Faschingsdienstag

The locals it Fasching but most would know it as Carnivale!

The most famous Carnival events are take place Vennice and New Orleans, the largest is in Rio de Janeiro and in Deutschland the best (and one of the biggest in Europe) is in Cologne. But I had to work so I was in München and I think that wikipedia put it best when they said,

"In the East and South of Germany and Austria carnival is called Fasching and especially Munich developed a special kind of celebration."

and special it was.

Initially, I was annoyed at having to work on this day and it was hard to walk the city streets and talk about serious stuff like Hitler and the Nazis when people were walking past in fancy dress and throwing confetti at me and my group...

but we all had fun people watching and at the end of the tour I hooked up with my Fasching Posse.

As we were all on a budget and heard about the long waits for expensive beer at the festival we retreated to my humble abode to work our way through a carton of Augustiner Helles from the supermarket.

I did my tour in my Fasching costume, much to the amusement of my group, and it was at my place that we made some improvised costumes. And the very least we were facepainted.

And then, out into the fray!

The main event takes place in the Victualienmarkt but the whole city centre became one massive street party!

As we meandered our way in we would see more and more people dressed up.

This one was the funniest costume Ive ever seen in my life!!!

Although I had a backpack full of beer we called in to buy a few more, predicting that we were going to be in for the long haul.

Marienplatz was packed! There were food stands and bars set up along the sides of the pedestrianized streets and a stage set up in every square.

We started to make our way through the crowd in the general direction of Victualienmarkt, every now and then in a clearing we would stop and set up camp.

I could drop the backpack and distribute a fresh round of beers and we would hang out and people watch and take photos.

I bought a Krapfen, which is like a filled donut and is a traditional sweet at the Carnivale. Flavours like tiramisu, coffee, black forest cake, custard, etc, etc.

Victualienmarkt was so packed the polizei had set up a barricade and were not letting anyone in, so we thought we'd be sneaky and go around the block to the other side...

but it was just as packed so we headed back to Marienplatz to hook up with more people.

About this time the beer had worked through me enough that if I didnt find the gents I would explode all over the street.

I was so desperate that I went into Burger King to use their toilets. Alot of people had the same idea and they had a guard inside managing people in and out of the lou's.

All I can say is I'm glad I'm a guy because the line moved quickly.

We enlarged our posse and as it was starting to get dark and cold we headed into the Hofbräuhaus...

where the warm hall, jovial melodies of the Oompah band, friendly, drunken people, and at last a seat wecomed us.

Matt and I went on an adventure through the HBH to the upper rooms where other parties were going on in rooms that as far back as 1920 were used by Hitler for public speaches.

Then came the stagger home, followed by more beers, then sleep....zzzzzz