Becoming Belgian: My First Carnival!

My Louisiana-native self was quite depressed about missing Mardi Gras so Dustin treated me to a weekend of Carnival Celebration in Cologne, Germany!

We left Friday evening after he was off work and drove a quick two and half hours to Cologne. (I am still in love with how close everything is here!) Since we didn't check into our hotel until pretty late that night, we drove out to the city to grab a bite to eat and a cocktail to kick off our weekend! Since most of the places we wanted to try were already closed we decided to walk around until we found something. That is when we ran into a "South African Street Food" restaurant. We both laughed at the sign but once we got to the front of the restaurant we had to step in.

Our German African Dinner at Shaka Zulu

It was full of fun colors and eclectic art as well as a whole page of cocktails (I felt like I was back in New Orleans!) Since we didn't know what half of the food was (African food in German, yeah we were lost!) we decided to do the sampler menu. Dustin had an African beer and I had a pomegranate caprinha, which was quite yummy. But the drinks weren't even comparable to the food. First we had warm bread with a garlic spread, potato soup with chili pepper, chicken curry pastry, roasted sweet potatoes and mushrooms, some traditional veggie dish, sauteed spinach with peanuts, stewed beef and rice and corn grits. It was so delicious! We walked around a little more after dinner just to people watch and check out all the costumes but called it an early night so we would be refreshed for the next day.

Mardi Gras Lights at the Hotel
(I know they look blue in the pic, but promise they were purple)

The next day we grabbed Starbucks before heading to Neumarkt. They had a huge party in the square, with a live band and plenty of beer. We only stayed for a little while because it was too crowded to even get beer. We did a little window shopping and bought a mask for me and a hat for Dustin so we would feel more festive without costumes. Since things were quieting down around Neumarkt, we followed to crowds to the city center for more beer and dancing in the streets!

Dustin in front of the party in Neumarkt

Cheers!

Dustin in his hat in front of the Cathedral

It's the Morgan in You

Carnival Beer

We eventually made our way to a local bar for beer and wine and people watching (of course!) By this point I knew Dustin was on the verge of being hangry (hungry angry) so we stopped at a German restaurant for some wiener schnitzel and fries. I know how to make my hungry German boy happy! Then it was off for some more exploring and bar hopping. We had a blast... eh maybe a little too much fun! Everyone was so happy, all drinking and singing old German drinking songs, Trinklieders! I also loved all of the costumes. It was like Halloween and Mardi Gras all mixed together!

Lady Power! haha

At the Jazz Bar... my favorite stop of the night!

We were a little slow getting up this morning but we eventually made it to breakfast and were off for some exploring. Ironically we ended up at a parade route right when the parade was starting. The parade consisted of 38 groups, all schoolchildren representing their school. The costumes were all handmade and they threw loads of candy. Supposedly it is a really big deal for the schools, which you could tell by the amount of time and effort they put into the costumes.