The Most Epic Day

Well, I accidentally just lost about half a page of what was going to be the blog post for today, so now I'll have to retype it all. =(

     This morning began very similarly to yesterday, so I won't go into too much detail. Ryan and I both woke up at 4:00 (again) and then tried to go back to sleep into around 5:30 (again) at which point we both just lay awake, unable to fall asleep, until 6:00 (again) when we finally decided to get up, shower, and waste thirty minutes until breakfast opened. Talk about deja vu. Breakfast and the green apple juice was as delicious as yesterday (we love the green apple juice so much that we even named our chaperone group after it, “The Green Apple Squad”). After breakfast, we drove off to our rehearsal. Though the rehearsal was slightly frightening because several things were definitely not where they should have been, we managed to get through in one piece.

     Back at the Grant Hotel Sophia for lunch again, though this time we ate inside (yesterday we were on the patio). Lunch consisted of (gasp) more vegetables, some meat with a strange, slimy texture, fried calamari (only some ate that), and a pudding-esque dessert. Several tables had some more fun making the crystal glasses ring, even experimenting with different liquids. After lunch, we picked up earpieces and short-range receivers to aid us in the upcoming walking tour to the Nevski Cathedral. Although I'm positive that our guide had many wonderfully educational things to say, unfortunately we were equipped with short-range receivers, and as such Meri, myself, and the rest of the people towards the back of the group heard choppy audio or nothing at all for about three quarters of the walk. Despite this minor obstacle, we reached the Nevski Cathedral, which happens to be the second largest cathedral in this geographical area. Our guide gave us a brief overview of the exterior and the painstakingly detailed interior. When we headed back to our waiting buses, it started to rain lightly, giving us another prime example of Bulgaria's unpredictable weather.

     We headed back to the hotel, where we had ninety minutes until dinner and the evening's concert. It was during this period that I learned an extremely valuable life lesson. Due to the absence of an iron in our room, I attempted to purify my concert clothes from wrinkles by steaming it in the bathroom (turning on hot water and letting the steam take out the wrinkles). When I came back twenty minutes later, not only did I find my clothes still wrinkled, but the steam had condensed on everything in the bathroom, leaving it covered in a think shell of water, and the tub half full of water (due to a bad drain). After this adventure, Ryan and I headed down to dinner where we got stuff that you can probably already guess (pretty similar to last night's dinner).

     In concert attire and with instruments in hand, the whole group once again made their way to the buses to be shipped off to the concert hall for the opening concert of our tour. When we arrived, huge TV cameras, mics littered around the stage, and the news that the concert was sold out was slightly intimidating to say the least. Fast forward two hours and the concert is finished. I can't even fully describe how excited the audience was. Here's a few examples: both sides of the hall were packed with people who, because there were no more seats, had still bought tickets so they could stand through the entire concert, several kids in the balconies started dancing when we were playing Star Wars and Pirates of the Caribbean, and after two encores the audience was still standing in ovation after we had left the stage. It was pretty amazing. And, if all that wasn't good enough, it turned out that the son of the composer of a piece we played was in the audience, as well as several members from the U.S. Embassy, as well as (to top it all off) the King of Bulgaria. Wow. During the reception, I was able to secure an audience with the King along with Ryan where we not only shook his hand, but also had a quite lengthy conservation about PSYO in general and our plans for the future. After so much excitement, we got back on our buses and came back here, to the hotel. It's now fifteen minutes past 11:00 PM and today has got to have been one of the most incredible days of my life. Off to bed.

-Philip

https://picasaweb.google.com/philipsheegog/Bulgaria629?authkey=Gv1sRgCNa4x_mm9_r24QE#

Second Day in Sophia

This isn't breakfast.

     Wow, Day 2 and I'm already falling behind on this stuff. Sad face. Anyway, after a very restless six hours of sleep, myself and my roommate, Ryan, got up because the sun fully risen by 5:30. We tried entertaining ourselves till breakfast by watching TV, but most of the channels were either sappy dramas dubbed in Bulgarian or news channels covering very boring topics. We held out until 7:00, at which point we flew down the elevator and entered the breakfast buffet, and what a breakfast it was. To begin with, there was an assortment of breakfasty meats (including really thick bacon) and your typical continental breakfast choices, like eggs and toast, only they tasted a ton better. Then, there was an omelet chef who had an awesome accent to complement the very little English that he spoke. Next was the fruit bar, which, aside from the grapefruit, contained exceptional specimens of peaches, oranges, pineapple, and watermelon. Finally, as if that wasn't enough, there was the drink bar. Three uncommon juices, green apple, peach, and pineapple, pretty much stole the whole show that morning (especially the green apple). I don't know how they made it so good, but those juices were pretty addicting.

The delicious chocolate pudding.

     After loading ourselves onto two buses, we made our first trip to Sofia Hall, the venue of our first performance, while snapping pictures of various historical buildings, strange street signs, and McDonalds billboards. Once inside the hall, we rehearsed, yay. The hall is very different from UCI or Segerstrom in that it's pretty small for a concert hall, seating around 1,500, and has very little reverb, meaning that there is no echo to help cover up mistakes or slight timing mishaps, and that the acoustics we had gotten used to over the season were now making us a very uncoordinated group. Regardless, the rehearsal was productive, despite the majority of the orchestra being dead tired. After the rehearsal, we walked to the Grand Hotel Sofia, where we ate lunch. Unlike breakfast, the lunch food was much more Bulgarian and vegetabley-tasting. There were, however, delicious cups of pudding, crystal glasses which we utilized in a musical manner, and little glass soda bottles.

Museum of Natural History

Zombie orchestra

     After lunch, the orchestra was split into two groups in order to make our afternoon excursions more manageable. One group would start at the Museum of Natural History, while the other would start on a walking tour of Sofia. My group started at the Museum, which contained a plethora of ancient artifacts, some dating back to several thousand years B.C. The most striking part of the museum's artifacts were carvings made of wood, gold, silver, or other various materials. Some of these carvings, usually of religious purpose, were so finely detailed that I could barely make out the lines, let alone fathom how an ancient civilization created such pieces. After the museum, our Bulgarian guide, noticing how zombie-like the group was becoming, decided that those who wanted to could take an abbreviated version of the walking tour which the other group had done first. Being good students, both my sister and I went. Instead of the normal two-hour trip, we only made one stop at some ruins of the ancient Roman city some ten feet below the current ground level. Several walls, as well as the frame for a gate, were visible at the location where we went.

    We returned to the bus, headed back to the hotel, and went to dinner. Like lunch, the dinner food was more Bulgarian, though less vegetabley than lunch. Of particular note was the lasagna, which was cheese based. Although very rich, the cheese tasted quite good amongst all the layers of noodle. Several guests whom Mrs. Stahr invited spoke, talking about their lives in Sophia and giving some handy life lessons. With the conclusion of dinner, myself and Ryan headed back to our room and, after some evening socializing, went off to sleep once again.

-Philip

Pictures

While Meri and I have been taking dozens of pictures each day, we can only post so many per post (or else the aesthetic value of the post would be as good as none). However, for those who want to see the entirety of the pictures and videos that we've taken, I will be posting links from here on out at the bottom of each day's post that lead to photo albums from each day. Beware, there might be some bizarre shots and videos in the mix. =P

Airport/Day 1:
https://picasaweb.google.com/philipsheegog/Bulgaria626authkey=Gv1sRgCJC63d3poNPq1wE

https://picasaweb.google.com/philipsheegog/Bulgaria627?authkey=Gv1sRgCMDWpaujm9jJ4QE

Day 2: https://picasaweb.google.com/philipsheegog/Bulgaria628?authkey=Gv1sRgCN3U78W4wKHUxQE

-Philip