vailian

It is that time of year again: Carneval. If you don't live here, you cannot imagine what an important event Karneval is in Cologne. For the born-and-bred locals, it means getting dressed up in funny Halloween-type costumes on Thursday morning and staying as drunk as you can until the early hours of Wednesday. It involves a lot of singing and watching the Karneval Parades, especially the one on Monday, which starts around 11 and takes about 5 hours to pass any one point. There are heirarchies and organisations and shows, but most of all, lots of beer and schnapps. Morals become rather loose, and men who dare to appear on the street without an escort are likely to be physically attacked by desperate females in an alcoholic haze.
Either you love it or you hate it. My ex hated it, I am mostly fascinated by the phenomenon, because it seems so foreign to the German nature.