Bringing in the New Year: Germany Style

In the States if you want a real firework show on New Years Eve you have to go looking for one. Sure you might step outside, bang some pans, blow those noise maker things, light some sparklers. You may even see a few fireworks go off in the distance. But, unless you live near a large city, or have made the adventurous trip to one, chances are you watch the big celebration on tv - the ball dropping, the millions of people crammed into time square (which, don't get me wrong, I think would be super awesome to go to some day) and that's pretty much the extent of it. (Atleast that's been my experience)
Sure they have those giant city celebrations in Europe too ( I hear Berlin is bigger than NY even), but just staying at home in your own neighborhood here is quite the event.
Here EVERYONE has their own firework show, right in their own back yard. And I'm not talking those measly little firecrackers. These are full blown, 4th of July quality fireworks. Tonight when we stepped outside at midnight you could see fireworks in every direction. Both neighbors on either side of us were lighting them off, and pretty much 1 out of every 3 of the houses in the entire town were lighting them off. And to add to it all the church bells rang for a good 10 min. The streets were so filled with smoke in a matter of minutes it was actually hard to see most of them. But it was awesome anyhow!

I forgot to take my camera, and I doubt I could have really captured it from where I was anyways. But these pics kind of give you an idea of what's it's like looking down on a German town on New Years Eve