The Lernen to Talk Show: Episode 30 – Karneval!
In general, there are two things people immediately associate with Cologne. The mammoth Kölner Dom, and Karneval. The two are in fact connected, as Karneval is a strangely Catholic holiday, similar to Mardi Gras in New Orleans and Carnivale in Rio. From Thursday until the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, the whole city turns to a huge party. Hundreds of thousands of people, united in the spirit of indulgence, flock to the city to wear costumes and drink in the streets. Schools are closed, bars are opened, and merry is made until the bell tolls twelve Tuesday night, at which point everybody parades around their neighborhood with a dummy called a Nubbel, which represents the sins of Karneval. The Nubbel is then burned and the weekend is forgotten and everybody goes back to work. One of the many highlights of the festival comes on “Rose Monday” in the form of an enormous parade. I managed to find a couple LTTS guests in the midst of the mayhem while waiting for the parade to start. Stay tuned after the conversation for some exclusive clips of the start of the parade, including the official opening speech given of course in Kölsch, the dialect of German so dearly spoken in these parts.
1:43 – You should’ve seen it.
1:52 – I wanted to have him on the show, but unfortunately he was standing on the other side of the parade.
2:13 – Chilling.
3:26 – One of the coolest things about Cologne is that it’s filled with old medieval structures like this one.
Bonus! I uploaded this episode in 1080p. Do you notice the difference? I’m not sure I do…
Fourth Thing 
Ich lache wie Peter Griffin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C162eGrdCLg
Looks super duper fun!
Koelners (?) really know how to party!
“Kölner (Kölner)” is the plural of the “tribe’s” members in high-german, “Kölsch (Koelsch)” is the dialect’s singular AND plural. And “Kölsch” is the name of the local variety of beer (also in high-german).
Norbert
This makes me homesick. I used to live in Cologne until 3 months ago. 🙂
Come back! I’ll buy you a beer.
“full of medieval structures”?
Let me take a deep breath, before I continue… (sigh)…
Since Adolf-Dumbass has lead Germany, Europe and the mayor part of the world into this massacre called 2nd world war, there is only a poor rest of medieval structures left in Cologne (and hundreds of other cities in Europe) since the allies had stroken back by unnumerous air-raids with hundreds and hundreds of bombers.
The most of the cologne’s city-structure now is by buildings of the 50s and 60s, the time of the “re-build-up”, especially in the center of Cologne.
At May, 8, 1945, when the war was ended, there was not a single house in Cologne’s center, who wasn’t damaged and burnt to the ground or in minimum without roof and windows and with impacts of bullits or grenades or splinters of the uncount bombs.
Let us work together, let us learn to know each other (by learning each other’s languages, for example) to prevent something similar for the future.
The first day of a 3rd world war will be our doomsday!
Norbert