Carnaval!

Whew. Carnaval weekend was crazy. And mine was wayyy less crazier than some others I've heard about!

Saturday I ventured to the Amusement park with 4 other Castle-dwellers. It was ... interesting. IT was geared mainly to a younger audience, we found out once we'd finally gotten there after 2.5 hours and 20ish euro. There were 3 roller coasters suitable for anyone over the age of 14, so we did those and then wondered what we'd occupy ourselves with until the cab got us 3 hours later. We found a ropes course that wound up actually being challenging, and, for me, very terrifying. I had the chance to back out during the first exercise and I didn't, so I'm proud of that. But it was still terrifying. So we were up probably 50ish feet in the air, hooked up to this cable with different courses suspended between telephone poles in a big circle... in the cold, wind and rain. Christina and I were exhausted after that and walking around a lot, so we decided to stay in Saturday night instead of going out.

Sunday was the big Well parade! The theme of the Castle was Around Europe in 90 Days, so Christina went as Croatia, and I went as Scotland... or, the Scotland flag anyway.

The morning started off sunny and reasonably warm, but as we walked to the destination where all the people and floats were gathered, it started HAILING on us! It came in literally under 3 seconds, and they were huge! I'm talking Dippin' Dot sized hail. That was not a fun experience. I'm pretty sure we were all squealing/yelling/whining.

It was crazy. And that was at the very beginning of our 90 minute wait for the parade to start. So we were freezing... and many of us ditched the parade as it passed the Castle. No shame. I couldn't feel my hands. But the costumes and floats of the Well-ers were so colorful and creative. They go all out for Carnaval. Check out the kids' float below!

Sunday night was aonther night of partying at de Buun, the cultural center of Well. Christina and I dressed up as Peacocks and headed over to the craziest party ever. Carnaval can best be described as a mix of Halloween, Mardi Gras, St. Patrick's Day and 4th of July: crazy costumes, so much drinking, dancing, fireworks and parades. Here's us in our Peacock costumes!

Monday night concludes the main Carnaval festivities, with a Light parade at night, consisting of Sunday's floats all decked out in crazy neon lights! Didn't get any pictures, but it was general festivities and colorful lights and floats on a freezing night. This week is finally starting to get warmer though... yay!