Part Two: Carnival in Kolin and Well

Carnival in Europe is something that everyone needs to experience once in their lives. There is no way to accurately describe the feeling and atmosphere that surrounds the holiday. It is pure joy mixed with silliness, craziness, and pride. The only American equivalent we have is to combine New Years Eve, Mardi Gras, Halloween, and the Fourth of July.

So Kolin, Germany is one of the most incredible places in the world. Especially during carnival! Cailin, Meena, Roisin, and I grabbed an early train into the city where we met up with Anna and Karen. Ryan and Erika decided to tag along with us too which was fun. As we got off the train we were greeted by masses of people all dressed in crazy, ridiculous costumes! We stepped outside of the station and stood in awe of the Dom, a gorgeous gothic cathedral that has a huge square outside of it. We wandered our way to the Latin Quarter to find the Cuba Bar, a place that was recommended to us by friends. On our way we saw a lot of people gathered in a square around a bandstand. Every single person, young and old, man and woman, was decked out in colorful costumes, wigs, and makeup. Everyone also was drinking beer out of these nifty yarn beer holders, making us all the more determined to get to this bar. Well, after walking for a while, we reached the bar and of course-it was closed. Dejected, we made our way back to the square but on the way we stopped for lunch. Oh dear lord, German food is DELICIOUS! I had amazing schnitzel and beer for lunch. I was so happy, I was in a food coma! Schnitzel is a chicken/pork/veal cutlet buttered and fried and covered in a Jager-sauce. SO WONDERFUL. AH!

[Schnitzel!] [Yes, that is a baby carriage full of beer]




[Beer holder that says Kolin] [The group with our German beers]

After lunch we bought ourselves beer holders and subsequently filled them with Becks to fit in with the rest of the Germans. We made our way back to the square and to our delight, a band began to play. Not just any band, mind you, but a really famous German band that was number one in the country for a while. The band’s name was Honer and they are originally from Kolin. We stood in a crowd of people and danced and sang along (well, tried to) all of the happy German music that was being played. Everyone around us was so nice! A woman linked arms with Cailin during one song, starting a whole line of people. She later told us that she had lived in Vermont for a while and was recommending places for us to go. I can’t even begin to describe the craziness that was around us. Everywhere you look there were bright colors, loud music, and just overall happiness. It was infectious! When we went to the mall to warm up (because it was FREEZING), a random band of clowns stormed in and played music for about 20 minutes. GERMANY IS AWESOME! The rest of our time was spent wandering around Kolin, just taking in everything that was going on around us. We ran into a mini-parade mismatched clowns that were marching down the street playing music, so of course we had to join in! We marched with them for a while, making friends with a very friendly blue clown, one guy even had Cailin hold his tuba. We broke off from the parade and wandered some more, running into another impromptu dance party in a small square. We joined in with these young Germans and linked arms with them, singing at the top of our lungs. For dinner I had a bratwurst with spicy mustard that was INCREDIBLE! To wash down our dinner we were semi-sketchy and bought a bottle of German vodka, “Wodka,” and some Fanta to drink out of dinky little plastic cups out of our beer holders. Classy, classy, classy. Because we were already close to the train station, we didn’t want to venture far off. We decided to stay in the square outside of the cathedral and take pictures with people who had funny costumes. Well that turned into “photobombing” pictures (jumping into the background of random people’s pictures while making funny faces) and that kept us occupied for quite a while. The train ride home was uneventful and after talking to Lane for a while, I crashed and went to sleep so I could be fully rested for Carnival in Well the next day!

[Chickens ride the tram too] [Cailin and I made friends with a hun]



[Random clown parade-blue was our friend!] [Bratwurst is wonderful!]

Carnival prep for the parade in Well started around 11:00 am with face painting courtesy of Rob, my art professor. He painted my face as some kind of peacock-clown? I don’t know what it was meant to be but it turned out great! Rob himself was dressed like an alcoholic medieval monk because our castle theme for carnival was “Medieval Madness.” I ended up wearing a flamenco skirt and feather boa in the parade. The group of students who were marching in the parade, led by Rob, went down to Old Well to get in our parade spot. As we were standing there taking pictures and complaining about the cold, Rob asks, “Ok, who’s ready for shots?” and pulls a bottle of monastic liqueur and five shot glasses out from his monk basket. Of course I was not going to turn this down! Taking a shot with my art professor while he’s dressed as a monk and I’m covered in face paint that he did and wearing a flamenco skirt in the Netherlands? Check! The rest of the groups in the parade varied between costumed groups and crazy homemade floats that put a lot of American ones to shame!

[Me, Rob, and Cailin before the parade] [Dulcia in a wig serving hot dogs]

The parade made its way through Well as people lined the streets to watch and cheer us on. Again everyone was in costume! As we passed the Linden, our bartender friend came running out with trays of warm wine shots for us which were good. The whole town was decorated with flags and balloons galore, it was so pretty! The parade paused for a little at the castle to reset. While we were waiting, Dulcia and the dining hall staff had set up a booth to pass out hotdogs to the parade participants. Dulcia, Nellie, Stephen, and Doyjna were all dressed in red, white, and blue costumes and had signs that advertised the American hotdogs! The parade continued throughout the other section of Well and ended at Café Vink. While in the last stretch, just as everyone was getting freezing cold, a group of clowns with a cart full of wine and liqueurs comes up to us and starts passing out bottles and glasses along with marshmallows and candy.! Rob was with us the whole time and it was fun getting to joke around and laugh with him. After the parade we were exhausted so we stripped out of our costumes and napped until dinner. The rest of the night consisted of talking and swapping stories from the weekend, a very relaxing night. The festivities of the day were also a very welcome distraction from the fact that it was Valentine's Day..
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[Emersonians during the Carnival parade]

Today’s carnival celebration included a light parade through Well and fireworks. Again, the floats were incredible! I’ve never seen stuff like this in a small town parade. It puts any Monroe parade to shame! People come from all over the area to watch the light show and it was beautiful!

This week is going to be filled with lots of work so I can relax on my upcoming trip this weekend to BARCELONA! AH so excited!!!

The video is of Honer while we were in Kolin:

Part One: Arcen and Maastricht

[Hells Gates-entrance to the city of Maastricht]

So far this week has been relatively good! My classes have been great, with the exception of travel writing. My professor is crazy and disrespectful during workshops. It’s gotten to the point that we all spend workshops just looking at each other trying to figure out who deemed this woman competent enough to teach at a college. It made us even angrier after reading her poetry online. WOW. You’ll have to see for yourself... This is our particular favorite (it’s best when read outloud): http://www.poeticencounters.net/Poems/S.Poems/Bones&Stones.htm

Last night was a carnivale themed American Night at the Linden and it was so much
fun! The jungle shirt made its first Dutch appearance! The night was filled with a lot of dancing to great music and just an awesome time overall. Everyone was dressed up in crazy costumes and the pictures are hilarious! After a successful night, we went to sleep idealistic about our 7 am wake up time to go to Cologne, Germany for more carnivale festivities. Well, fun nights don’t make for fun mornings so we decided to forgo Germany for the mineral thermal baths in Arcen which allowed us to have a later start. The thermal baths were… great? The pools were both indoor and outdoor and weren’t really hot, rather just like a warm bath. There were massage jets all over to work different muscles which was much needed! Cailin, Louisa, and I swam around in the bath for about an hour and a half before heading to the sauna to try out an eucalyptus sauna. One word can sum up our experience: NAKED. Ah so many naked Dutch people everywhere! Old, skinny, fat, wrinkly, super fat. We saw way too many Dutch butts and other body parts for our liking. We sat awkwardly as the only clothed people in the entire vicinity. All I’m going to say is Uncle Joe, you were totally right. We grabbed lunch back in Well at the snack shop where I had an interesting spicy meat (not sure what kind…) and onion fried deal and frites. On our way back we developed a plan for a “Budget Benelux Beer Tour” and hit the supermarket for supplies. We decided that since we don’t know that much about different kinds of beers we would try one of every kind that we could find and make a chart of which kinds were which and what we thought. We got ones from all over Belgium, The Netherlands, and Germany (and all for under a euro each!). I think I’ve decided my favorite was a Palm Amber Ale…

Saturday we boarded the buses around 9 to go to Maastricht with my professor Rob. When we got to the city he took us for coffee and pastries at his favorite coffee shop before we crossed the river Maas to go to the historic center. On the way to the first church we were visiting, we saw the spot where one of the three Musketeers was killed in battle and the famed “Hells Gate” that is part of the city’s medieval wall (which is still standing). Maastricht is one of the oldest cities in the Netherlands, dating back to the Roman Empire. Rob led us to the Church of Our Lady, a Romanesque church on the outskirts of the center of town. It was gorgeous with frescoed vaults and stained glass windows. There was also a statue called the Miraculous Mary that people come to venerate. After we left the church we walked to the town center (an old Roman cemetery) and broke for lunch. Cailin, Roisin, Meena, and I grabbed a quick Chinese take-out lunch and walked around an outdoor flea market for a little while. The whole town is completely decked out for carnivale. Everything was colored in yellow, green and red and everyone was dressed in crazy costumes! After the flea market we went to a tiny, extremely cluttered antique store where I bought a vintage blue and white Dutch plate that was made in an old tile factory in Maastricht that was destroyed. It’s gorgeous! We also went to another store where I bought these two vintage copper rings for really cheap. After about two hours we met up with Rob and the rest of the group (about thirty of us) and went to the church where he is the treasury director-the Basilica of St. Servatius. St. Servatius is a second cousin of Jesus and was the bishop of Maastricht. He was also given a key to the gate of Heaven by St. Peter (which we got to see). The basilica was so gorgeous and had a lot of stained glass windows that were so beautiful. Because we were there with Rob we got to see a lot of things that aren’t open to the public such as the actual tomb of the saint and the imperial gallery and vault. We also saw the tombs (and bodies) of Saints In the treasury we saw the relics of St. Andrew, St. Barbara, St. Thomas (it was his arm bone!), Mary Magdalene (a piece of her skull), St. Servatius (his entire skull in one holder and the rest of his body in another!), and relics of the cross of Christ. It was really interesting to hear the stories behind everything and to get to see everything up close. Rob told us stories about all of the saints and how relics work. It was really interesting to hear all of this information first hand from someone who truly has a passion for this.

[Church of Our Lady]

After we left the basilica, which was absolutely freezing as we climbed higher into the gallery, Rob took us to a bar in the square for a drink in celebration of carnivale. He bought us each a glass of wine or a beer in this bar that was decorated with really creepy clowns and was playing really loud Dutch techno-pop-dance-folk music. It was really nice to get to spend time with Rob outside of class because he is a really interesting guy and very funny too! Roisin, Cailin, Holly, Meena, and I grabbed Vietnamese cart food and frites for dinner. I had a barmiol (?) which was a fired dough stuffed with noodles, vegetables and chicken and served with sweet and sour sauce. So delicious!! We then grabbed the train to Venlo and bus back to Well. We had to defrost for a while because Maastricht was absolutely freezing! It also lightly snowed all day too which made everything look so pretty. The town was actually beautiful because it is really old and has narrow, cobblestone streets and gorgeous buildings. The whole town actually had a really cool vibe, definitely way less touristy than Amsterdam.

[Basilica of Saint Servatius]


[View of the River Maas]

A food update (because I know my loyal reader Aunt Fran loves to hear about this): I’ve realized that I haven’t eaten meat that I can recognize since I’ve been here. The exception has been an occasional piece of chicken. I think that the Dutch love sausage-tasting kinds of meat. What its comprised of is still a mystery.


[Below: Key to the Gate of Heaven] More pictures will come when people upload them to Facebook because my camera died after this picture!