Carnival in Maastricht, 2010
I decided last minute despite the heavy-ish snow to head to the carnival in Maastricht a couple of weeks ago. It was pretty much a last minute decision to step out of home and make the two and a half hour train journey to Maastricht. I had heard that this was one of the biggest carnivals in Holland, and of course while it would have been easier to head to Eindhoven for the carnival, I was adamant, and we decided to make the longer journey. It was worth the while however. Here are some pics!
Carnival in Maastricht, 2010
Carnival crowd, Maastricht 2010
I’m not really a big fan of huge crowds, because crowds in India means being caught among sweaty people in under the extremely intolerabe heat (at least in Madras). Of course the buttermilk that people living in the area distribute during religious parades under the sweltering sun, come as a huge relief 
Being stuck in a crowd here in Maastricht was a litte more tolerable when we found ourselves being pushed along by the people through a narrow street filled with bars and had all kinds of weirdly dressed folk spilling out from the bars and on to the street. It was tolerable mainly because it kept me warm in the snowy cold, helped in part also by the bottle of grappa that we had carried with us.
Paraders, Maastricht 2010
We had landed up at the carnival normally clothed and felt extremely out of place among the jesters, kings, queens, the entire animal kingdom and a weird assortment of other things/ species/ characters in costume. We quickly made our way to a costume shop and in student style acquired cheap hats and masks to transformed ourselves into a witch, a butterfly & a masked spy and were ready to roll!
I see no pic of the witch, butterfly & masked spy
its scary lol