Omega

Austria: Day 7

     It's a rather amazing phenomena, seeing people who have never seen or heard of each other before becoming steadfast friends and inseparable companions. As amazing as it is, though, I'm watching a prime example of such a phenomena in front of me right now. About ten kids, who all came from different cities, from different schools from different backgrounds, but after a week of living, eating, and performing together, we've become a tight group. The dynamic friendships that I've seen on this trip are about as strong of the range of dynamics in the pieces that we've been playing. The people I've met this week will hopefully be friends for life. Enough of this wishy-washy talk of abstract ideas, on to today's events. As I wrote last night, we had a brutal 7:15 bus call this morning to go to the castle Neuschwanstein. It turned out, though, that a good chunk of the group, probably about twenty people, decided not to go because they wanted to buy souvenirs or just spend some extra time sleeping in. For those of us who were in adventurous moods, however, got up early and loaded onto the bus. It's a three hour bus ride out to the castle, so we entertained ourselves with some more Idiot Game (we got Cameron beatboxing to help keep time), One Word Stories, and other random stuff, as usual. About half an hour from our destination, we stopped at a small market and picked up some food to hold us over until lunch. Some Pringles, sodas, and chocolate named after chamber pieces (seriously, the chocolate was called “Cafe Musica” and the piece played was called “Cafe Music”).

     We reached the bus parking lot without incident and, to help save some time, took a separate bus up the winding mountain road to the the bridge overlooking the castle. Stunningly, a very small group of people decided to hike up the mountain and, even more shockingly, made it up the the bridge before we bus folk did. The view from the bridge was absolutely stunning, if not a little rickety and extremely windy. Oh, and it was freezing cold. After taking some phots at the bridge, we hiked down to the castle itself and got in line for the guided tour. The castle, which was another mansion built by King Ludwig II (same guy who built the mansion we saw on Tuesday), was not quite as extravagant as the previous mansion, though, in my opinion, the architecture was more beautiful and detailed. We got the climb legit spiral staircases, like, full on castle turrets. In addition, we saw a two-thousand pound chandelier and a two-million piece mosaic floor. The early morning was, in all of our opinions, definitely worth the experience of visiting the “Disneyland” castle. Instead of taking a bus down the mountain, the group was set to hike down the mountain road. However, my usual groupies and I decided to tag along with the group who hiked up the the bridge in record time. In addition to using their shortcut, some of us youngins ran down the hill, allowing us to make it down in about five minutes (for comparison, the guide said it would take around half an hour). After waiting for the rest of our clan to catch up, we snagged lunch at a nearby restaurant that was serving German standards, including bratwurst, schnitzel, and chicken. Following lunch, we went back to the bus for the trek home. More Rat Slap, some Go Fish, and Mao made the bus ride back go by in a flash. We got back to the hotel where we had about forty minutes before the bus for dinner left. In that time, Cameron and Ben successfully threw six strawberries, a mini baguette, and a tablet of Airborne out our window and, in one case, nearly hitting a car.

     When our time was up, we loaded up the bus and left again for our final dinner in Austria. The restaurant was similar to many of our previous meals, but with one key difference: we had live musicians and folk dancers performing for, and with, us. Although the music at the beginning was a little loud and seemed only to obstruct conversation, the dancing later in the evening was really fun and entertaining. We even got Weston (my pianist) up front for a few numbers. While we were eating, Professor Joon Sung Jun, a cello coach who came on the trip, gave us dating advice using bread rolls to illustrate his points. It was very amusing. With our final dinner concluded, we loaded (yet again) onto the bus for our final return to the Meininger Hotel. Now we're here, waiting until 2 AM for our bus ride to the airport. This trip has been one of epic proportions in all aspects. Thanks for any and all readers of this blog. I hope its been entertaining, enlightening, and maybe even slightly educational. I'm not sure if I'll get a chance to post more, so, if not, hope to see you all soon. Off to the next adventure.

-Philip