Crazy Carnival

So Carnival is originally a Catholic celebration, celebrated mostly in the south of the Netherlands. For five-ish days just before Ash Wednesday, people pretty much go mad. Everyone dresses up, drinks and parties, and there are parades everywhere!
To get the full experience, we went 'carnival-hopping', to see the cities that are meant to have the craziest carnivals! Friday and Saturday in Tilburg, Sunday in Maastricht, then Monday popping over the border to Cologne/Koln in Germany.

Starting off the craziness in Tilburg (In case you were wondering, I was an elf/robin hood/peter pan, depending on who you talked to)

On our way, training it to Maastricht. Being at stations and on trains with people in elaborate costumes and at various stages of drunkeness was an experience!

Speaking of elaborate costumes! Often the ones we saw in the crowd were even cooler. The parade was also open for random people to join in and meander along with the rest. 

Partying it up with the locals! We stumbled into the hall where one of the marching bands was letting loose, so got to listen to some live traditional music. Until suddenly everyone was in a conga line...

Pretty Maastricht

Taking advantage of a friend of a friend's couch... until security kicked us out at 2.30 and we had to move to her bedroom floor. All part of the experience :)

Cologne floats were way more hard core. Plus everyone threw chocolate and flowers into the crowd. It was a massive lollie scramble, which was super fun. I developed pretty sophisticated tactics for beating the competition. 

  After four days of partying, we managed to get in some sightseeing- this is the beautiful Cologne Cathedral. 

And these are some particularly cute houses in the 'medieval district' that we found after traipsing across the city for hours. Plus there are two Kiwis and two Canadians being silly in the foreground.

So that was Carnival! As if I didn't need more evidence that the Dutch knew how to have a good time. 

Tot ziens x