Fasching! Hi-yooooooooo!

Warning! Picture Heavy!

I'm a little late with this, but Indy has been sick so I've been otherwise occupied. He's much better now though so I'm back to blogging. On Tuesday, we went to downtown Heidelberg for the Fasching parade. It was cold and a little drizzle-y but we didn't mind. We were off to have fun. M even skipped work. Shhhhhh. We hopped on a stassenbahn (street car) and headed down to the Bizmarkplatz. The parade wouldn't start for about an hour, so we walked over to this charming little place and bought some cotton candy for Indy. He doesn't get a lot of sweets and it was a holiday so I figured it was no big deal.



Of course I didn't realize it would be bigger than his head. He was of course dressed up in his Indiana Jones costume. Are you surprised? Me neither.


M got a HUGE cheese pretzel and I got a salted pretzel. I'm not about to let a picture of that be taken though.


Indy with cotton candy all over his face and sugar coursing through his veins.


Me, putting my gloves on. I was cold! I'm not sure what was up with my hair, but it was rather windy.


While we waited for the parade to start (read: guarding our place against the barricade) we looked around at all the costumes. Germans don't really celebrate Halloween (except a few living around American bases) but they dress up for Fasching like it's Halloween. Strange.

I have no idea what this is:


Groovy!

The crowd down the hauptstrasse:


Aren't these kids cute?


Kangaroo Jack?

Ummmmm.........


I don't know what these women were drinking from those cups, but they were having a grand time.


Oh, the Parade starts! Look, it's Perkeo! He was a dwarf and court jester at the castle in the early 1700's. He liked to drink wine. A lot. Oh, and at the HD parade, they yell Hi-yo! If you want throws that's what you have to say. Except they draw out the yo part so it's more like Hi-Yooooooooooooooooooo!


See this guy? He's a Polezei (policeman) and he was standing right next to us. He was a target for all the drunk paraders. They kept giving him stuff and he would turn around and hand it to Indy. Awesome.


Here he is being accosted by some drunk revelers.


Confetti is very big at Fasching. Here's M being liberally doused in it by a Black Forest creature.




There were lots of flags and bands. They're very into flag waving over here.


Here's our Polezei fending them off again.


The pass out shots along the parade route!


I don't know what this is, but he's very red. And yellow. And drunk.


Scary!


Look, more shots!


There were about 6 SMART cars in the parade. I just love them! These people are advocating saving the polar bears habitat. I can get behind that. Look how tiny that car is though! A polar bear would crush it!



Uh-oh, here we go again! I think this "lady" needs to shave. Look at Mr. Polezei, being so serious. Lighten up! It's Fasching.


If alcohol isn't to your liking, maybe you'd prefer some stew? Isn't that an odd thing to hand out?



Big furry things!


Still fighting off the ladies.


Hi-yoooooooooo!


The parade lasted a little over an hour and a half. It was so much fun. The transport systems, which were shut down during the parade) wouldn't be running again for another half hour, and would be PACKED, so we decided to walk home. It's about 3 miles and it was very, very cold. About half way home we stopped off at a small confectionery shop and had some pastries and hot drinks. This is what Indy picked:


I forgot to take a pic of mine before digging in. It was delicious though. Chocolate cake, cherries, cream and a layer of dark chocolate cake. Yum! M's was gone before I could get a pic of his. He had apple torte. Also delicious (I snagged a bite before he ate it all).


Hey, look, there's me in the mirror! I was taking a pic of Indy, but he moved and was blurry. My reflection in the mirror turned out nicely though.


And that concluded Fasching. I actually took a ton of pics on the walk home (of some reall unusual stuff), but I'll save those for another day. I hope you enjoyed your peek into the German Mardi Gras!