Carnival in Breda

Last weekend I went to Breda with a bunch of students from Leiden to celebrate Carnival. Breda is a medium sized city in the very south of the Netherlands. Carnival is the big celebration before lent, everyone parties and dresses up in costumes and sings traditional Dutch songs. The reason we went to Breda instead of ,say, Amsterdam is because Carnival is really only celebrated 'below the rivers' meaning the south of the country because it majorally Catholic while the rest of the country is Protestant. We woke up around 11am to get on the train to Breda from Leiden Centraal already decked out in our costumes. Some people had nice themed costumes or some people, like me, just got random stuff that looked funny. We got to Breda 1.5 hours later and the festivities had already begun. The town square was packed with people, young and old, ALL dressed in great costumes. There was music everywhere and everyone wasw smiling and singing along. Massive parade floats drove by in the shadow of Breda's beautiful church while people threw confetti in the air. Definetely unlike anything I have ever seen in the States. Everyone was super friendly nad outgoing. Congo lines broke out at random times and would weave threw the crowds as everyone sang and danced. At around 5pm Jon and I were exausted to we decided to take a nap in the park (if you know me you know I can't surive without a good nap). After the nap we got some dinner with everyone from Leiden and talked about what everyone had done during the day. No one really stuck together because it was too hard to keep track of people. Afte dinner my friend Reed, who is living in Paris, arrived and we went out into the town square to continue the celebration. We danced in the square, went in and out of bars and clubs, and talked with people in crazy costumes. By 1:30 am we were too tired to go on. Even though Breda was still hoppin' we decided to get back on the train and get too our beds as soon as possible. All time.

Check out the slide show below! There are some good videos!

Carnival in Breda