On Sunday we went to Maastricht (a city in the South of Holland) for Carnival. Imagine Mardi Gras minus the beads and exposed ladies, add some babies in costumes, a lot of french fries and waffles, Dutch and German drinking songs, ridiculous costumes for everyone...Ok so it's not really that much like Mardi Gras, but its amazing. We danced and sang and ate and paraded through the streets for nine hours straight. I developed a love followed by hatred for Dutch folk music and found out the Milwaukee's Seven Inning Stretch song - "Roll out the Barrel" - is an old German song that plays on repeat in every bar during Carnival. There is also a song that has a chorus that just repeats "ding-a-ling-a-ling" and everybody in the room does a little finger dance that looks exactly like Mukul's signature dance. Between the German and Dutch oldies, there was a mix of techno club music. By the end of the day, I knew all of the songs and plan to bring them back to the States. Look forward to it.
