Fasching & Aftermath

Hello again from beautiful Innsbruck! The weather today was "föhnig", which in English means "warmer and windier than usual due to a warm breeze from the south that cuts through the southern valleys but gets blocked by the Nordkette, thus creating a pocket of warmer air around the city." Good thing there's a word for it.

Yesterday was Faschingsdienstag, which is a lot like Mardi Gras, except that its purpose is to celebrate the coming of spring. There was an Umzug (parade) in the afternoon with a bunch of witches doing crazy dances and some excellent floats. All of the floats were actually just miniature bars on wheels. They all had different (usually traditional) themes on the outside, and on the inside people were just drinking and dancing as they went by. I think all floats should be like that.

At night we all got together for dinner and threw on funny costumes, as is customary. Think of Fasching as a combination of Halloween and Mardi Gras, with slightly less emphasis on gluttony and a bit more on being absolutely ridiculous.

Jonathan and I dressed up as Americans.

And on second thought, I'm not going to talk about the aftermath.

TTFN!