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Rosenmontag: How could we be bored?

You know, I never thought it would be POSSIBLE to be bored during Carnival, least of all during a parade. And yet, that was exactly what happened on Sunday afternoon. There was a parade of EVERYBODY involved in Fastnacht, from the five solid minutes of Blätzle at the beginning to the Waldwichtel house at the end. In between came innumerable bands, witches, wizards, goblins, people in oddly terrifying traditional costumes, and combinations of the above, as well as the pirate ship, the castle from the Stefansplatz dance party (pretty unbelievable, considering how narrow the streets are), the Kaiser riding on a zeppelin. It should have been exciting, fascinating. After three hours of it, it was pretty boring. Probably a lot more interesting if you´re marching.
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A lot of the last couple of days of Vasnacht was like that, actually--I felt like I should be having fun, but was actually not doing anything very interesting. Unfortunately, we didn´t have anyone to go party with--almost everyone was out of town or unreachable, and my TANDEM-partnerin hates masks and brass bands, and was buried under an essay on eucharistic theology into the bargain. And on Monday, for the last night of carnival, Johann Albrecht was so packed out that you couldn´t get in, whereas every place else in the Niederburg seemed to be deserted as a result...
As such, I never did find out what Rosenmontag was supposed to be about.

Mardi Gras: We were late for the bonfire of the vanities
As I should have expected, Konstanz sees Fasnacht out in style. Unfortunately, we didn´t know this, and so missed most of it. We did get to the tail end of them burning a bonfire of the vanities on Stephansplatz, complete with bands and theatrically weeping Waldwichtel, but we didn´t actually see what was on there. And we missed the blazing Blätzle dummy on the Augustinerplatz, and the bit where the Seegeister are ceremonially banished back to the depths of the lake. They should really print up a weekend schedule...
As we headed home, the bands were marching their way out too. People were still headed for the pubs, but the mood was quieter, and a small boy remarked, in response to some comment "Nein, Fasnacht ist schon vorbei."

Donnerstag nach der alten Vasnacht: Despite the snow
Perhaps it´s not surprising, given how early they put them up, that the Niederburg only today began taking down the Fastnacht banners. Or perhaps it was the snow, which has given us little accumulation but a lot of white-outs, and caused bus service up to the Uni to be cancelled this evening. (Wusses. The slope isn´t THAT steep. They should see Ithaca).
It´s Donrstag vor Invocavit. I can believe that it´s Lent. I can´t believe I´m more than half way through the year. yikes.
I also can´t believe that it´s also (and much more importantly) Thursday Before the Berlin Fulbright Conference. Again, how time flies.
Well, I guess that´ll make up for my relatively low-key Fasnacht.