Es darf gefeiert werden!
The Heerenveen game was oversubscribed and we didn't get tickets. We don't have a Plan B, so I suppose now's the time to think of one...
I'd forgotten - or at least repressed - the fact that my stint in Mainz coincides with Carnival season, or "Fassenacht", as the people here insist on slurring it. Last night was Altweiberfastnacht, which translates as "night when women get to dress up in silly costumes and go round snipping off mens' ties". Rather unnervingly, pretty much all the pubs in the city - even relatively "alternative" places like Quartier Mayence - are using this long weekend as an excuse for playing seriously shitty music at a seriously deafening volume... oh, and charging €5 entrance. I discovered this when I went out for a drink with some ex-housemates last night - though we eventually managed to find a quiet corner of the Cuban Bar (what is it about Mainz and imaginative names? "Irish Pub", "Cuban Bar"...) and enjoyed a few beers in a mercifully Schlager-free zone.
However, I think this experience has pretty much sealed my plans for the weekend - stay at home. Drunken Germans are bad enough, but drunken Germans on the one weekend when they're told that they're allowed to let their hair down and indulge in regimented celebration... no thanks.
I'd forgotten - or at least repressed - the fact that my stint in Mainz coincides with Carnival season, or "Fassenacht", as the people here insist on slurring it. Last night was Altweiberfastnacht, which translates as "night when women get to dress up in silly costumes and go round snipping off mens' ties". Rather unnervingly, pretty much all the pubs in the city - even relatively "alternative" places like Quartier Mayence - are using this long weekend as an excuse for playing seriously shitty music at a seriously deafening volume... oh, and charging €5 entrance. I discovered this when I went out for a drink with some ex-housemates last night - though we eventually managed to find a quiet corner of the Cuban Bar (what is it about Mainz and imaginative names? "Irish Pub", "Cuban Bar"...) and enjoyed a few beers in a mercifully Schlager-free zone.
However, I think this experience has pretty much sealed my plans for the weekend - stay at home. Drunken Germans are bad enough, but drunken Germans on the one weekend when they're told that they're allowed to let their hair down and indulge in regimented celebration... no thanks.