Du Gefällst Mir: Helau, Helau, Helau! Karneval!

Karneval was pretty much amazing. We started the weekend out with a little Scouts party Thursday night with all the group leaders. Emily, Kelsey, and I went to check it out, and it was a ton of fun. We played sing-star, and Emily and I sang "Eye of the Tiger" and also "Baby, Hit Me One More Time." I'd say both were pretty incredible, and Kelsey's "Tainted Love" performance was also amazing to watch. They had tons of snacks for all of us too and even Wurst. Yum!

And I already mentioned the Salsa Party that we went to Saturday night for Karneval in my last blog. And then of course, yesterday was Rosenmontag! Helau, helau, helau! Instead of saying hello, for Karneval in Mainz, everyone says helau. Everyone says it over and over again all day long.

I have never seen such an incredible parade before. Total, it must have been four hours! We took the train from Marburg at eight and got to Mainz around ten. It was completely dead when we got there, so we decided to walk down by the Rhine, but it was absolutely freezing, so we didn't stay very long, and we decided to walk back to the parade street and claim our spots. The parade started at 11:11, but by the time it reached our spot, it was already 12:30, so we were pretty scrunched together by the time it reached us. Being at the front was amazing, but we definitely got our fair share of shoves from behind.

Before the Parade

Julie and Me

Me, Kirsten, and Stephanie

Start of the Parade

The parade consisted of all the Karneval clubs from the area, and every group had different costumes. We saw cave men, Avatar people, giant heads, and many many more. Everyone in the crowd had costumes too. It's very similar to our Halloween, only a thousand times better. The costumes are so intricate here, and the make-up everyone has on their faces is fantastic. I went with a bee theme for my outfit, and thankfully some of the girls were willing to do my make-up for me :)

Kirsten, Me, Lion, and Cori

Me and Kelsey

Crazy Pirates

Natives!

Flight Attendants

Giant Heads

Helau!

Avatar

Marleen, Aline's cousin

So I think only in Germany would the people in the parade throw tissues, pretzels, rolls, and sausage patties at you! They also threw candy of course, but sausage patties? Really? Bahaha! They also had some interesting floats, like a giant naked man on one of them. It was a little strange to say the least.

Princess & the Frog

Jurassic Park

Two Men in a Tub?

I got to see Aline and their Karneval club of course too. It was so cool to see them in the parade because I know how big Karneval is for them. As soon as I saw Aline, I yelled her name and she ran over to me. We got to talk for a few seconds, and I saw her dad up on the float. He blew me a kiss :) I didn't see her mom sadly, but they did give me a big box of chocolates which are delicious! I only got one picture of their float unfortunately because I was talking to Aline, but it was still super neat. Their club had kind of an ice princess/winter theme.

After the parade was over, the city turned into a gigantic party. There was a huge DJ stand right behind us, and they started playing traditional German music right away. It was incredible to see so many people dancing in the streets acting absolutely crazy. I wouldn't doubt that the parties lasted the entire night, but unfortunately I had school on Tuesday, so at eight that night, we caught our train back to Christian Wolff Haus. A very successful day nonetheless.