Crazy Beautiful: Karneval & Paris

BONJOUR & ALAAF!

These seem to be the words of the last week. Sorry I haven’t had time to write, there was NO theology class this week! So just when exactly was I supposed to blog? Well, anyways, got another midterm coming up that I thought I’d procrastinate on by blogging. Hope you have a reaaallyyy big cup of hot cocoa, this is gonna be a novel. 

 Last week on Thursday was the beginning of KARNEVAL! Karneval, as I’ve already mentioned, is one of the biggest holidays in Germany. It’s kind of like their last hoorah before lent and they really go all out. I started the day by waking up at 6 a.m. to get myself ready. I was a butterfly and had to do a lotttt of hair and make-up for the full effect. After a few hours of curls, eye-shadow, rhinestones, tattoos and glitter, I was ready for the day. We had “German class” at 8:45 in the morning, but it was really only to learn a few things about Karneval before we had champagne and mimosas at our school (with our teachers). I, of course, had also brought a bottle of wine because who says you can’t have wine for breakfast? Afterwards, we went to a parade close to Bonn that was said to be small but decent. I thought it was cool even though Viktoria, the head of our program, said it was kind of a sad parade. People walk through the streets in costumes throwing out candy which is called “carmelle” and flowers which are called “strusyas” (not sure on the spelling). As a girl, if you get a strusya, you are supposed to give the guy who gives it to you a “butzchen” which is a small kiss. You need to have bright colored lipstick on so that when you kiss him, it leaves a mark. Not only did I give the 80-year-old guy who gave me a flower a kiss, I apparently decided it was necessary to give a kiss to every guy who didn’t already have a mark on his cheek. Fantastic. Maybe it was because we decided to take shots of Jager on the street for 1 euro. Hey, it was a good deal. 

 

After the parade, I wanted to go to Cologne because that’s where all the Karneval festivities take place, but the group had other ideas. Everyone wanted to stay in Bonn going to places we’ve been to a million times. I was not happy about this, and (this I was told later…) stood up on a bench and starting yelling at the top of my lungs that I hate Germany and the city sucks. After being a belligerent drunk for a few hours and drinking a flask of vodka, I finally made it to a club where I had a really good time dancing by myself, apparently. Someone said, “Liz, it was like night and day. One minute you’re screaming profanities at the top of your lungs, and the next you’re in your own little world, dancing in a club, having a great time.” Well at least I ended up having fun! I even went to my favorite club after that, N8schicht, and danced until the late hours of the night. Miraculously I got myself a cab, made it to the bus stop, and caught my night bus at 2:30 a.m. I got home at 3, which according to my calculations, means I partied for 17 straight hours. My train for Paris was leaving at 5:40 a.m., and I hadn’t even packed yet. I packed and showered, washing all the glitter, lipstick and smoke smell off of me (everyone smokes in the clubs), and made it to the train station in time for my train. I was really proud of myself, considering my friends were betting that I would be passed out by 1 PM. I obviously proved them wrong.

After a crazy day at Karneval, I was ready to have a relaxing day in Paris. I made it to the city at about 1 p.m. I felt like I was in the movie Beauty and the Beast, hearing “Bonjour!” “ Bonjour!” all around me. With a little help from some Frenchies, I navigated the transportation system and found the metro that would take me to my hotel. I was on my own, since the friends that I was staying with were not getting in until Friday night. Once on the metro (which was much dirtier and grungier than anything I’ve seen in Germany), I heard this old guy with long hair start singing very loudly in a language that sounded like Arabic. I looked over, and not to be “judgmental” or whatever, but he looked like a terrorist. This freaked me out, so I decided to hop of the metro and walk to my hotel. Even though my feet were extremely sore from Karneval, Paris is a beautiful city and there are worse things than walking around in it on a beautiful day. I made it to my hotel after a few hours, checked in, and took a much-needed nap. After waking up and working out, I was refreshed and ready to see more of the city. My friends arrived shortly thereafter, and they both knew a few girls who are studying in Paris and were willing to show us around the city. We went out to a restaurant and then a bar/club where we had a few drinks (courtesy of some cute French guy), and then headed back to SLEEP! (Even though it was only for a few hours). 

 We all knew Saturday was going to be a long day since it was our only full day in Paris and there is so much to see. We had a buffet breakfast at our hotel for only 16 euro each, which I am always a fan of because I can fit a TON of food into this little body, believe it or not. We mapped out our plan for the day, and decided our first stop would be Notre Dame, followed by Sainte Chapelle. I never thought taking art history would pay off, but it was amazing to actually see the places I’d learned about way back during freshman year. Notre Dame is a very famous cathedral, known for its gothic style and gargoyles. It didn’t seem as daunting as I’d expected, and the inside was absolutely beautiful. The line to climb the church was way too long, so we moved on to the next stop. Sainte Chapelle is a chapel in Paris that has some of the oldest stained glass in the world. It’s obviously a very prized possession of the city, as it took us 45 minutes to get inside since we all had to go through security. It was definitely worth it though, the interior was covered in glass and absolutely stunning. 

 After that, we decided to head to the Eiffel tower and try to meet up with some friends in our group. I was rather annoyed with the group thing after Thursday’s experience, but I went along anyways. We met up with the others only to get lunch, which of course consisted of sandwiches and pastries! I was told you never have a bad meal in Paris, and the rumor is true. I had a ham and cheese baguette sandwich and a chocolate éclair, one item in each hand. I felt very Parisian. 

 After lunch, the rest of the group broke off to go to Notre Dame but since we’d already seen that, we headed off to the Louvre. This is probably the most famous museum in Paris, popular for housing the Mona Lisa. We knew we were kind of running out of time, so we only took pictures outside of the museum and in front of the famous pyramid that sits in front of it. The most fascinating thing about the museum is its SIZE. It could be its own little city. It looked like the building stretched on for a at least a half a mile, and that’s no exaggeration. Next, we took a bus over to the Arc De Triomphe and had the ambitious goal of climbing it to the top. If you spent an entire day walking around Paris, you would probably think climbing ONE flight of stairs was ambitious, let alone climbing a huge monument. We made it to the top with less effort than we thought it would take, and the view was incredible. You could see all of Paris. With the climb done, we had officially seen the most famous Paris tourist attractions and we were all completely spent. We went back to the hotel, soaked our feet in hot water (but really), and watched most of “Life as We Know It” before heading out for a night on the town.

 I’m not sure whether or not I should even write about the night on the town. Not to be a Debbie or anything, but it was probably the worst night I’ve had since I’ve been abroad. Basically, it consisted of following the whole group that didn’t know where they were going, walking around in circles in Paris for three hours, looking for a club that we found out didn’t even exist. Walking around some more, following some locals to a ridiculously expensive club, paying 20 euro to get inside, another 10 to check my shit, being treated rudely by the employees of the club, and sitting there, completely sober, with every drink costing 10 euro. I was beside myself with frustration and I could tell, at 2 a.m., that there was hardly any night left to salvage and that I wasn’t going to have a good time. Instead of wasting more money trying to get drunk, a friend and I cut our losses and took a cab back to our hotel. Not a very fun night, but I guess every night can’t be the best you’ve ever had. The only good thing that came out of it was a silent vow to myself to never follow the entire group again, and to do my own thing for the rest of my time here.

On Sunday, we decided to go to Versailles to see the famous chateau. I’d learned about it in AP Euro (I guess school was good for something), and I was excited to actually get to visit it. We took a train there since it’s about 30 minutes outside of Paris, wandered over to the chateau, and were appalled by the snaking line of hundreds of tourists. Completely exhausted, we decided not to stand in the line but just to take a few pictures of the outside and meander around the city for a bit. The city of Versailles is very quaint and cute, the opposite of everything that Paris is. We stumbled upon a little chocolatier and tried some traditional French macaroons. Not my favorite, but good to experience. It was a little frustrating trying to find our way back to the train station, as not many people in France speak English. I literally had to do the motion of a train to get someone to help me find the train station. Finally got back on the train and made it to our hotel, with a few hours to spare before our train back to Bonn. We enjoyed lunch at a typical French café, and afterwards happily boarded our train home.

I arrived in Bonn at around 11 p.m., and if you were thinking, “Thank goodness, she finally has a night to actually SLEEP,” … think again. I had to be up early again for Monday’s Karneval festivities and I still needed to wash my costume (you don’t want to know what my white jacket looked like). So I stayed up for a few hours, and woke up early to do the whole make-up and costume extravaganza yet again. It went by a little quicker since I’d already done it once before. I almost missed my bus since the schedule was different for Karneval, but I ran out and thankfully caught it at the last moment. I was so excited to finally be heading to Cologne! We were planning on seeing the parade and staying to party all day. 

 I went a bit earlier than everyone else because I was a little tired of the whole group thing, but after I walked around Cologne by myself for an hour, I was happy to meet up with other people. Some things are alright to do alone, but Karneval is not one of them. We watched the parade, I got a strusya which apparently I was very happy about, gave lots of butzchens and had a good time taking creeper pictures of everyone. After the parade we went to Cologne South, which is where all the young people go to party. I must admit, this is where the day becomes a little bit of a blur. I just know that we went to a club where I did a LOT of dancing (definitely not on any poles…), did some drinking, and finally went home at around 1 a.m. I think it’s safe to say that I enjoyed Karneval enough for one year. Maybe I’ll do an honorary celebration back at home next year, who knows.

Tuesday we didn’t have class, thank GOODNESS, so I slept until noon and felt refreshed after the looonnggg weekend. I’m still a little tired, actually, but luckily this weekend I’ll be taking it pretty easy. We have an excursion to Mainz for our theology class, and I’ll be in Bonn besides that. Plenty of time to catch up on some much needed rest.

Until next time! … Tschuss