Went to Karneval last week. And I must say it was absolutely amazing. I didn’t really know what to expect there… but I have been told about a lot of people dressing up, drinking a lot of beer and there was a lot of music.
I’m not the biggest fan on dressing up; I have never been keen on the idea. However, everyone does it for Karneval, and not being dressed up was shunned upon… kind of. Anyway, me and Rob and Dai went to see what we could find.
We went to a shopping centre in Gelsenkirchen and had a look there. After much thought, we decided to go for the convict look. Not so original, so we had a look for random things to go with it. Rob got this theatrical type mask and a stop and go sign. And I got me a tiny clown hat and a chicken hat. The chicken hat was particularly awesome.
It all fully kicked off on the Saturday, so we got ourselves some crates of beer, a bottle of Jägermeister and a medicinal bottle of green absinthe. Then we went over to Düsseldorf for a bit, went up the Fernsehturm, as Dai hadn’t been there yet. And had a look about. I kind of dropped my clown hat coming out of the tower, so had to go back and get it. You could say that I had a few funny looks as people saw this prisoner walking down the bank of the Rhein with a chicken perched on his head.
So, afterwards, we made our way into Köln. We met with a few other people there who were at the uni in Regensburg. We finished off our crate and went into the Alstadt for some more alcohol. And sooner or later we ended up in this club on a boat.
To be honest, I was kind of wasted by now. And just remember a lot of flashy lights and drinking on the boat. It took me until the next day to realise that we were actually on a boat. I was in a bad state. Good, though!
So it was time to go, and we missed the last train to Recklinghausen and decided to get the first one in the morning… around 4, I think. But in the station, there were a lot of people gathering around these other people who were playing drums. They were really good at it. And I’m sure they were improvising and making it all up as they went along. However, they played really well. I may have taken a good few photos of them. And later we dumped ourselves in the station for a bit and got entertained by Olaf.
Olaf was probably not his name. It was who these German guys next to us called him. But he was this old drunk man who was collecting bottles for Pfand. Bless. I thought I’d go up and give him a bottle, and in turn he hugged me. I’d say bless, but I was choking on the smoke coming from him.
Eventually, our train arrived to go to Essen and it was probably one of the worst ones ever. It was a Schnellbahn, which means ‘quick train’. But it wasn’t that at all. It stopped at least two dozen times at everywhere. It could have even doubled back on itself… I would have been none the wiser, as I couldn’t really keep awake.
But after hearing the announcements for the last time, we arrived at Essen where we had some time to wait. But the thing with Essen station, it’s like a construction site at the moment. It’s all a big mess. And after being constantly woken by the voice on the train telling us how many stations there are at Düsseldorf and needing a toilet, I wasn’t in the best of moods. What capped it was the fact there weren’t any toilets about, however, there were signs. Just couldn’t find them. I began to shout at the train station for just being crap.
Anyway, after traversing half of Essen to get to the other side of the station, the train was at the platform, and I ran for the toilet. Thing was, the door was a bit dodgy and kept opening, at which point I couldn’t care less. The toilet was also blocked and was almost full to the rim with piss, paper, shit and God knows what else. There may have been an apple in there somewhere. Luckily, the train wasn’t in motion, as the toilet would probably have emptied rather hastily, and most probably in my direction.
Another annoying thing about the train journey was this guy dressed as a surgeon who kept onto us about ‘a lovely piss’, reference to when Rob went, and being careful not to have the contents of the toilet bowl covering him as the train may have pulled off any moment. I was in the right mind to kick him as he walked by.
And after a day of being convicts, being covered in yellow absinthe stains, getting my clown hat thrown overboard and abusing train station for the lack of facilities, I could safely say we experienced the Karneval at Köln for the first time. But getting home at half past seven in the morning, we thought we’d give it another go later on. However, not as heavy as we did!
I’m not the biggest fan on dressing up; I have never been keen on the idea. However, everyone does it for Karneval, and not being dressed up was shunned upon… kind of. Anyway, me and Rob and Dai went to see what we could find.
We went to a shopping centre in Gelsenkirchen and had a look there. After much thought, we decided to go for the convict look. Not so original, so we had a look for random things to go with it. Rob got this theatrical type mask and a stop and go sign. And I got me a tiny clown hat and a chicken hat. The chicken hat was particularly awesome.
It all fully kicked off on the Saturday, so we got ourselves some crates of beer, a bottle of Jägermeister and a medicinal bottle of green absinthe. Then we went over to Düsseldorf for a bit, went up the Fernsehturm, as Dai hadn’t been there yet. And had a look about. I kind of dropped my clown hat coming out of the tower, so had to go back and get it. You could say that I had a few funny looks as people saw this prisoner walking down the bank of the Rhein with a chicken perched on his head.
So, afterwards, we made our way into Köln. We met with a few other people there who were at the uni in Regensburg. We finished off our crate and went into the Alstadt for some more alcohol. And sooner or later we ended up in this club on a boat.
To be honest, I was kind of wasted by now. And just remember a lot of flashy lights and drinking on the boat. It took me until the next day to realise that we were actually on a boat. I was in a bad state. Good, though!
So it was time to go, and we missed the last train to Recklinghausen and decided to get the first one in the morning… around 4, I think. But in the station, there were a lot of people gathering around these other people who were playing drums. They were really good at it. And I’m sure they were improvising and making it all up as they went along. However, they played really well. I may have taken a good few photos of them. And later we dumped ourselves in the station for a bit and got entertained by Olaf.
Olaf was probably not his name. It was who these German guys next to us called him. But he was this old drunk man who was collecting bottles for Pfand. Bless. I thought I’d go up and give him a bottle, and in turn he hugged me. I’d say bless, but I was choking on the smoke coming from him.
Eventually, our train arrived to go to Essen and it was probably one of the worst ones ever. It was a Schnellbahn, which means ‘quick train’. But it wasn’t that at all. It stopped at least two dozen times at everywhere. It could have even doubled back on itself… I would have been none the wiser, as I couldn’t really keep awake.
But after hearing the announcements for the last time, we arrived at Essen where we had some time to wait. But the thing with Essen station, it’s like a construction site at the moment. It’s all a big mess. And after being constantly woken by the voice on the train telling us how many stations there are at Düsseldorf and needing a toilet, I wasn’t in the best of moods. What capped it was the fact there weren’t any toilets about, however, there were signs. Just couldn’t find them. I began to shout at the train station for just being crap.
Anyway, after traversing half of Essen to get to the other side of the station, the train was at the platform, and I ran for the toilet. Thing was, the door was a bit dodgy and kept opening, at which point I couldn’t care less. The toilet was also blocked and was almost full to the rim with piss, paper, shit and God knows what else. There may have been an apple in there somewhere. Luckily, the train wasn’t in motion, as the toilet would probably have emptied rather hastily, and most probably in my direction.
Another annoying thing about the train journey was this guy dressed as a surgeon who kept onto us about ‘a lovely piss’, reference to when Rob went, and being careful not to have the contents of the toilet bowl covering him as the train may have pulled off any moment. I was in the right mind to kick him as he walked by.
And after a day of being convicts, being covered in yellow absinthe stains, getting my clown hat thrown overboard and abusing train station for the lack of facilities, I could safely say we experienced the Karneval at Köln for the first time. But getting home at half past seven in the morning, we thought we’d give it another go later on. However, not as heavy as we did!
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