4.27&4.28- Counts Carnival Weekend

Carnivale may have already passed, but this weekend Team Counts-Düsseldorf got a taste of it by visiting 2 carnivals. Friday night was a bit “crazy” for us. First, Zach took a seriously long afternoon nap (he currently is taking 2 naps a day – one morning and one afternoon), from about 3:15 to 6:15pm. We normally would not let him sleep so long in the evening, but we knew it would be a longer-than-usual night. We ate dinner at 6:30 and were on the tram headed to the Alt Stadt (old town) by 7:30pm. The place was PACKED. The weather has been gorgeous, and everyone came downtown to eat dinner or get drinks out on the terraces. Insides of restaurants were deserted while all the outside seating was packed. We walked around a bit, and then headed down to the Rhine. There was a carnival in town (the circus is in town as well, but that is for a later date), right on the boardwalk of the Rhine. It was crazy! Bumper cars that can go in any direction, beer tents, currywurst stands, etc. Many of the games were the same as in the US, like throwing rings over items for prizes, shooting balloons, etc., all for junky prizes. I even took a turn at a skee-ball like game, and won a plastic guitar for Zachary. They had lots of rides too, like “Crazy Bus”, carousels, ferris wheel, and one ride that played American 80s music – but not really the 80s music you are thinking of. More like “Never Ending Story”. We spent some time watching the health hazards at that ride that would never fly in the US (like getting to walk on the platform while the cars are all spinning wildly around), and the noise/lights/activity got to be too much for Zach and he started crying. Being held for a bit by Mom and Dad helped. You won’t believe it, but I was able to pass up the crepe stand. I should not have had so much dinner, because a crepe mit (with) nutella is a slice of heaven. So we left the carnival, and started walking back towards the Alt Stadt. We were walking slowly, b/c they carnival has fireworks on Friday night and we didn’t want to miss them. We stopped at an area of steps that look out on the Rhine (like the Spanish Steps in Rome) to watch a street performer – not a break dance troupe like in Amsterdam, but a fire juggler. Very cool. He was a pretty young guy and he was quite impressive. It was getting late for Zach (9:30), and he was showing signs of being tired, so we found a secluded bench so I could nurse him and put him to “bed” in his stroller. Poor little guy. Our stroller is just not cool like all the European strollers and not meant to mimic a bed. He kept squirming around trying to get comfortable. At one point he was asleep w/ his feet propped up on the bar of the stroller. Art and I found a corner table (with plenty of room for Z’s stroller) at a restaurant and sat down to have a relaxed drink...Art with an Alt Bier and me w/ my coke. We sat there for about 20 minutes and then were treated to a wonderful display of fireworks from the carnival. They were very enjoyable! Some exploded in the shape of a heart, which I always think is cool. After the fireworks, it was now past MY bedtime, so it was time to go. Art, of course, just HAD to stop for fries at the Holland place. Note to self, fries after 11pm make me feel sick. Took the tram back home and were in bed by midnight (VERY VERY past my bedtime). All that was just Friday! Saturday was busy again. I went to an optik store and got an eye exam and bought glasses (I lost mine in a rental car)…embarrassed myself by picking out a pair of reading glasses – I just thought they were cool looking, nice and small. Sigh. So I opted for a “less cool” looking pair. I wanted some sassy plastic ones but they were out of my price range. Art took Zach with him while I did all the glasses stuff, so I had the morning to myself. It is wonderful to be out now with my books on the mp3 player. Then after Zach woke up from his morning nap, it was time for our second carnival for the weekend. Our church was hosting a “Taste of the Nations” carnival for pre-schoolers. I had agreed to volunteer at the carnival. Art got to eat sushi and I had French and American food. We ran out of tickets otherwise we would have tasted from other nations. Art had to save one of his tickets for the soccer shoot-out, since a friend was manning the goal. Zach got to jump on the bounce house, but only the outside of it. He also had fun kicking down the pins for the bowling game. I volunteered 30 minutes of my time and was assigned to the fishing game. Lots of little kids came by to catch foam fish w/ plastic reels to get 2 pieces of candy. After that, Zach spent a good 10 minutes walking up the stairs and down the ramp over and over and over again. He passed out in the stroller on the way home. Sunday was no carnival, but we did get a borrowed walker from some friends at church, so that was VERY exciting for Zach – probably better than both carnivals combined. We are hoping he sleeps until 8am from the exhaustion! Good thing Tuesday is a holiday so we can rest up – though Art wants to go back to Bonn to see a contemporary German history museum (snore!), so we’ll see.

Oh, the polka dot car has nothing to do with the carnivals we went to, I just thought it was a neat car, and sort of fit this post. I was going to just send it to a few people that like polka dots (Saskia), but decided to share w/ everyone. It is parked in our neighborhood, though I have never seen the driver.