So I finished up another day at work today and reluctantly decided against going to the climbing wall in favor of getting some laundry done and checking out the Karnival events in Ratingen. After work I took the bus to the Internet café and got my FBook and Skyping in for the day then walked home. I finished up a delicious boil in a bag meal, I swear that I do that very rarely, and went to fetch my laundry.
After that the real shenanigans began. I decked myself up in my caving costume, you dress up for Karnival, and headed out to the local bar to get the night started. I felt slightly awkward walking the street in a helmet, headlamp, kneepads, gloves and caving T-shirt and it was not made any less awkward when I figured out that the bar was closed. No problem, I decided to un-costume and scout out the town in order to figure out the best place to go.
I got to the marktplatz beside the church and watched stumbley people old and young dancing to polka in their festive attire. I was confused as to what I should do tonight so I asked one of the festive stumblers. “Excuse me, do you speak English,” I asked.
“yes, a little,” this is the standard response that Germans give to this question. This means that she could speak anything from kindergarten English to high school English. She was some place in the middle. The nice fourty something year old lady was happy to tell me the details of what was going on. I listened with great interest. After hearing that I was in Germany alone she told me that I had to meet her daughter who spoke better English. I waited for a few minutes and then was greeted by Sofia, a 21-year-old girl dressed as a doctor. Sofia invited me into the bar that we were outside to meet her buddies and her American boyfriend. Sweet I thought, some locals to talk to, I said that I would love to but I had to get costumed first. We agreed to meet outside in 10min.
I came back as Caver Tom 10min later and Sofia was no place to be found. I decided to go in but was bounced by the bouncer because the bar was closed, at 21:00? I walked out into the main square and asked a group of teenagers what the deal was. These guys spoke shabby English so we spoke some sweet Germish to each other. I ended up sipping a beer that they gave me with a 15 year old and his 20 year old brother. We decided to go hit up a club to continue the night.
We arrived at a place that I had not seen before, Liberty Lounge. We all, about 6 of us by this point, bits of our costume so that the 15 year old looked 18 and could get into the bar. We walked through the door and the bouncer immediately found out that the kid was too young. A “common, please” by the guys brother, in German of course, and oddly enough the kid was let in.
This night was interesting, I could not really talk to anyone because it was loud; so I did some cheersing and some faux-dancing. I met some neat people, people who would have been neat had I been able to hear them over the techno. I also at some point in the night drank a beer on the street while talking to a police man, you can drink beer on the street here.
Well after I said my goodbyes I was back home for some well-deserved sleep.
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