Carnival in Germany and planning my trip to YVR

Valentine’s weekend was a relaxing stay at Nina’s place. This was our third Valentine’s Day, but the first one we actually got to spend together. We had a romantic dinner at a restaurant in Aachen we knew and liked. I had such a memorable meal there last fall that I knew exactly what I was going to order before even walking in the door. And like any good restaurant, it tasted as delicious as I had remembered it. Of course, I had lamb, herb-crusted rack of lamb.

As I hadn’t been to Nina’s in almost a month, we were eager to go to the pool to swim laps. Instead of going after lunch when the pool is somewhat busy, we went in the morning before breakfast. This was a mistake. Already a little hungry before even entering the water, I swam 40 laps. The grumbling of my stomach set a decent pace to swim to. As we were finishing, I noticed the lifeguard was sitting in his pool-side office making a sandwich. The metal stairs to exit the pool were directly across from his office and as I exited the pool he smiled at me. I smiled back, eyeing his lunch, slipped down the stairs and hit my back on the bottom one. It left a nasty bruise, but I was OK. I started to wonder if perhaps food really does rule my life.

I worked hard this past week as I planned to take a long weekend in anticipation of Carnival in Germany this weekend. Mid-day on Friday I went to the train station, worked on the train and as I arrived in Germany I finished work and hit my target hours for the month. I worked a full 168 hour month, my first one in ages.

Friday night we hosted a party at the apartment. A lot of Nina’s friends aren’t really into carnival, so we had a non-carnival party. Anyone really into carnival wouldn’t have come as there were carnival parties and events all weekend long. It was a good party, a lot of fun with a great crowd. It was on the small side, about 10 people, but considering we were feeding them, it felt like a lot! Nina really went all out, she made 2 different pasta salads, we had homemade pea soup, breads with pate and cheeses, vegetables with dip, a chocolate cake Nina made and other assorted goodies.

The party was going along well until around midnight when the drinking games started. I had been pacing myself quite nicely until this point, but the worse I did at the games, the more I drank. The party was a success, but the following morning was a complete failure. We had an apartment to clean and I had the sensation that a truck was parked on my head. I did a quick audit and realized I had finished a bottle of wine on my own, had some shots and cocktails and had barely drunk any water. The one good thing that came from this was the self-control I showed over the duration of the weekend which enabled me to enjoy carnival with a clear head.

I am going to try to explain carnival as best I can, but the truth is, I won’t do it justice. Unless you experience it firsthand, you can’t comprehend the scope, intensity or level of it.

First of all a little bit of history. Carnival started in the 7th or 8th century as a form of protest. A prince is “elected” for the duration of carnival and that started as a way to protest the monarchies. Carnival, as its known today dates back 300+ years. The carnival season starts in November when the prince is crowned and finishes in late February (Feb 24th this year). There are different events during that period, but it really comes to a climax in the final week leading up to the end of the season. The Prince has over 400 committed appearances he has to make in that time. It is more than just a volunteer position; it personally costs him close to €50K to fulfill the job. Few people can afford that, so the carnival government helps him out with the costs if need be. It’s expensive to be a Prince for 3 ½ months. You need you outfits, cars to drive you and your group around, there’s advertising costs (his image was all over town) and lots of drinks to be bought and parties to be thrown. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime honour for the lucky few with the time and money to commit.

There are over 150 carnival associations in the Aachen area alone! Carnival is specific to this region of Germany and Cologne is the carnival capital. So everything I am telling you is in regard to Aachen, you can imagine it’s bigger in Cologne.

Apart from a carnival government, there is also a Senate. Nina’s father sits on the Senate and is part of the committee. This yearly event generates billions of Euros in trade which is particularly good during a time like this when people are reluctant to spend money.

Saturday night was the big ball. The Aachen convention centre was turned into a massive ballroom with 4 bands on stages in different rooms. There were easily 5000 people in colourful costumes dancing and partying the night away. As one of Nina’s friends works there, she was able to get us tickets. Nina and I dressed up as musketeers as did one of her friends, so we showed up as the Three Musketeers.

I missed Halloween this year as it isn’t celebrated in Europe the way it is in North America. But this weekend I got it. The colourful costumes were amazing, as was the creativity shown by the hoards of people at the ball. Four people showed up all dressed as giraffes with their faces and clothing painted with the brown blotches on a yellow background. There was less gore than in Halloween costumes, as carnival is all about bright colours. I enjoyed seeing the costumes as much as the bands.

On the main stage in the main ballroom Prince Thomas and his men made an appearance. It started as his 50 soldiers; all dressed smartly in Napoleonic soldier uniforms marched onto the stage. The Prince Thomas looked, well, like a prince! (He is wearing the white scarf in the picture to the left.) He had his 13 men with him, each representing a trade (blacksmith, jester, wrangler) and they performed songs for the audience. A marching band arrived with dancers and the spectacle was astounding. It was around this point that I started to understand the scope of this event. This is THE event that Germans (in this region) look forward to all year.

Nina told me about the final ceremony. After this big weekend there are a few more events which culminate in one final night. There is organized entertainment, after which the prince is brought on stage and ceremonially stripped of his uniform and his title. Apparently it is extremely emotional for everyone as it means carnival is officially over. That was supposed to happen last night but the Prince was in hospital suffering from exhaustion and possibly pneumonia.

Sunday and Monday were the parades. I have been to loads of parades before, we all have, but never to anything like this. Imagine Halloween, but in reverse! Instead of dressing up in costumes and going house-to-house looking for candy, here you get dressed up and the candy comes to you!

Sunday was the parade in Nina’s town and it was relatively small, it took about a half hour to pass by. People had been lining up in the rain waiting for it to begin. We watched from her window and waited until it had begun before coming out. We stood under the train bridge to stay dry and were at the back of the crowd. As the floats passed by the audience was showered with candies and treats. From our vantage point, we got a few goodies. It gave me an idea of what I was in store for the following day.

Monday was the big Aachen and Cologne parades. As Nina’s parents were on the Senate’s float, we went to Aachen. We arrived in the town square shortly after it had started and we were armed with two shopping bags, umbrellas and, of course, we were in costume.

It was drizzling, but we weren’t using our umbrellas to stay dry. We turned them upside down and used them to catch flying candy. We found a bench to stand on and although we were 5 people deep, we were able to catch our fair share of goodies. Every float that came by had something to offer. Items were hurled, thrown, tossed and handed to the people in the crowds. The diversity of goodies was unbelievable and included packages of tissues, matches, body lotion, popcorn, pasta, a red rose, small airplane-sized bottles of alcoholic cocktails, stuffed animals, chocolates, cookies, cakes, pastries, chocolate bars and candies. I am sure there more things, but that is what we collected.

I purposely included some action pictures to the left where you can see the candy being hurdled through the air. Carnival is great because it turns perfectly reasonable adults into children again for a whole weekend! Seeing adults diving for candy was quite amusing. I showed some charity and gave some of the candy I caught to the older ladies next to me. They weren’t as agile and were only able to collect candy that literally landed at their feet.

While being showered with candy (and sometimes pelted, had a hard candy hit me in the ear which didn’t feel too good) I decided to indulge in some caramel. While doing so, I took off my glove, forgetting that my camera was connected to my wrist. While slipping off my glove, I slipped off the camera and it felt to the ground below. Since I was standing on a bench, it was from a big of height and did my camera in! So… slipped down stairs while staring at a sandwich and killed my camera for a candy. I came to realize everyone is right, food really does rule my life!

That camera served me well. I bought it almost 2 years ago for my 2007 Europe adventure and purposely picked an inexpensive model in case anything happened to it. It has travelled thousands of kilometres with me, has taken some wonderful pictures and paid for itself in spades. Over the next week or two I will go shopping for its replacement.

In an earlier blog I mentioned how I have brought back on the “other” Technical Writer who substituted for me when I was away last fall. Unfortunately, I had to let him go this past week for doing an abysmal job on two CVs. Instead of saving me time, it took me 3 hours to correct all the mistakes he made.

Stefan has put me in charge of finding a replacement. I convinced Stefan hiring a student from my previous school would be worth looking at (they can work while we sleep, they will be eager to gain experience). So I mailed the job description to BCIT’s Technical Writing department head. She quickly responded to me positively and asked if they can profile me in the BCIT newsletter. When it has been written and is online, I will post the link.

Nina has officially given me the word that doing her PhD in Canada is not going to be possible. We pretty much knew this already, but there were still some long-shots she was working on. Until she was able to definitely say “no” I was apprehensive about coming back and giving away everything I own. Since she gave me the green light on the weekend, I chatted with Stefan about getting some time off and booked my ticket. I will be arrived in Vancouver on Thursday June 18th and will be leaving again on the evening of Friday July 3rd.

It was really important to me to try to arrange my trip over Canada Day. Of all the family get-togethers that has consistently been one of my favourites. It is my intention to come back and visit every year. But, it will be another year before I am able to see most of the family, so I thought Canada Day would be a good memory to take back to Europe with me.