It has been been Fasching week over the last few days and a good friend from home came to visit in order to celebrate with me. Fasching is also known here as Fastnacht or Fasnet depending on which dialect you favour, although it is also known as Karneval to our more northern counterparts. One theory is that the name Karneval comes from 'carne vale' - farewell to meat - as it is celebrated right before Lent; as to where Fasching comes from, I have no idea!
The cold and snow having eased up specially on Wednesday, my friend and I ventured into the Altstadt in the hopes of catching glimpses of some wandering Narren. We ended up arriving too late for the main Butzenlauf (some form of procession), although did end up getting ambushed by a group of French revolutionaries (think Les Mis) wielding burning torches and dragging a coffin through the streets...We decided to have a drink to calm our nerves, having almost had our eyebrows burnt off, but this was not to be a relaxing and calming evening! Having arrived at a Wein Stüble in the depths of the Niederburg Altstadt, we entered some form of Fasching party. More restrained than a pub with crazy drunken dancing would have been in the UK, we settled in a corner, only to be serenaded with songs - both the traditional Fasching songs and ones about drinking a lot of Bodensee wine. At our departure our enthusiastic and slightly worse for wear serenaded took the time to inform us was most displeased with our lack of costume and would need to dress more appropriately for the following day.
Unfortunately though we did not heed this advice and I was again woefully under dressed in dealing with the Narren during the celebrations of Schmotzigen Dunschtig (roughly translating as Fat Thursday) - the first real day of carnival celebrations. Despite our lack of suitable attire, we ventured into town on a bus filled with big cats, clowns and other creatures, before coming across a small procession leading a large tree through the streets.
Intrigued, we followed this group and ended up witnessing the Narrenbaumsetzen. This is where a group of Narren put up a large tree (much like a maypole) without any mechanical power; thus, through the use of large sticks tied together like children's chopsticks being thrust upwards by the more butch Narrs within the team. The tree is said to show the dominance of the Narren (fools) at this time of year.
Forging onwards into town, we came across a pirate ship in the middle of one of the main shopping streets - children on the top deck, alcohol down below! Of course, many of the other revellers were fully clad for the event, including having decorated modes of transport, my favourite being Daddy Viking pulling along smaller Viking children in a mock longboat..
Our heads confused by these unusual occurences in our morning, we returned back to mine and unfortunately managed to miss all the big evenings celebrations and jollity. I'm kicking myself for not going now (although I only got a Baden Mütze - like a woolly bobble hat - to wear today), but did very much enjoy our girlie evening of chocolate feast and Lloyd Webber double bill: Phantom of the Opera followed by Love Never Dies.
Friday was spent exploring the streets of Kreuzlingen (the Swiss town over the border) and trying to work out how Swiss people can afford their own products...no wonder Kaufland is filled with Swiss people on a Saturday afternoon seeking out (relatively) cheaper groceries.
One can only wonder what the rest of Fasching will bring - this morning saw an open air concert on the main street, which also included some can-can dancing attempts - and I'm only a little jealous of my friend's invitation to spend Rosenmontag at the Karneval celebrations in Köln (Cologne). Carneval time (said to be the 5th season within Germany) is clearly the perfect way to signal the end of exams and mark the finishing of my first semester here in Konstanz.
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