CARNIVAL SEASON!!!

Carnival Season is here! This week we will see tons of costumes and parades in every city. It's bigger than the 4th of July in America. Everybody dresses up in funny costumes. This was a parade that we went to in Wolbeck. Anine and tobias, friends from our branch brought us to their house for the parade. the parade was marching right down the street in front of their house, so we opened the windows and cheered from the inside. Sarah and I went upstairs and they threw candy etc up to us.

All the kids waited at the window of their house and people threw candy to them.

This is Anine and Tobias' youngest daughter, Sophia.

I tried to get the best picture I could of the crowd that attended this small town's parade. It was packed everywhere.

Many and many crazy, drunk dancing in colorful or political costumes. They throw out shots to the adults and candy to the kids. There was an Obama float, but I didn't get a picture of it.

Inside each float was at least 12 cases of beer. They go nuts over this traditional holiday. This boat had the most beer inside, I think.

I had to take a video of the crazy chic conga line:

The girls, at carnival, cut the guys ties and give them kisses. I assume these girls were doing a lot of that. The LDS missionaries are allowed to take their ties off for carnival week.

Koln Chocolate Factory/Museum

The chocolate museum in Koln was the next stop after the Dome. We started by all going up in a "Willy Wonka elevator". Looks like it, doesn't it? The first floor was all about the history of chocolate. Sarah and I are by the staue trying to be silly like her.

The second floor was all about how they make the chocolate. The assembly line and workers. We went from where they put the cocoa beans through a grinder, then through a series of adding things process. They mixed it up in an ginormous automatic mixer, which was fun to watch. This is where the chocolate was put into the trays.

After that, then the little chocolate bars go through the chilling chambers and come out to this point. Those 2 black rods twist each tray like you would an ice cube tray.

Then it's dumped into out of the trays down to get wrapped. Check out the video. It shows how it wraps the candy:

This is the machine that they put chocolate in when molding the chocolate into things:

Then it goes down a shoot to the ladies that put them in bags and sell them to us. And POOF chocolate! Mmm. So good.

They had a fantastic chocolate fountain. It was a tree made of cocoa pods and it drizzed chocolate out of 6 little tubes and also a big drain. We got free samples dipped in this fountain. The chocolate in Germany is the best. They don't add wax like they do in the states. Mmm.

They had blocks that you could pull up to see how much chocolate different countries eat compared to each other. Check out how much the states have vs. Germany. (and they say we are fat because of chocolate...pft)

After the chocolate museum, we walked around Koln and down the Rhine River for a bit. Check out their curbs:

This is my favorite picture of the trip. This picture says so much. Tristan and McCord have been best friends for years. They have both meant so much to each other and helped each other out in many indescribable ways. This picture of them walking tells it all. It was a candid shot and they can just talk forever together. Priceless!

Carnival season is here! Everybody dresses up in funny costumes even a week before the celebration day. "to get ready for carnival" is what they say. They also drink a lot to get their bodies ready for the huge carnival where there is more beer than ever. These are pictures of some fun costumes (above and below)

After walking around Koln after we visited the Dome and saw all the fun people all over, we went into a "cafe" for some REAL GERMAN CAKE! Here are some pictures of this "cafe". It looked like the inside of the Ritz hotel, and the cake in germany is heavenly, just amazingly delicious!

This "cafe" was simple gorgeous. It's how I imagine a plaza hotel to look like with crystal everywhere, white and felt chairs, mirrors all around reflecting the enchanting lights, gold lining everything. There was also a live piano and violin playing to set the mood even more. I managed to swipe some pictures casually, with no one noticing.

After the cafe, we started on the train ride home. Here's a picture of us on the train home:

This is random, but I thought I'd take a picture of the public trash cans in the train station. They all have the separate bins for the rubish (as the British would say)

Koln, Germany

For Valentines Day this year, we went to Koln, Germany. In English, it is said "Cologne". It is 2 hours south of Munster. We took a train ride to get there and it was beautiful.
This is the famous Rhine River:

Koln is like a fairy tale. All the streets look like this. The Romans settled the town and it is most known for the annual "carnival".

People were dressed up all over the place for the carnival. I snuck a picture of some of them. There was also an artist drawing on the sidewalk outside. It was so amazing, I had to take a picture:

This is a view of the whole city of Koln. It's enchanting. More so than Munster. The picture of all 4 of us girls jumping is outside of the Koln "dome". The soccer fans were cheering at us because they are so hard core about the games here. It was so fun.

This is the Koln Dome. The architecture of this place is amazing. I also took a picture of the archway which had figures hand crafted. Most of this catholic cathedral is original. Some windows, etc have been restored since WWII, but most is original. It took 600 years to complete.

This is my favorite stain glass window. It is made of the brightest colors all in little squares. And I got a picture of the gorgeous reflection of the colors on the walls and pillars. That was my favorite part of the dome.

McCord and I thought is was funny that this statue is holding a "holy hand granade" from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. And also shown is one of the many stain glass windows with people:

After 500 steps to the very tippy top of the dome, you could look over Koln:

This is the gold box where they believe that this contains the holy scriptures of the 3 apostles:

The floor of the dome looks like carpet in the picture, but it had little stones about 2 cm long and it created a beautiful pattern. It must have taken the creaters forever to do the floor.

A picture of us and most of the inside of the dome:

Random: Brautwurst anyone? That's a lot of sausages!