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

Cloudy with a Chance of Strawberries

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