Köln und Fasching!

KÖLN: The parties there were huge. They don't dress us as well as Americans do at Halloween, but it's spread over about a week, full of parades and everything from small villages to the heart of Köln. The parade on rose Monday (i don't know.. its a catholic holiday) was huge. If you were to watch the entire thing standing in one spot, it would have taken about 4 hours. It was really fun to experience, and everyone was having a fun time even though it was lightly snowing. The beer and Döner definitely helped keep everyone warm. The traditional Fasching music is a bit strange. Corny but the songs get stuck in your head even when you're not trying. There was some homeless guy who was standing next to us when we were watching the parade. At first he was really close to Stuart and yelling incomprehensible things, and I thought that was hilarious. Then he moved over to me and I was almost stuck between him and a parked trailer. That was scary. He was so wierd! But yeah - if it wasn't for the snow and the cold, I think it would be a perfect holiday tradition thing.... I'm going to try Mardi Gras next year I think - see how that one goes.



So - That's about it. I think those are all the details that I can think up now, but I'll be heading to Naples, Italy (and places like Mt. Vesuvius and Pompeii and Herculaneum) from March 5th through March 11th. I'll have some more stories and such by then. Again I will be uploading my pictures onto my picture website at:http://community.webshots.com/user/markrcpde