains, so they turned it into an amazing modern art museum in the 1980s.  When Tuesday afternoon rolled around, I was sad to leave Paris but ready to be back home in Hannover.  Little did I know that the snowstorm that was starting as I left Hannover on Thursday continued through Tuesday which resulted in a major travel headache and my arrival in Hannover getting pushed back to about 2:30 am.  It all worked out in the end though because Wednesday ended up being a snow day for schools in Hannover.

 

 

 Turns out that I wasn't the only one with an exciting weekend though...my roommate Poisy ended up going to the hospital on Sunday afternoon because of an infection.  She's back out of the hospital now, but it's a story I'll have to share another day.

All in all I had a great time in Paris.  I can't help but laugh at how I've always had this slight...well, prejudice against France and always bumped Paris down my list of cities to see.  I can admit this nearsightedness, and I definitely wouldn't turn down a return trip to Paris (though hopefully at a sunnier, less rainy time of the year).