...in other news, we may be rethinking our move

t seems that Berlin goes all out for the start of spring. This year it looks to begin with a blizzard.  Seriously, I've already seen the hashtag #snowmageddon show up in reference to Berlin's weather. Not exactly the kind of ushering into a new season I had in mind, but I suppose that is Berlin. After enduring what was the darkest, most depressing winter of our three years here, we're starting to wonder what we were thinking with moving to an even colder, even darker part of Germany. Are we masochists? Do we enjoy suffering from the crippling effects of SAD?

Even in our little corner of the country, the weather these past few weeks have been nothing short of infuriating. We thought early spring had arrived with a week of unseasonably warm weather, glorious sunshine and bright blue skies. Then the snow came back. And it not just came back, but dumped on us more spectacularly than it had all winter. Case in point:

Then, it nearly all melted away and we were back to snowless sidewalks and blue skies...

... only to be hit with this the very next day. Ugh. 

Now that we're currently seeing blue skies and minor patches of remaining snow where the sun has not yet reached when we look out the window, we head to Berlin tomorrow for weather that is looking a lot more 'White Christmas' than the first days of spring. Now I love the snow, especially coming from snowless coastal California, but this never-ending winter is really starting to wear on us. There were definite reasons why we picked Berlin over Barcelona for our next city, but the doubts are seriously creeping in right about now... I suppose we'll see how we feel after the next few days up there.  

If all else fails, perhaps this place in Deià is still available...

Daily Drop Cap by Jessica Hische
Crappy weather forecast courtesy of the wetter-deutchland.com app

Can I get a hell yes? Anyone who is so ready to start sweating from heatstroke/acquiring skin cancer from all the sun the moment you walk outside, raise your hand. Yeah, me too. 

Image from Pinterest, via Joanna Goddard

Our first Rosenmontag parade in 2011

ast time we took part in the Rosenmontag festivities in Mainz, we had a lovely perch on a friend's rooftop deck directly over the parade route, not to mention being nearly a month later than it was this year, it was amazingly warm and sunny. This year, we headed across the river to brave the crowds on the ground in the freezing February weather for the first time. Since we had previously donned the giraffes only in apartments and on brief train rides, we had yet to experience any reaction to these costumes beyond our circle of friends.

Riding the buses and trains in Wiesbaden on Rosenmontag is always interesting, since the festivities are in Mainz, because those in costume are few and far between. Those that are usually only have a sparkly hat or colorful outfit, perhaps in an effort to avoid the abundant and somewhat judge-y German stares from what is often considered the 'uptight' side of the river. Sometimes I just want to scream at them "yes, I know it's Monday morning and you're dressed in your work clothes and I'm dressed as a safari animal but I'm going to party at the Rosenmontag parade, so back off!" Once over in Mainz, the the German stares dissipate and are replaced with smiles, waves, and once everyone is drunk enough to lose their German inhibitions, even hugs.

We might not have been the only giraffes, but we seemed to be the most popular

Once deep into the festivities, we started to see how popular our costumes were. At first, I would just catch someone pausing with a camera pointed in our direction, but once the first person came up and asked if they could take our picture - or the ones I most enjoyed, where they wanted their photo with us - it was like it opened the floodgates for all the other Germans too reserved to ask. I started to feel like a Disneyland character, posing for photos every time we turned around, and wondered if kids would start asking for autographs soon. I'm pretty sure our photo is going to be spattered all over the internet in connection with this year's parade. It seems we could hardly go a block without someone calling out for us "giraffe! giraffen!", or just overhearing someone pointing us out to a friend after we had gone past. One lone giraffe actually called out "Mama! Papa!" to us. Amidst a sea of Germans, with whom we rarely feel a sense of belonging, we felt as if we had hundreds of new, accepting friends.

It wasn't just the fellow costumed adults that took a shine to the giraffes. One old lady stopped us to ask for a photo and said we were her favorite costume that she had seen. Little kids often stared after their parents pointed us out, only to break their intense German stare once we smiled and waved, letting them know that we were friendly animals. One such very small guy in the cutest lion costume, stared at us for a good five minutes on the train platform, even after I'd smiled and waved. He just didn't know what to make of us. Finally, something in him let go, because he pulled the little lion-clawed arms of his suit down over his hands, curled them up, scrunched up his face and started growling at us. Perhaps he had figured out that as a lion, he was at the top of the animal kingdom, or perhaps he just wanted my giant cotton candy.

How these guys didn't freeze their, well.. important parts off, I'll never know!

Being on the ground this year meant being right in the middle of all the action. We could stand parade side and reach out for all the treats that were being thrown from the floats into the crowd. It also meant that in -1C weather, we were freezing our giraffe tails off. The music at least made it acceptable to bounce and jump around to keep warm, but even under four layers on top, two layers on bottom, snow boots, hat and gloves, I was so numb I could barely move. This meant that when the circus float with a giant giraffe on the top rolled by and the woman in front noticed me and chucked a giant candy bar/roll of cookies right to me, my popsicle of a hand could only reach into the air, to which the treat meant for me bounced off my numb, unclosing fingers and into the crowd for someone else to claim. What a sad Karneval failure.

Being on the ground this year meant more than frozen toes and being at the mercy of increasingly drunken people who wanted to manhandle our giraffe heads, it also meant we could take part in gathering loads of goodies thrown from the floats. As stated previously, I did not contribute greatly to our haul with my slow-moving, frozen limbs, but we came away pretty good nonetheless. And I didn't even have to show my boobs like they do in New Orleans.

The highlight of the parade are the humorous political floats. Not entirely up to speed on all things going on over here, some of it can be a bit beyond my breadth of German political knowledge, but I saw enough that gave me a good chuckle. My favorites included the one poking fun at the ever-extending deadline for the new Berlin airport opening and the one about greedy America and who is really pumping up that economy. Germans making fun of what could be potentially sensitive topics to this level never ceases to surprise me. For a culture often labeled as having little to no sense of humor, I think they hit the nail on the head with these floats, whereas I could see such political humor upsetting a lot of Americans. Jon Stewart aside, politics in America seems to be such a hot button topic and is often avoided to keep the peace. Well it's good to know Germans have a sense of humor about their politics, although only at the appropriate time and place, of course. 

Wait for it...

The rest of the floats and paraders were often just as impressive, but after an hour or so, the growing rowdiness of the crowd and our already full bag of treats - not to mention my numb feet and hands that were beginning to expand to the rest of my body - signaled that maybe it was time to head out. We made our way slowly through more hugging and photo-taking to what we hoped would be a warm stop for some food at our favorite Mexican restaurant - only to discover that they are not in fact open every day, all day. So we dragged our freezing giraffe butts back to the trail station, picking up a warm crepe and Glühwein on the way and awaited our ride home. As cold as it was, we were thankful that the grey skies that day were not filled with the sleet of the week before, but rather the confetti from all the festivities. Karneval, we may have to come back to celebrate again with you next year! 

Kind of wished they had been throwing fresh pretzels

Daily Drop Cap by Jessica Hische

ou know what those Monty Phyton boys always said... Although, this time of year - January especially - it's hard to be bright and cheery when everything around us is so grey and sad. I was beginning to feel  in a  hopeless spiral towards seasonal affective disorder when I met a friend for lunch the other day and she was wearing the brightest yellow cardi I'd ever seen, and then it hit me. Here was the answer - color! And not just any color, but bright, blinding, neon color. Just being in her presence made me want to sing from the rooftops (OK, not really, but almost...).

I admit, when neon made a bit of a comeback in years past, the '80s child in me could only scream no and cover my eyes to ward off the flashbacks of bad perms and Hypercolor shirts (oh yes, I had both). Given time - and three very grey, very dreary German winters - I've started to come around. It's not so garish or '80s when it's a small pop of color, say, that little J.Crew purse or the Marc by Marc Jacobs watch, grounded by neutrals. I love that things now are already coming color blocked (that clutch! those shoes!) or faded (oh, that Madewell sweater...) to tone down the effect.

Right now, I'm thinking that neon yellow and grey stripe tee is the best way to ease into these blinding winter brights. I'm hoping that with the lack of sun, these colors will radiate and elevate my mood. German's aversion to color, be damned. Guess I'm just going to stick out like the Californian that I am.

So farewell January, it's been not-so-fun! I've got color to help me through the rest of winter...



To see all the items featured above, check out my board on Polyvore
Daily Drop Cap by Jessica Hische

hen I saw that snow was forecasted last weekend, I was thrilled (it was only October!). Then when I actually saw snow falling for most the of morning out our window, I was thankful that my weather app was actually accurate. But then when I was out buying bacon and syrup for a celebratory 'snow' breakfast, I saw my husband walking the dog on the other corner and what should pull up between us on the street but a car absolutely covered in snow. Not the sprinkling that had been happening all morning, with not a speck of white to be seen on the ground. No, this car had inches of snow on it, somewhere that the snow was sticking. My eyes locked with my husband's over that snowy car and I knew - we had to go to higher ground.  

So after a seasonally-appropriate breakfast of buttermillk waffles, bacon, melon, coffee AND mimosas (hey, the first snow practically requires a party in its honor), we bundled up tight, packed into the car with Bailey and headed into the mountains. As if the autumn colors in our town weren't enough....

... they were soon sprinkled with a magical dusting of white as we got high enough. Autumn colors AND the magic of winter snow? The best of both seasons was too good to be true!

We went to our usual snow spot, the Naturpark Rhein-Taunus trails, since they are high enough for good snow and close enough for a quick afternoon trip. After last year's disappointing snow showing (one morning of actual, built-up snow - that was all she wrote), I was overly excited about such a beautiful display so early in the season. My hands stayed mostly frozen on our little hike because I couldn't stop pulling out my phone to snap photos after 'oooing' and 'ahhhing' around every bend. 

Bailey dog was equally, if not more, thrilled than I. In her usual snow persona, 'Coke Fiend Bailey' (nose covered in white powder and erratic, super-hyper behavior), she had a blast sticking her face in the snow and running around like a crazed animal. She too thought it had been far too long since she'd played catch with Schneebällchen. 

To make an already stunning landscape even more breathtaking, the sun decided to break out as we headed back to the car, making the dazzling juxtaposition of autumn leaves and snow even more vivid with rays of sunshine playing off the colors with the added backdrop of gorgeous blue sky. What a day!

Here's hoping for a white Christmas...

Daily Drop Cap by Jessica Hisch