Carnival in Kastoriá

About a year ago, we went to Kastoriá, where we spent the first days of the new year. I had posted some pictures of the lakes around the city (see, e.g. here and here), but I never talked about the amazing carnival - the Ragoutsária - that is happening around the 6th of January. The whole town is filled with Balkan music, almost every taverna and bar is packed with people and musicians, and in addition there are at least a dozen bands playing in the (freezing cold) streets - loud, energetic and crazy. The reason I never posted pictures was that I hoped to be able to post some videos I had taken. While the image quality was really great, the tiny microphone in my camera couldn't cope with the large number of tubas, trumpets, horns, trombones and percussion instruments only a few meters away. So I finally gave up and decided to post some pictures instead. I hope you still get a feeling of the energy in the city during these nights!