22 February 2012

The carnival groove

In the past few weeks I learned that there are two types of Dutch people: the ones who joyfully celebrate the carnival and the ones who hate it with almost the same amount of passion. 


What’s all the carnival fuss about after all? It’s probably big for me because, well, it’s the first time to see such things; if the photos didn’t draw a good enough picture of it, I’ll try in a few words (oh, the irony): the carnival is that time of the year when North Brabant goes mad. It’s that time when everybody gets to put on a costume and party like a maniac not for one but five days in a row! (Take that, Halloween!). 


The surprising amount of costume shops in Breda were full weeks ahead of the event. The merchandise ranged from wigs, colored contacts and professional make up, wizard cloaks, medieval dresses and knight swords to anything anyone could come up with like lemon or pizza slice costume. 

 

The great big celebration exploded like a volcano on Friday the 17th and suddenly Breda became the most awesome place to be in! Pretty decorations and lights changed the face of the city, alcohol started to pour in all the forms possible, there was loud Dutch music (from time to time covered by an ambulance alarm) and, despite the occasional bad weather, people were everywhere, animating the atmosphere with exhilaration and the most creative costumes I’ve ever seen!


Everyone is having a good time, the bars are more crowded than the busses in Bucharest at 7:30 in the morning (let the *ahem* “networking” prosper), I’m caught up in the bathroom between three drunk girls trying to explain what my costume is (also, statistics show that most 9gagers of Breda go to Speeltuin ), I have no clue what everyone is singing about but I’ll guess it’s about Mardi gras (what the carnival is also about) and by the midnight the streets are already starting to get cleaned up, the real paramedics are mistaken for people in costumes and the ambulance can’t get through because the street is blocked by the crowd in front of the ATM (no one wants to lose their place that gets them closer to their next drinks), foreigners like me chase people to take pictures with them and thankfully the Dutch are always friendly, especially when you look like a very good support against gravity. 


 All in all it was great fun for the only two days that I was there. It was a lot to “digest” for a newcomer (although the warm waffle I ate at midnight was delightful), I loved the atmosphere, I saw a new face of Breda the one that can leave everything aside and enjoy the hell out of it!
 

p.s: To the guy who had the Trollface costume, whoever he is: Respect. Same amount of respect to all who recognized ALLbert. And for the guys who had the guts to dress up like girls. 


And this was probably the funniest scene from Saturday evening:







7 February 2012

PRSC


The Netherlands isn’t a very big country, which is fortunate since it allows the two of us to actually see each other once in a while. Luckily enough, Breda and Rotterdam aren’t insanely close together either, else this country would know the true meaning of destruction.
Confused? Our apologies, allow me to explain: Immah has a very creative nature; Vivid Illusion is the kind of person that gets bored very easily. Put those two together and you have a veritable force of nature, as our friends, families, acquaintances and generally anyone unfortunate enough to cross our path may have noticed. Take high school, for example: there was a constant lack of white chalk in our classroom (yes, we still use blackboards in Romania. Get over it.). ‘Not very uncommon’ one might think. Think again; sitting at their desk in the back of the class there were two creatures, whispering, giggling and extremely focused on the apparently menial, yet highly engaging activity of sculpting small objects out of chalk, using only their pens, pencils and the occasional loose screw from a desk or chair. This operation (which required more dexterity and attention than it is given credit for!) was frequently frowned upon by fellow classmates, who had to explain to our teachers why our classroom was constantly under-stocked.




That is also how our currently inactive political party came to life. The Romanian Party that Destroys Stuff (or PRSC following the Romanian capitalization of the name) promises to do nothing else than what its title states. We destroy stuff. Thoroughly and with a passion. From sculpting chalk, to destroying pens, stealing screws and nuts from chairs (whether they were being used or not), taking over things that other people forgot in our desks and even stopping cars with our faces (although it took Immah a while to fully recover from that one).



But that was back in high school. We’re older, more responsible and mature, and with a very different sense of humor. NOT.

Immah’s internet connection is, unfortunately, not working at the moment, which leaves us without much of the content that we hoped to put on. This problem should be solved soon though. Until then, we apologize for the infrequent and disappointingly short posts and hope that you’ll bear with us.