March 5, 2007

Karnival comes to Würzburg


Recently, Würzburg celebrated Karnival, that week-long debauchery leading up to Lent. I'd been warned that Karnival could be kind crazy in Germany, what with all the political lampooning, cross-dressing, and drunkeness. I had seen on German news where one parade in the Rhein Valley had featured a float depicting German Prime Minister Angela Merkel kissing the derriere of a trouserless President Bush. Later, I saw a sort of "day-in-the-life-of" documentary about an EMT crew responsible for carting off the drunken teenagers at Köln's festival.

Sadly, Würzburg's Karnival was nothing like this. It was a pretty tame two-day affair in which parents and children dressed up in cheap store-bought costumes, caught candy from a passing parade, and enjoyed some traditional Bavarian music and dancing. Well, just see for yourself.

Next year, I think I'll try Köln.

Video:


P.S. I apologize in advance for the poor quality of this video. I am not an experienced cameraman, and my editing tools were pretty pitiful. (Anyone want to send me a copy of Final Cut for my birthday?) However, I did take the advice of the Essentialist and tried to avoid "shooting directly into the sun."

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