Carnaval

Carnaval

Charla and I went out in Eindhoven this past Saturday night to celebrate Carnaval. It was crazy! Everyone dresses up in costumes (almost like Halloween) and fills the streets and bars for 4 straight days of partying. We didn't know much about it, but didn't expect to want to get dressed up; but since we didn't have time and all the stores were closed, we couldn't get a costume put together. We settled for a bright pink feather boa and some colored eye pencils that we drew around our eyes with. Even though it was rather cold outside that night, we didn't seem to need a coat on the street because of all the people packed in it.

This a nice Dutch girl that I had to get my picture taken with. His costume was great, but he wasn't the only one sporting this sort of outfit!

The next morning, we dragged ourselves out of bed and drew on some more eye swirley-thingies (actually, Charla was the artist and did an amazing job I thought) and headed to the train station to go to Maastricht, the town in the Netherlands that is most well-known for their Carnaval festivities.

The doll you see in the next picture is raised in Vrijthof Square at the beginning of Carnaval and when they take it down after four days of madness, people actually cry (so I've been told).

We arrived in Maastricht in time to see the parade that winds through the small cobblestone streets of the town. Every float or group was truly original and not one was the same color. It was amazing! We didn't have a very good view, but the pictures above our heads turned out great. The music was loud....very loud.


Here's another Dutch girl--this time, she's in a marching band.




Here's Charla, a duck, and a guy dressed up as an old lady. He (the old lady) noticed our English and asked if we thought they (meaning the Dutch) were totally crazy. I said of course not, but I don't think he believed me.

We didn't stay too long in Maastricht because we had to work in the morning and my train ride home was about 3 hours long. Charla called me today on her way home from work and said that Carnaval in Eindhoven was still in full-force today...and should be tomorrow, too. How fun....