Parisian Carnival Craziness

Here they are.. the promised photos. Unfortunately as this was not a planned adventure, I only had my small digital camera with me and not my beastly but beautiful favorite camera. So the pictures came out ok but really don't give the colors or the atmosphere justice... Anyhoooooooo, please put on your party pants, any crazy head dress you may have laying around, turn on some Samba music and enjoy :)

This girl had on the creepiest mask. I don't know if any of you remember that Six Flags dancing geezer but this was even worse!!!

Close cousins of the one eyed, one horned, flying, purple people eater...

If I saw these guys in the Captain seat on my flight, I would take a shot with them, then quickly get the eff off of the plane!

How the heck did he steal this from my closet????

Crazy Carnival

So apparently it is the time of year for Carnival – well at least in Brazil. I’ll be honest, up until about 10 minutes ago, I really had no idea what the Carnival tradition was or why it is so important in Brazil and how important it is to their culture. Please… read on and get educated about the history of Carnival in Brazil. Apparently this tradition has been occurring since the time of the ancient Greeks. It originated as a Spring festival to honor the God of Wine (as soon as I read this I knew it could only get better, I mean a God of WINE – HELL YEAH!!) It went through a couple of tweeks and changes as time went on, the Romans adopted it and used it as a time to honor their Wine God and then the Roman Catholic Church got a hold of it and it turned into a last festival before Ash Wednesday. I am pretty sure this is still more or less the present meaning/purpose of Carnival now. Anyway, it has essentially turned into a massive celebration of indulgences (and everyone loves indulgences!)- sort of like a last fling of sex, alcohol and food before Lent begins. I am not sure that a week filled with pretty much every “sin” possible is exactly what the Catholics had in mind before starting the 40 days of sin purging. The carnival that takes place in Rio de Janeiro is one of the world’s most lavish and most famous carnivals. There are drumming groups, parties, drinking, eating and parades with singers and Samba dancers! These parades are filled with elaborate costumes, crazy colourful floats and sometimes even a few naked people (as Carnival comes from a latin term meaning Farewell to the Flesh – I think prancing around naked helps put this into perspective)…  So of course as with everything Paris had to have its own version of this crazy little festival.  Sunday afternoon I bundled up and hopped on the back of my friend and escorts scooter and we cruised the streets of Paris looking for people dancing in sequined costumes, drumming and singing. It took a little bit but after a few wrong turns we found it. An entire section of the Parisian streets blocked off and just crowded with crazy drunken Parisians celebrating their very own version of Carnival. I will be honest, there were a few points when these dancing fools marched by that I wanted to just join in and march down the streets with them… Although I am positive that this little gathering pales in comparison to the elaborate celebrations in Brazil and especially in Rio, it was quite the sight to see and I am happy I was able to take this in. Plus I got to ride around the city on the back of a scooter again and as I have mentioned many times before, this for me is one of the most amazing and best ways to take in the city. Nothing at all beats holding on while you weave in and out of cars and taking in the scenery from an entirely new point of view.

Pictures to come!!!

A Parisian Weekend

This little weekend recap post, should have gone up yesterday but in evidence of a VERY good weekend. I fell asleep, computer on my lap with not much typed at all. So here it is today. After being here for almost 10 months I am still having lots of firsts. Including my Friday night adventure to my first Parisian nightclub… interesting and awesome to say the least. I had to dig way back into my college days of not even leaving to go out until after midnight, but I pulled it together like the champ I am, got myself dressed up and made it happen. We then spent the night in the VIP area with our own bottles, mixing our own drinks and dancing the night and the morning away. The music selection was a bit interesting for me – at one point the DJ really had me concerned when he began a medley with “We Will Rock You” not at all what I expected, but I think it was just to get everyone warmed up and that it did. I think one of the craziest things was the fact that this little club (ok, it wasn’t little at all but… ) is pretty much underground and so there are no windows, making it very easy to not pay any attention to time. What I am trying to say is that it was actually light outside by the time we left to have our nightcap (I guess it was technically a morning cap at that point). Yup – that is right, no last call at 1:45 for these crazy Parisians. It really was a lovely way to kick off what ended up being one of the best weekends I have had since my adventure in Paris began. After a brief nap – because there is no way you could say I went to bed at 930am on Saturday… it just sounds wrong – I woke up and made my way to a basketball game with some friends and ended the evening feeling about as Parisian as one could by going to the movies on the back of a little scooter. Yes my dear family – I had a helmet on and no it is not as scary as it might seem, buzzing in and out of the cars and busses on the incredibly busy streets of Paris.  I wrapped it all up by soaking up the sun reading all day Sunday in front of my huge windows with the pigeons happily chirping in the streets. It is funny how the littlest things like dancing all night and cruising around on the back of a scooter that make you feel like you have finally accomplished things the same way someone who is from here would.