Fastnachtszug

Today was the Frankfurt Fastnachtszug, "fast night parade" or Karneval. Despite the cold and dreary day, we all had a great time enjoying the food and watching the parade. Fastnachtszug is much different than anything you would see in New Orleans Mardi Gras or Carnival in Brazil (although I can't speak from personal experience, as I have never been to either). Fastnachtszug is family friendly, with candy and fun costumes. I didn't see one woman flashing her boobs...but maybe it was just too cold for that ;-) We caught a lot of hard candy, bags of popcorn, and peanut puffs. Gianna caught a stuffed dinosaur, Dan caught two bags of some spiced bread called magenbrot, and I caught a chocolate covered marshmallow waffle from one of the bäckerei floats. Holy yum! During the parade, the people would yell "Frankfurt! Helau!" which was some sort of local greeting. I posted a whole album but here is a summary.

We've arrived! This is the Römer part of the city, Gianna, SpongeBob, Barb, and Bruno. Yeah, the coat makes me look like the stay puff marshmallow man, but I stay really warm.

Gianna is tired since the parade is happening over nap time. She's wearing her carnival mask that we made together.

Bratwurst for me. Dan got the currywurst, a spicy chopped up sausage in a hot curry sauce.

Gianna was curious about this woman in elephant costume until we got close enough to take a picture with her. Then she started screaming and burried her head in my chest!

These "paper mâché" bobble head guys are a big part of Fastnachtszug, see a video here.

I don't know what this guy was supposed to be. He was wearing what looked like a stone on his back. Anyone out there have an idea?

Are these people supposed to be Vietnamese? It was part of a troop that were dressed from different parts of Asia.

Not sure what was up with this tropical-themed black-faced crew, like they were out of the jungles of Africa. They were one of many strange, sometimes offensive groups of "fools" dressed up for Fastnachtszug.