Karneval in Köln
The weekend before Shrove Tuesday, we all made our way to Cologne to celebrate Karneval! Cologne hosts the biggest Karneval parades and celebrations in the whole of Germany and we thought, while we're here, why not?!
At Karneval, it's customary to go in fancy dress so we British assistants donned our old school uniforms - never would I have imagined ever wearing my Woodford uniform again!
Becca and I went over to Cologne on the Saturday instead of the Friday because Helen, the assistant who worked at my school the year before last who also went to Warwick, came to visit and we really wanted to meet her! We stayed in Brühl, a town just a little outside of Cologne, in an apartment of a friend of Divya's (one of the American assistants). At 6pm on Saturday evening, we set off on our night out. Yes, we know it was a bit early but Karneval here is an all-day celebration lasting about 5 days! It was a surreal experience because nearly everyone was in costume and the drinking and partying usually began at around 5-6pm (I think!) lasting till about 6am! Just how the Germans do!
Everyone went home on Sunday apart from Carys and I. We went to stay with my cousins who live in Cologne so that we could see the main parade on the Monday. My auntie from Dortmund joined us and together, we braved the freezing cold and watched the parades, shouting "KAMELLE!!!!" (sweets) and "STREUSCHEN!!!!" (flowers) as the floats went past so we'd be thrown sweets and flowers. We didn't get much until we found a good spot in the Altstadt where we were at the front then the sweets, flowers and kisses (which you'd get if you were handed a flower) came rolling in!
I had Monday and Tuesday off because of Karneval, so I've only been in school two days this week! This tradition should be brought to the UK!