Fasching season begins!

Today (technically right now, thanks to the wonders of blog scheduling!) is the start of Fasching, or Carnival season in Germany. Fasching has various names; in my area, that is its name. Other names includes Fasnacht and Karneval.

I attended the Fasching parade in Wiesbaden the first year I was here. Last year, I didn't do anything for Fasching since I was in the middle of my university classes and being sick/getting over being sick/becoming sick again. Since the main Fasching events won't take place until February of next year, I can't say at this point what I'll be doing.

To read more about Fasching, check out these tagged posts that I wrote.

Seven Ways to Enjoy Germany Like the Germans Do

Are you trying to fit into Germany and want to live life like a local? Below are some wonderful pastimes that are popular with Germans and are fun to try.

1.  Grill party. You might see this at a park, in someone’s backyard, and if it’s allowed, even on some balconies. Germans enjoy a good grill party. Often the host has the barbeque going and guests bring their own meat and share side dishes.
2. Volksmarching. This is a great way to enjoy the outdoors and you can even log your marches if you’d like. These happen all year; one of the most fun I’ve had was volksmarching in February in the snow.
3. Wine festivals. Drink some delicious wines in a beautiful surrounding and listen to German music. With the easy availability of a train ride home from most locations, everyone in the party can enjoy some of the regional specialties. 
4. Picnic in the park. Bring a bottle of wine (drinking publicly is allowed in most places), some delicious food, and a blanket to a park and enjoy a wonderful afternoon. 
5.  Party like crazy during Fasching/Karneval/Fastnacht. No matter what it’s called in your region, the time of the year just before Lent is when Germans love to party like crazy. There are parades, dances, music, and plenty of political jokes (in German, of course). 
6. Relax in the sauna. It’s usually clothing-free but entirely relaxing. 
7. Christmas markets. Oh, there is nothing else like a German Christmas market! Sip some Glühwein, wander among the vendors’ stalls, and soak in the wonderful atmosphere.

Signs of Fastnacht in Mainz!

When I was visiting Mainz in Monday, signs of the upcoming Fastnacht celebrations were present throughout town. Fastnacht, also known as Karneval or Fasching depending on the region, is the giant party before Lent starts. I wrote about it last year, as well.

I saw the first indicator of the upcoming celebrations in the Hauptbahnhof. Look at all those fun colors and decorations! Red, white, blue, and yellow are the official Mainz Fastnacht colors and I saw them all over town.

 

In the Old Town area, I saw a costume shop. One could buy scarves, gloves, and other brightly colored accessories to fit in with all the celebrants. There were also costumes, too. My friend says that the Karneval season is kind of like the Germans' version of Halloween. In many ways, especially with all the candy and costumes, it is.

However, Fastnacht has a dark side.

Da da da...(said ominously):

arrrggh! Zombie-like, super freaky clown figurines were in the store outside the Mainz Cathedral! Don't look into their blank eyes for fear of losing your soul! 

Braaaaaaaaaaaaaains! Heleau! We mean, um, BRAIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNS!!!

Don't throw us candy, throw us your BRAIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNSSSSS!

But hey, they're dressed in Mainz Fastnacht colors, so they're festive, right?

Right?





BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNS.

Monday in Mainz

Since I had Monday off for the American holiday, I wanted to take a trip somewhere. I haven't been feeling that well after being sick on and off since January, so I decided to go somewhere close. I had been considering hopping over to France or to Luxembourg, but I was being a punk and didn't want to deal with the French language. Usually that's a lame excuse, but again, I don't feel great and I wanted to stick with a foreign language I can basically speak/read/navigate so I decided to stay in Germany.

I also didn't feel like driving or paying an exorbitant amount for a train ticket. I checked out Meinfernbus.de and found a last-minute bus ticket to and from Mainz for 17 euros. It was a fast trip so I decided to go. I thought I could find a tasty restaurant and check out a museum or two for a short day trip.

I totally biffed on the museum end of things. Museums are often closed one day a week, and that "ruhetag" (literally, "day of rest") is usually on Monday. Mainz was no exception so I wasn't able to visit any museums. Darn!

I still enjoyed myself. For once, I really didn't plan my day or read much about the town. I wouldn't say that I'm the most prepared person in the world for trips, but still, everything I did on this trip was a bit outside the norm for me in how freeform it was. It all worked out fine in the end.

After the bus dropped me off near the Hauptbahnhof and I enjoyed a hot chocolate to warm up, I went in search of the tourist information center to get a map and find things to do. About a mile from the train station, the tourist center is across from the Rathaus (city hall), which is situated on the Rhein River.

I picked up some maps and wandered over to the Rahaus. I have to admit: I found its design to be stark and a bit ugly. In fact, I hadn't been impressed by much of Mainz at that point. Most of the buildings I had seen were modern and not very handsome.

The Rathaus,

Trying, unsuccessfully, to meld old and new.

As I wandered around, I found the Dom, or the Cathedral, and the Old Town. Ahh...that was so much better with historical architecture.

Ooh, Mary n' Lil' Baby Jesus, on a pedestal! Looking more traditional here.

The Dom, or Cathedral, of Mainz.

I nipped into the Dom for a while. I love visiting old churches and buildings to look at the architecture and art. The Dom had some interesting pieces, such as the skeleton below. It's the first skeleton sculpture I can think of that I've seen with angel wings. Even stranger yet is that it appears to have crashed down upon the rest of the sculpture.

In a side wing off the altar, I saw a sculpture that really illustrated something I learned this summer from the German history and art class that I took: in religious art, there might be some sort of curtain at the top of the piece. This is to symbolize that the church allows one to take a peek into heaven/the afterlife to see what glorious things await. I'll have to check my notes, but I believe that this has ties to the Counter-Reformation.

See the curtain at the top?

Leaving the cathedral, I moved on to have lunch at Mexico Lindo. I'm on a neverending quest to find Mexican food in Germany. Lunch was pleasant enough though not a home run for Mexican food.

I then explored more of the Old Town.

Strangely proportioned Jesus, anyone?

I left the old town and wandered into Schillerplatz. There I saw the following: the "...Mainz Carnival (Fasching) Fountain was erected in 1967.  Created by Blasius Spreng, the nine meter high bronze fountain has more than 200 figures on it," according to Tripadvisor.com  It's interesting but slightly disconcerting too.

I really liked the sculpture below, of Saint Bilhildis. First of all, I like it because she is holding a building. I don't know why, but I like when sculptures etc. do this. The Dom in Cologne has some floor mosaics that depict people doing that too. Usually it indicates that the person has something to do with the church, such as designing or building it. Secondly, I love the horde of mini-mes (Mini Bildis?) at her feet. There's a whole lot of symbolism that I don't know the back story but it's an amusingly awkward statue.

I had to stop admiring Ms. Bilhildis since it was time to return to the bus to go home. It was an enjoyable day in Mainz.

Fastnacht...in July! Not really

I've been meaning write about this for eons, or at least, since February. Here are a few pictures from Sunday, February 10 in Wiesbaden when some friends and I drove up for the Fastnacht parade. I've been behind on writing about it because there is so much to the Karneval/Fasching/Fastnacht (the name varies depending on the region) season. Instead of trying to explain it extensively, I'll just post a little bit. All of these celebrations are part of the pre-Lenten season, which lasts from November 11 (the eleventh month, eleventh day, eleventh hour and minute usually marks the beginning) until the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. 
Our trip to Wiesbaden was my first celebration for this. Since I was still pretty new in the country at that point and was busy with apartment hunting and waiting for my car to arrive, it was the only parade I visited. Next year, I hope to go to more (and will dress up and act a bit silly at one, I hope).

Before the parade started, a guy pushed a pretzel cart along. The pretzels were available for purchase. Following him, people dressed in fake jail suits were pushing a bar made to look like a jail on wheels. Their booze was just for them ;)

 When the parade did get started, people in wild costumes walked by. Many people, bystanders and parade participants alike, were drinking a bit. However, it was actually a rather family friendly parade, for the most part. Drinking in public is more accepted here. In fact, these ladies dressed like wolves and pushing a baby carriage even had a few nips here and there.

I was extremely amused by a marching band. They actually all stopped playing so they could have take a few shots! That's so unlike the US. Everyone was enjoying themselves in a civil manner.

Part of the fun is shouting "helau!" It's kind of a cutesy way to say "hello" for Fastnacht/Fasching. People on the floats and the MC would shout it and everyone would shout it back, sometimes chanting it. I love carrying on and being silly so of course I loved hollering "helau!"

I've heard that in Ramstein, people yell "Ralau!," you know, with an R, for Ramstein, and Kaiserslautern has "Kalau!" I need to go and hear these things for myself next year.

 

Here's some "Helau"-ing but it's a bit hard to hear.

Dressing up in costumes is a big part of these parades and celebrations. Many of the costumes either are part of political satire or folklore. Some witches walked through the parade; their costumes are something about driving winter out, or evil, or whatever.

Either way, we froze our buns off, yelled ourselves almost hoarse with many "Helaus," and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. I'm looking forward to many more parades next year. Heck, the fun starts again in November, so I don't have that long to wait.

Just a bit behind: Fasching February

I'm just a bit behind with posting pictures and stories from this year's Fasching. I've been seriously derelict in that area, especially considering that that Fasching, also known as Karneval and other names, is held during February. It's a celebratory season where normally placid Germans act completely NUTS and wear freaky costumes, paint bystanders' noses red, throw confetti, and use the newscaster's bottom to pop balloons (or at least that's what they did on a news segment).

Fasching season can begin on 11/11 at 11:11 and goes until Fat Wednesday in February. It's a pre-Lenten season of parties, political parodies, witches (I kind of think they combined a lot of traditions here!), parades, and more.

Kaiserslautern, where I live, got into the Fasching fun too. There was a Fasching market at Stiftsplatz, a square in the middle of downtown. Below are some pictures from the market. There was also a parade on Rosenmontag, or Rose Monday, in Kaiserslautern. I was a sad panda because I had to work, but many for many lucky Germans in the area, it was either a half or a full day off.

There is more to say about Fasching, but this is it for now.

Let's accessorize with some Lebkuchenherzen!

Even the pastas are dressed up for Fasching! It's a bit creepy that you can see these dolls' pasta brains, I think.

Car towing, the urban version

In February, some friends and I took a trip to Wiesbaden for the Fasching parade. (Yes, I'm a bit behind on posting about Fasching; there will be more to follow!)

We noticed some police and a tow truck as we were walking to the parade. Some dingbats had parked at a bus stop - that's a total no-no! The cars were American so I'm 99.9% sure that some Americans did it. Not too smart!

The cars were getting towed. However, I had never seen a towing process quite like this before: a tow truck actually lifted the car out of the spot. It was completely nuts, but it makes sense; how else would a tow truck extract an improperly parked car in a crowded city area? I bet that owner of the car was really wishing that he had just paid to park in one of the parking garages after this situation.

As we were waiting for the parade, we couldn't believe the number of tow trucks we saw passing by. We imagined that they were making a KILLING that day.

Here's a video.

I yolk you not, they're supposed to be like that

Colorful dyed boiled eggs at Real, a supermarket.

It's not uncommon to see these dyed eggs at the grocery store as well as the farmers' markets all the time. They're so festive! I was wondering about them so I asked my friends.

They said that the eggs used to be around just for Fasching (Karneval/pre-Ash Wednesday type festivities), but they are available all the time now. The eggs are boiled. However, I consider them slightly less than hard boiled, at least based on the couple that I have seen split open in a display at the farmers' market. The centers aren't all the same consistency.

What kind of freaks me out is that the eggs usually are just sitting out. I've seen some in the refrigerated section, but not always. I'm of the mind to refrigerate everything, just to be safe. I think that many would call that paranoia.

However, I'm not the most paranoid person out there. I was talking to someone from my Culture College class and she said that she bought one of these eggs and started to eat it but freaked out when she saw the the yolk was an orangeish color instead of the pale yellow she was accustomed to. She threw the egg out because she thought something was wrong with it, either that it was spoiled or not cooked properly. I actually knew why they were like this and told her that everything was okay. If the yolks are darker, like an orange color, for example, it just means that it's more likely that the chickens were free range and they had an opportunity to eat eat foods with more pigments.