Mardi Graaaaaaaaaaas

Mardi Gras, known almost world wide as the Halloween of spring time, with probably more alcohol involved. Also, it takes place during the day. So what's the deal? Well, It's actually on Fat Tuesday, you know, pigging out on the stuff you will give up for lent one last time. Just it starts the weekend before so everyone can take part and it's more of a completely drunk weekend. I know many people who told me, or the world of Facebook, that they can't really remember what they did on Mardi Gras. Perfect pervert target? I think so. But anyway. It was on Saturday, and St Louis is known as the second largest and most famous Mardi Gras in the US. Oh yes... it was... It all started one harmless Friday night. We went to a birthday party and as we got home at like midnight or something we looked outside and the streets were bustling. There were just so many people going to the bar across the street that we thought it would be a waste not to go. So we went. At 5:30 am we came back with the firm plan, from two days ago, to get up at 7am, go to the breakfast a bar is offering, take the shuttle to the parade, and have an entire mardi gras day. 

At 10am I shot awake, after not even being drunk... apparently exhausted me decided to turn off the alarm when it rang at 7am and throw my phone across the room. It's fine, the purple cover I have has proved to be very useful. Not a dent. At 10 I call my other friend, who I was supposed to meet up with. She was going to go with her roommate. Can I come? I asked, 5 minutes later I was dressed and left the apartment, still a little confused about how this all happened so quickly. We went to the bar across the street, had a beer and a drink, and waited in the freezing cold for the damn shuttle. There were so many obnoxious drunk people that we decided to wait for the next one. It came 45 minutes later... so we missed the parade. But it's ok, the drunk people partying at mardi gras are just as interesting as the parade. 

So were you wondering about the beads? Yeah, me too... bars and people were just throwing them around and you could catch them. There were some obnoxious people chanting for girls to show their... you know.... but no one did it. There is hope! 

In the end we had about 20 beads each and it was seriously weighing down my neck. But it was fun. There were stages built up across the stretch of road and different types of music. The last picture is the rock stage. It was my favourite. Also my favourite? Seeing old people, seriously old people.... wearing tutus and leggings and wigs and skanky shirts and all that. So entertaining, so scarring. But people were nice. In the end the Mardi Gras experience was complete, we had a drink called Hurricane and I had a Turkey leg. That's what you think it is, by the way. Success. 

What wasn't such a success was the use of my limbs. It was so cold that I couldn't feel my hands or feet and I was shaking so violently at times I was sure my clothes would just shatter from having frozen... When paying for my turkey leg I couldn't get the money out, I held my open wallet to a friend with gloves on and had her take it out. When I got home my hands were swollen and bright red, I was shaking for another two hours before I put on two pairs of pants, a thick sweatshirt over my long sleeve shirt, three pairs of socks, a scarf, took three blankets, and lay in my bed for an hour. Then it got kind of better. 

Lesson for next year? Bring gloves and a thicker jacket. Also, bring a bottle of water along... I drank 3 liters of water as soon as I got home, in one go, because I was so thirsty.

All in all, a fantastic day.