Mardi Gras, Galveston

Mardi Gras is a very crazy festival. But while you are there, you become an equally involved participant in this festival. In short, its a festival of beeds. People in the balcony throw beed at the people on the road. And for whatever reasons, the people on the road like to collect them. There is also a parade but really, "the beed throwing" itself is a major thing here. New orleans is the home for the biggest Mardi Gras but Galveston is no behind at rank 3.

We reached Galveston (Feb 14th, around 3pm) and looked for a place to eat. All place was crowded and we finally settled in at Denny’s. After that, we parked our car and then walked towards the parade. People were already getting ready to watch the parade by pulling chairs on the sidewalks. We had to walk couple of blocks to get to the main entrance of this festival where all the fun happens. Its a ticket of $18. I had no clue what was to happen here so it was all an excitement. 

The first sight of people on the road catching beed thrown by those on a balcony seemed weird. "Why would anyone want those? », I thought. But as time passed and almost everyone were into it, the euphoria pulled me in too. In less than half an hour,I had collected several beeds. It was so much fun just catch them and adding to your collection. 

We met one spanish lady who enquired if this was the first time we were visiting. When we said yes, she gave all her beeds to us and then asked us to be very careful. Crazy stuff happen here and it did too. Another group of youngsters were all excited about the selfie stick I was carrying and they wanted to try that. They were so drunk that, I feared they would drop my iPhone attached to the stick. A couple standing next to me were collecting as much stuff as they could - Beeds, Frisbees, masks. They told me they were collecting them for their kids back home, so I gave them the frisbee I had caught flying towards me. 

Parade was okay and mostly repetitive. People would throw beeds into a trumpets and even at dancers. It was a crazy atmosphere there. 

I must say that I had not seen such a lively crowd anywhere before. It is definitely a one time viewing for seeing a very weird but fun culture around the US.