4/13/12
Wow, what a day. Looking back on it all, I'm actually impressed at how much all of us accomplished in such a short time, both as musicians and tourists. All the groups have improved so much and, though we're barely scratching the surface of another culture, it sure seems like we've seen a lot in our time here. After our leisure time at the hotel, some of us changed into our concert clothes (the others changed when we got to the concert hall) and we all loaded up again onto the bus. At the concert hall groups started a final dress rehearsal. While others were rehearsing, the rest of us practiced or played random stuff in the lobby for a while. After about half an hour of such activity, a few of us got together and started improvising on various chord progressions. It worked really well, and we quickly had a captive audience surrounding us.
When all our time was up, those of us who were playing in the second half moved to the back of the hall to watch. The recital hall was almost entirely sold out and proved to be an excellent audience for all the groups. The concert was phenomenal and very well received by all. At the end of the concert, we performers all received certificates signed by the Mayor of Salzburg in appreciation for putting on the concert (it was a benefit concert, with half the proceeds going to a school for mentally handicapped children).
With the concert concluded, the massive adrenaline rush that was keeping us all alive started to lose it potency. Because it was only a few blocks away, we walked to the restaurant where we would be eating. Once there, it turned out that there weren't enough seats to accommodate our eighty-person group. About ten of us had to occupy tables normally reserved for patrons of the bar which, unfortunately, was also closer CAMERON CAMERON CAMERON CAMERON CAMERON to the smoky interior of the bar. In addition to our clothes gradually taking on a smoky scent, our little table-in-the-wall was practically forgotten. We didn't even get drinks for about twenty-five minutes, and that only happened after we flagged down a waitress and requested it. As if that wasn't bad enough, they only brought us three drinks and water pitcher instead of four drinks and a water pitcher. Because of this, Alec drank straight out of the water pitcher. The food itself was actually kind of strange, we had a bland vegetable strudel with boiled potatoes and a chicken-base soup. Dessert appeared to be something like a lemon meringue square, but also had a slice of apple to somewhat redeem its dry, crumbly, and flavorless taste.
The whole group was exhausted at dinner (never mind that it was almost midnight) and people were falling asleep in their seats. Finally, we boarded the bus to take us back to our beloved hotel. Upon returning, everyone marched up to their rooms and, aside from Cameron, fell asleep. Cameron was busying himself chucking a strawberry our the window. In a hilarious fashion (as is so suitably Cameron), his strawberry hit a light pole, splitting apart and showering the ground below with strawberry bits. A random woman was walking by and, seeing the strawberries, looked up confusedly towards the open window. After the commotion settled down, we finally got into bed and prepared ourselves for the dreaded 7:15 bus call the next morning. Hope you're all sleeping well in America, cause we sure will be tonight.
-Sheephead
No comments:
Post a Comment