My Four Days in Düsseldorf, Germany for Karneval!

My leopard/cat makeup–I used the new Cover FX Contour Kit in N Deep to create this look :)

Around this time last year I was getting ready to head to my family’s home country of Trinidad and Tobago for Carnival to wine and party in the hot son blazing on the twin island republic. This year, I had the opportunity to try something different: Carnival or Karneval in Düsseldorf. I was part of a group of bloggers invited by airberlin to cover the festivities.

Note: My DSLR camera went missing sometime between me getting to JFK and arriving in Düsseldorf so ALL my pics were taken with my iPhone :(

So Düsseldorf Karneval kicks off on 11/11 each year with inaugural festivities and culminates on Ash Wednesday. No, there isn’t nonstop partying straight through (though if there were, I need to go back NOW…lol), but there are certain key days. We got in right before the busier days and of course participated in Carnival Monday festivities. But prior to that we had a lovely walking tour of the city.

The City

Speaking of walking, I love that like my hometown of NYC, you can walk nearly everywhere in Düsseldorf or if you need to go further, it’s just a quick tram or cab ride away. My hotel, the Breidenbacher Hof noted as the most luxurious hotel in Düsseldorf, was centrally located to everything—fifteen minute ride from the airport and for fashion and beauty fiends much like myself TONS of shopping within an arm’s length. Basically I was in heaven.

Just a glimpse inside the Breidenbacher Hof hotel

Düsseldorf is home to about 11 million people and is known for both trade and as I alluded to fashion. In fact so funny—we were walking down the Königsallee (a popular boulevard) and on one side there were tons of banks and financial institutions and on the other tons of stores like Prada, Louis Vuitton, Miu Miu, etc. so our tour guide said it’s a popular joke that on one side you make your money and on the other you lose/spend it…lol.

I was amazed at how immaculate the streets and everything was—even in the midst of some of the major Karneval festivities. I have never seen so many drunk people in one place and haven’t felt nervous and yet could walk gingerly about without worrying about what I might step in—for the most part. One thing I had to really get used to was obeying the street signals for pedestrians. In other words I had to tuck my New York in REAL DEEP because people really pay attention to the signs. Even if no cars are coming they will mostly not cross the street until the sign says WALK. You should have seen me struggling with this…lol. Getting all antsy and what not…lol.

The buildings are another beauty. The architecture will seriously have you leaving in a neck brace from constantly looking up at all the gorgeous structures.

The people are also very friendly—greeting you with smiles and a big “Helau!” (which means hello and is pronounced pretty similarly) Though it was Karneval time so everyone seemed to have the friendly on extra strength. I got around well without speaking German—a few times people would start speaking to me in German and I’d smile and say I didn’t understand and then they’d immediately speak to me in English. Not that I’m saying don’t go learn a new language, but you can get around really well with English…lol.

Shopping

Düsseldorf is also an amazing city if you, like me, love to shop. I hit H&M, Mango, Zara—yes, I know we have these stores in abundance in NYC but you know how things are different elsewhere and they probably get the illest stuff first in Europe…lol. I missed that there was a Primark nearby, too (like I found out when we were at the airport heading home…lol). I also went in Office (didn’t see anything), ginatricot, Douglas (kinda like Ulta in that they have both high-end and drugstore beauty offerings–I visited one in Warsaw), DM (Drogerie Markt—it’s basically like a Duane Reade or CVS but more grand because you can get some awesome skincare products for under 1 Euro). I’ll do a separate post (and video—provided I don’t think I look/sound silly…lol) to show you what I bought.

There’s also tons of consignment stores where you can get brands like Chanel but I didn’t have enough time to check them out (welp, next time!). Then again I probably wouldn’t have been able to afford it anyway…lol. It still would have been nice to check it out if I had more time. Shopping in Düsseldorf is comparable to places like 5th Avenue in NYC.

There’s an H&M inside the Düsseldorf airport in case you need to grab some basics or the latest in fashion before your flight

Food

Like you probably might have guessed, the food is heavily meat-based. You can still get by if you’re a vegetarian (“getting by” is subjective) but for the most part it’s MEAT MEAT MEAT.

Wiener schnitzel at Breidenbacher Hof

There’s tons of local foods like wiener schnitzel, currywurst (a type of sausage with curry sauce—really good), pea soup, pretzels, and of course BEER. I honestly had more beer during my trip than I’ve ever had in life…lol. I tried to avoid it (because: carbs) but after a while when in Germany, do as the Germans do. There were so many brands and types of beers and they were all nicely priced.

There’s a selection of international restaurants as well—I saw tons of Spanish eateries, Japanese (there’s a pretty large Japanese community in Düsseldorf), and tons more. I spotted fast food places like McDonalds and KFC but didn’t try it out (because: calories)…lol. They were packed when we passed by during some of our late nights out so I assume it was good.

One night we had a family style dinner at the Hyatt Regency Düsseldorf after getting to see the gorgeous property. It’s practically on its own island and in addition to having terrific views, it’s also the most gorgeous Hyatt I’ve ever seen. It’s like the perfect mix between a boutique hotel and a chain—definitely more on the boutique side since the decor is so modern and chic. The food was absolutely amazing! I wish there was a scratch and sniff feature for blogs because you’d all be like “MMMMMMMMMMM” lol.

We also ate at the Brewery Zum Schiffchen (I spotted a Trinidad flag there!) which again seemed pretty meat based. I think I had some sort of steak with potatoes that was really good.

After the Karneval parade we had lunch at a tapas restaurant called Miss Moneypenny that was really good, too. I don’t think I had anything that I didn’t like while I was in Düsseldorf.

I also ate a lot in the hotel because I couldn’t sleep. So a small group of us would hang out in the lobby until laaaaaate drinking tons of milchkaffee (strong filtered coffee with hot milk and sometimes froth—soooo good). The food at the Breidenbacher Hof was delicious and thankfully they had a good 24 hour menu for crazy night owls like me.

Karneval

Düsseldorf Karneval is based on Roman Catholic traditions and is comparable to celebrations like Trinidad Carnival and Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Obviously since the weather in Düsseldorf is too chilly for the type of costumes worn in Trinidad (though it was still a lot milder than NYC—some days we had temps in the 50s and on the coldest days it was still above 32 degrees Fahrenheit).

People instead wear costumes like you would see during Halloween and they can get really creative with them, too. I wore my zebra costume from last Halloween for Carnival Monday and then a leopard costume for another night. It’s also a time celebrated by all ages—you’ll see very small children through seniors participating in some of the festivities.

When your whole squad is turnT up ???????? ???? ???? #TSABDinDusseldorf #tsabdtravels #Karneval #Dusseldorf #airberlin #yourairline ????????

A video posted by Danielle Gray (@stylenbeautydoc) on Feb 14, 2015 at 5:19am PST

As I mentioned earlier, people at Düsseldorf Karneval are on like level 100 excited and friendly and in über party mode. I have never seen so many drunk people on the streets where I wasn’t afraid—Germans know how to hold their alcohol for sure…lol. And even with so many drunk people—I saw zero chaos.

For our first night of festivities we went to a Drag Queen Race. I was really excited about seeing this because the way it was described to me, I thought it was going to be a grand ball of “Paris is Burning” proportions. There were some great acts (loved the Whitney Houston “Didn’t We Almost Have it All” lip sync) but for the most part these drag queens were pretty tame. See video below.

Drag Queen Races Düsseldorf Germany from Danielle Gray on Vimeo.

Drag Queen Races Düsseldorf 2 from Danielle Gray on Vimeo.

Whitney Houston "Didn't We Almost Have it All" Drag Queen Races from Danielle Gray on Vimeo.

When You Don't Know What They're Saying But Turn Up Anyway from Danielle Gray on Vimeo.

With 1/2 of Youtube’s Vagabrothers

With David of Viaja Blog and Niehl of Tjoolaard

After the show we all went out to bar hop. Turning up in Düsseldorf is pretty interesting. People love to party and dance (people were twerking, wining, and amazingly all on-beat) but the music can be uh—interesting. Like one minute you can be listening to something like—I don’t know let’s say Black Sheep’s “The Choice is Yours” (for which I got down and then up for the obligatory “pick it up, pick it up, pick it up!” part with my new homey Arnette) and then they’ll play the theme song—the FULL song at that with verses you forgot about—from “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” then like some Motown stuff and what shocked me the most is they even played “Mahna Mahna” from the Muppets and NOBODY batted an eye—they just kept turning up. Düsseldorf knows how to party…lol. My new blogger pal Jenna from Give for Granted got a little video of the night you can see here.

(Some of the German men seem to also really be into tall Black girls in leopard costumes–I had so many guys ask me to dance, stare me down—like in a “hey, girl”—kinda way and one came up to me and had a full blown conversation about how he wanted to take me to see Berlin. I don’t get attention like that here in NYC at all…lol. Let me find out I need to go back to Germany to have my Josephine Baker moment…lol).

From Friday through of course Carnival Monday it was not uncommon to see people walking around in costumes in droves. It was like EVERYBODY and their mama (literally…lol) was out in the streets dressed up. Most costumes were of the character kind—I rarely saw any scary/gory ones. And people were not trying to sacrifice being cold for a skimpy costume—I saw tons of Snuggy-like costumes that covered everything and I’m guessing folks had tons of layers on underneath, too. I wore leggings underneath my costumes to keep warm.

With my homey Arnette of Round the World Girl and Clint of Trip Hackr

On Carnival Monday we headed over to be guests on the Commite Karneval float. Our float was pretty far down in line so we got to check out most of them before the parade began. Many were political satires depicting current events and topics such as the Isis terrorist threats. Then I was expecting it but at the same time not expecting it, but then I came across a group of about 7-10 people in both afro wigs and black face. To say I was disgusted would be an understatement. As I walked by one of the geniuses thought it was a good idea to try and greet me with the official “Helau!” (means hello…lol) and I ignored his dumb behind. SMH. Then as I made my way further in towards our float, some old man asked me if I was real or painted—at first I thought he meant because I had on a zebra catsuit and zebra makeup but then he goes “Are you naturally brown?” which made him the recipient of the side-eye-st of side eyes. I wasn’t going to let those incidents ruin my mood since 95% of my time there was very favorable. And not long after that we were on our float and on the road.

During Karneval the people filled into the streets of Düsseldorf to watch the parade—very similar to how they would in any parades here. Many of the floats were throwing out candy for the children (as long as they yelled “Helau!”) and small items like soft balls and tissue packs (because otherwise: OUCH) to the adults. Man, when I tell you we had a ball on that float! I was throwing the tissue packs to guys like I was Derek Jeter or something…lol. It was so much fun to see how far and fast I could throw those things and how people in the crowd were catching them effortlessly. It was SO great to see the kids getting all excited for the candy we were throwing (and accidentally hitting some of them with the candy—whoops!). There were all ages of people in the crowd blowing kisses and waving and cheering—it was SO awesome. You should have seen how the Black people were reacting to seeing me on the float. They were hyped! LOL. It felt great seeing some of the young Black children smiling back at me and so many of the young Black women were waving and blowing kisses. It was amazing. Even getting on the tram to get back to the hotel I had young Black women waving me down to say “Helau!” Ahhh so awesome. See video below.

Karneval in Düsseldorf 2 from Danielle Gray on Vimeo.

Karneval in Düsseldorf from Danielle Gray on Vimeo.

Museums

Düsseldorf is home to some amazing museums. I along with my new homey Arnette from Round the World Girl went to visit the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen. I bought some fashion books from the gift shop. And then we went to the K21 to see the Tomás Saraceno in orbit installation which you can normally climb inside and walk around in but it was closed off when we got there :(

Getting there

I’m very thankfully for having airberlin business class accommodations both ways—it definitely made a 5’9″ girl feel comfy. The food was amazing—I have this thing about being really nervous about getting hungry on flights so I usually carry tons of snacks with me but the food was great and plentiful in business class. The service was amazing, too—I feel like if I asked one of the flight attendants to tuck me in, they would have…lol.

Overall

I had an amazing time and would definitely go back to Düsseldorf even if it’s just for a quick shopping trip…lol. No, seriously, there’s more I didn’t get to see that I’d love to get back to :)

Have you ever been to Germany? Questions about Düsseldorf? Leave me a comment!