rose monday parade in cologne.

i didn't attend the carnival parade in wiesbaden this year, as i still traveled with l. through parts of germany, but on the next day after our arrival ( and after the reunion with my parents in the evening of our return ), my parents and me had decided to visit cologne's rose monday parade.

i've never been there before ( my parents either ) and i think we won't visit again, even though it was still something to see. the parade itself was purely composed of the presentation of the carnival clubs, but mostly without any outstanding masquerade. there were huge wagons with carnival presidents on them, marching & dancing funkenmariechen & the carnival corps riding on horses. inbetween there was the occasional mockery carriage, which is what i love about such parades, because the motives are always about picking apart political issues in a humorous way. what i also liked about the parade were the people who were not part of the 'zoch' ( parade ) - the people who cheered and watched the procession. they wore every kind of costume you can imagine and and the creativity was really great at times.

unfortunately i am too shy to ask unknown people for a photo, that's why i secretly photographed the v.i.p. people from the hotel right across the street whose masquerades were more professional than the ones of the people on the streets. maybe - in another life - i will try to overcome my fear of talking to strangers - because let's be honest, the creativity of the 'ordinary' people can be so much better sometimes.

i said earlier, that it won't be likely that i'm going to visit this parade again, because first: a LOT of people! second: thievish foreigners that snatched the sweets & flowers thrown from the wagons right out of your hands. third: it was all very commercial and it kind of lacked the personality that other carnival parades sustain. ( even the parade in mainz breathes more creativity ) goal for the future: visit the parades of the german south - they seem to be more traditional.

cologne cathedral in scaffolds.

we were standing near the cologne cathedral and the main train station and thus we had to wait for quite an amount of time until the procession finally reached us.

meanwhile i was happily photographing people in the windows of the hotel across the street.

and my parents. well, excuse the horrible masquerade, i am not good in doing make-up, haha. it was really cold as well, so that meant you couldn't wear a proper costume without freezing your ass off ( unless you are really brave ). i also think my father is a scary clown. i love both of them anyways ;)

funkenmariechen.

carnival committee members.

prince charming? he stared directly at me and then smiled a bit.

the vitreous jeck.

extraterrestrial figures. the parade's theme was the future.

juggling work/family/anything.

i loved this wagon. fratzbook, youpups, myscheiß, zwitter - i guess you already noticed that these names are all german slurs of certain platforms ;)

darth vader representing the death star washington d.c.

glittery!

angela merkel as buzz lightyear.

beautiful chinese woman in traditional clothing! ( yes i even looked up the ethnicity :) - and it's a wedding dress to be exact! ) i didn't catch the chocolate though ;)

golden emblems.

and then it was over - it was already getting dark. the parade took ages - approximately 8 hours. our feet hurt and we were really frozen by the end. i made some last pictures of the cathedral.

and a view over the rhine. good-bye cologne, until next time ( but propably not in carnival season :) )!

may '20: seeking modernism.

super pink rhododendron buds emerging! i start off this post with some flower images to appreciate and praise the time of spring, especially the month of may, which is the most abundant spring month to me personally. all the blossoms, all the fresh greens amass during may, and my heart and mind are hardly ever able to not frolick & gush about it all! for this post i am returning to one walk i did with the sole purpose to find a special mid-century villa in königstein ( which would ultimately prove to be a failure - i did find it, but i couldn't approach it properly to have a good look at it and only ever saw a tiny bit of the garden/forest side ). the whole walk was not a letdown, though, as i did find some other mid-century & brutalism gems and thoroughly enjoyed walking through the old spa town in the taunus mountains. rhododendron shrubs yield all kinds of different blossoms in myriad colours, they are easy to breed, therefore a wide variety can be found all over the wor...

july '20: lake petersdorf discoveries and a plea against genocide.

the green wild meadows of malchow's sandfeld. in the west of malchow there is a big chunk of forest that spans towards plauer see, a widely 'uncultivated' area these days, but it hasn't always been this way. in my last post i mentioned the nazi munition factory that had been built in these woods, away from prying eyes of their enemies and where they also built an external subcamp for the concentration camp ravensbrück. exactly these woods we explored on a pretty sunny day, betraying the darkness that happened around these parts. isn't it weird that there are places in this world that were built or used by dark forces and horrible regimes and you vist them 80 years later and they are the most peaceful places you can imagine? sometimes my brain can't cope with the contrast of knowing what was in the past and what the present looks and feels like. it definitely leaves me with a strange impression often, kind of like a little sting in my heart and brain that is not ...

the america chronicles '22: austin I - city of the violet crown.

sighted on the way to austin: the texas colorado river . but beware, this is not the iconic colorado river ( 2.334 km long ) that has its source in the rocky mountains and confluences in the gulf of california, flowing through the grand canyon and other magnificent landscapes along the way, but this is texas' very own colorado river with a length of 1.387 km starting in the llano estacado plains in northwestern texas, and eventually ending up in the gulf of mexico at matagorda bay . why there are two colorado rivers in the US, i really don't know 😅 my guess is, that they were named by two people in different times, not knowing of the other's colorado river discovery. we'll meet the texas colorado river again in austin, so i will probably bestow more information on you eventually ;D a random road squirrel, also found on the way to austin. austin is about 187 miles ( 300 km ) away from baytown and is situated west from there in central texas. it sits at the foot of th...

ghost of nature.

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