How to miss a carnival

So, having recently come back from the lovely city of Barranquilla just before the carnival fever really gets started, there was an important decision to make. Stay in Mainz during their carnival, or get out of the city (and preferably the country).

In the end we were stuck here barricading ourselves in the house so as to prevent the drunken mob doing there business against our front door, with all windows shut to try to prevent the sound of the shouting stop us from going to sleep.

There is one way to let the Mainz carnival pass by without affecting you much. Rent 5 DVDs, make sure you've stocked up on all major foodstuffs and don't leave the house from the Saturday until Tuesday. The films that we watched were The Perfect Crime, Next, Zodiac, Freedom Writers, The Oh! in Ohio.
Whilst not watching films, we kept up to date on the status of the Barranquilla carnival (the marvels of the internet) and eating through the food we had piled into the fridge.

So, now a bit of a novelty, here's a few of the photos taken on my trip to Colombia going via New York (where I met up with Eva). Hope you like them.