carnaval de binche

The morning after the Gala, after far too little sleep, we pulled ourselves out of bed to go to Binche. Even though we pushed back the departure time by two hours, it was still rough to get up. Don't want to think what it would have been like if we had kept the 9am depart. Luckily, I had planned ahead and had made bagels a few days before (that I had with a little chocolate cheese - think chocolate Philadelphia - thanks to one of Brazilian's many travels), so we were able to have a quick and filling breakfast before dragging ourselves at the door to meet our friends.

We arrived in Binche (Belgium) not too long after noon. The streets were packed (and trashed). People were everywhere, many of them dressed up. We wandered the streets some, taking in the festivities. Confetti was everywhere, and one of my friends took it upon himself to scoop it off the streets, put it in my hood, and then dump it on my head. Not cool. Confetti was hidden everywhere on me, and I was leaving a trail of it behind me for like two days.

The bars were also spilling out onto the streets. It was a full on party. Unfortunately, that meant that it was difficult to enter into anywhere and the cold soon got to us. After awhile, the group split up and some of us went to the Carnaval Museum which also happened to be having a special exhibit on Brazilian Carnavals. Needless to say, Brazilian was thrilled and was able to go into much more detail than the little signs offered.

Brazilian Carnaval Costumes

We all met back up for the parade and went to wait for it to pass by. We waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, we basically gave up and decided to go home. We were basically frozen through by this point.

So sadly, I missed the main reason you go to Carnaval, but it was still a great experience to be amongst this atmosphere. People get really into it. Still, my Carnaval experience is not over yet. This weekend, we are finding disguises and going to the massively huge Carnaval in Dunkerque (like an hour away up here in the North of France).