Saturday, February 21, 2009

Scenes from Carnivale Friday

Carnivale Friday 09 The pre-Lent celebration Carnivale seriously kicked off last night: the streets were filling with people dressed as pirates and princesses by early afternoon, streaming across the Stone Bridge in their green, yellow, and red finery.  The bands were playing at sunset, brass marching bands and pop-happy records seemed to dominate.  We all ventured over about 9 to do a circuit of the Old Town center.

Carnivale Friday 23

Carnivale Friday 40 Carnivale Friday 17

The dominant themes are crowds, music, and beer.  Lots of dancing outside the bars, highlighted in blaring lights from inside. The occasional cross-dressed bands were roving the streets with horns and drums, most likely bankers and lawyers at any other time.  Oliebollen stands returned, along with hamburger, sausage, and frites (French fries in a paper cone slathered with mayonnaise).

Carnivale Friday 22 Carnivale Friday 35

Beer was sold from small vans and windows next to the bars, about a euro for a small glass with a big head.  Remarkably, it is all served in glasses rather than plastic cups, so there are empties everywhere, inches deep along window ledges and drifted into corners.

Carnivale Friday 39 Carnivale Friday 34

‘and this is just the warm-up…the party shifts into serious gear tonight and the official ceremonies are Sunday morning.  It’s a bit like having New Orleans at my doorstep for a few days.

Labels:

3 Comments:

Blogger Nan said...

Oliebollen! I hope you had a couple since they won't be back until November. And beer in glasses? Amazing.

February 21, 2009 at 10:02 AM  
Blogger Dave Hampton said...

I reason that oliebollen soak up an amazing amount of beer, so I down one with powdered sugar before approaching the bar windows. It was delightful (I only had one small beer, though)

February 21, 2009 at 10:22 AM  
Blogger Patti said...

Oh, pommes frites...yum...There is a festival much like this in my town at the end of July. Minus the costumes and plus public urination. I guess I'd rather have Carnival!

February 21, 2009 at 6:49 PM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home