Ich bin ein Berliner

Today is Altweiber here, an 'important' day in the karneval kalender - when no man (or his tie) is safe from marauding women (it's seen as an excuse for women to dress up and spend the day partying, if they're at work they will go round the offices with scissors and cut off any man's tie they find)

Rosenmontag is this coming Monday and is the day when the actual carnival parades take place and Düsseldorf and Köln will be thronged with crazily dressed people all trying to get as drunk as humanly possible. Karneval is the green light for Germans to have fun and party, and they do it as they do everything - with serious intent.

These iced doughnuts are the thing I like most about Karneval, there are always plain jam doughnuts in the bakers but the specially iced ones, some filled with baileys cream (drool) some with advocat (ick) appear for New Year and Karneval and therefore have to be enjoyed as often as possible during these short periods.