More Carnival fun!

Carnival runs for four days in Switzerland and each day is filled with confetti, guggenmusik and costumes. On Saturday 5th March we went to Sion with Mitch and Lu to watch a big parade go through the main street. When we arrived there wasn't too much happening throughout the city except for the usual Saturday lunch crowd and since the temperature has been rather pleasant and the sun has been kind, there were plenty of people taking advantage of the outdoor seating at the cafes.

We heard some music in the distance which we followed to find where all of the carnival action was happening. There were food stalls, costumed people and a few carnival games and rides. We sat on an empty stage, ate our greasy carnival food and watched as kids threw handfuls of colourful confetti at each other.

Once we gobbled down our food the time was getting close to parade time so we headed out to the main street to join the gathering crowd in finding a good viewing spot to watch the floats and guggenmusik bands go past. While we waited we were bombarded by kids setting off firecrackers around us which incidentally resulted in me getting hit in the leg by a flying piece of firecracker. I whinged a little and it made me a little shellshocked for the rest of the parade but it didn't stop me from having a good time. I bruise really easily, so I still have a bruise, albeit a rather tiny one.

The parade was made up of lots and lots of guggenmusik bands marching past playing crazy music, a few random (strange) dressed up people walking past and big trucks with confetti cannons blasting confetti out into the crowds of onlookers. The street was littered with tiny circles of coloured paper ready for kids to run out and pick up handfuls to throw at the next lots of bands to come by. 

After about thirty marching bands and eight or so confetti trucks we decided that we had seen enough of the parade so we wandered off to find Mitch and Lu (who were having a rest at a nearby cafe because Lu was feeling a little under the weather). Mitch and Lu went home for some real rest (a carnival crazed town is not the best place to be while one is feeling a bit crappy) and Roy and I went to our favourite drinking hole, Les Divins Brasseurs (The Divine Brewers) for a pint of tasty brown beer. They also have a "biere speciale" which varies in flavours. Since it was carnival time the flavours were rather festive - Banana (not so nice - although Roy didn't seem to mind it) and passionfruit and mango (I think that was what it was - it wasn't too bad. A little too fruity for me). I'll stick to my "biere brune". We parked our butts on the only chairs we could find (it was rather busy because of the festivities) and watched as the carnival went on around us. The whole pub was taken over by Guggenmusik bands a couple of times which was quite fun to be amongst.

Some friends who live in Sion met us for a couple of drinks and once our tummy's started grumbling we decided to head to where all of the greasy, carnival food was for a bit of dinner. We stood and ate our fried morsels and watched as all of the crazy carnival folk milled around us. Our friend had a bit of a face-off with a zombie who was eyeing off his food.

Since this was our first carnival I didn't want to go too crazy with a costume so I went for the more conservative approach and adopted a hairy upper-lip.

Carnival time in Switzerland is fun! Living in a small town where the people are usually quite reserved and conservative, it was lots of fun to see everyone let loose for four days of craziness. I can't wait until August 1st for Swiss national day. Imagine the craziness then!