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Published: March 13th 2011
At the Playground
If there is a swing, Meg will find it!After a couple days of break from Karneval, we figured we had to really fire it up for the last night, also known as Nubelfebron, or The Burning of the Nubel. As Meagan touched on, the Nubel is basically a symbolic character that you can blame for all of your sins, especially those sins committed during Karneval; you can say, “It wasn’t me, the Nubel made me do it!” and you start clean the following morning which is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. I (Aaron) experienced only this night of Karneval in 2010 and it was a hell of a time, so I was excited that our plan was to go back to the same place as last year, Heller’s. Normally, each bar has their own Nubel and their own weak ceremony, but in one neighborhood, a group of bars get together and shut down the entire street (a major street at that) and burn multiple life-sized Nubels in a giant cage in the middle of the street, with an emcee in a pretty sweet Freddy Kruger outfit. Our night began with a solid foundation of Moroccan food at a little hole in the wall followed by a gehbier in
a park where Meagan got to try out the swing set, merry-go-round, teeter totter and slide. Heller’s was already getting crowded when we got in and proceeded to crush kolsch after kolsch until the repetitive Karneval songs actually started becoming enjoyable. We were a bit late heading out to the street party and had to stand a ways away from the fire cage but it was still a great time. The Nubels were carried from the back of the crowd all the way up to Freddy Kruger who introduced each one before launching him onto a growing pile of other Nubels. Each time one was thrown, the crowd erupted. Once all the Nubels were in the cage, Freddy began listing different sins, most, if not all of them jokes, and after each one the crowd would respond in unison, “Allafe!” At this point a few torches emerged and set the Nubels ablaze as the crowd cheered and a few more Karneval songs blared from the speakers. The crowd left pretty quickly, we went back in for a few more beers then headed home. All in all a great ending to a long 2011 Karneval.
Wednesday was a day of recovery.
At Hellers
Last night for Karneval We joined a group that night for poker and beers at the office where my co-worker Paul, who literally only eats potato-based foods, made his awesome home-made French fries. Thursday was our final full day in Cologne and after having lunch with Meagan, she headed back to the Dom to take the long journey to the top of the tower as well as go inside the church. I did this during my first trip to Cologne so I didn’t join, though if I wasn’t working I would’ve been there because it is an amazing site. That night Torsten made a reservation for us at the smallest brewery in Cologne, Braustelle. This brewery is straying from the typical Kolsch-only style of most Cologne breweries. Our server (also one of the 3 founders) was nice enough to give us a tour of the facilities. It was cool to see how a very small scale brewery operates and we learned a bit more about different brewing styles. After great food and great beers we went down the block to see my co-worker Martin and his girlfriend Natalie’s new (amazing) loft-style house. Then we headed over to a local bar to watch a foosball
The Nübel
Burn baby Burn! tournament match-up. This bar was closed for renovation so we had to knock to get in, felt like we were going to a illegal dog fight. The cleverbridge team lost in the sudden death match (the 21st game of the night), but it was pretty entertaining. Our night continued with a “last beer” at Die Wohngenmeinschaft, one of my favorite bars in Cologne. Here we sat inside a real VW Bus in the middle of the bar until closing time. Friday was a little shaky but we managed to get all packed, stop by the office to say bye to everyone, and catch our train to the Cologne/Bonn airport for our flight to Bologna, Italy!!!
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