Day Eight: Prague... at leisure!

So today, we were told to explore Prague.... at our own leisure. So, of course, BODB decided to do it in style! We took the morning to sleep in and get all pretty and shopping ready, and headed over to the Hard Rock Café Prague for lunch. Guys... it was SO EXPENSIVE. But way worth it! I had their local pick Burger and a Pickle me Tink... and it was awesome! 

Hard Rock.

Pickled Tink. So good.

After lunch, we had a nice, leisurely stroll across the Charles Bridge... and over the course of an hour, Molly, David and David and I were lost and found... and then David was lost again. It was fun... kind of. Oh wait. Lost in a foreign city. Yeah.... not good. But we made it out alive... and with a story to tell. OH, and after all that happened, BODB put a lock on a lock bridge*. So now we are forever a part of the city of Prague. Who else can say that!? 

The view from Charles Bridge

We made it back to the hotel with just enough time to spiff up a bit and then get walking (in the rain) to our dinner cruise. Sounds luxurious, right? Wrong. The food was okay and the wine was really cheap. But good friends make all the difference, and we had a blast. Mama Germie even earned himself a little audience as we were crossing under the Charles Bridge with his rendition of one of Adele's songs. (I don't remember which one was during the cross under the bridge.... because we covered pretty much all of them). It was a wonderful, wonderful night and a perfect farewell evening to our tour. 

Day Seven: Prague

So today, we spent a full day in Prague, touring, giving concerts and taking the long-needed nap. 


**Disclaimer: My camera died today... so I have very, very few pictures taken by my iPhone.


We started off in the morning with a tour of the Prague Castle, and an informal concert in St. Vitus Cathedral, on the grounds of the Prague Castle. Then, we crossed the beautiful Charles Bridge into Old Town Prague, and walked to the Old Town Square. Our lovely tour guide, Olga, then left us and we went our separate ways for lunch before the formal concert that afternoon at St. Nicholas Cathedral in Old Town Square. We then had the option of exploring Prague at leisure for the afternoon, or following Johan back to the hotel for a quiet afternoon in before dinner. We chose the latter, because at this point... we were EXHAUSTED, folks. So BODB took naps together.... literally, guys. German, Nicole and I slept in our bed, while Devon slept on our floor. And then Molly and Nathan were in their respective rooms... each with their own full bed. Were they the smart ones? Arguably. Did we have more fun? Most definitely. That night for dinner, we went to this lovely restaurant right off the square, and had a wonderful dinner.  


Here are some pictures from the day:

This is Prague.

St. Nicholas Church at night.

The clock tower in Old Town Square. There's this cool astronomical clock on the side of this tower, and there's a presentation every hour where the figures on the wall animate and herald the hour, followed by a trumpet salute by a trumpeter standing on the top level that you see in the picture.

View from our hotel room :)

Prague Castle.

St. Vitus Cathedral. AHH. 

The inside of St. Vitus Cathedral. Yeah... we sang there.

The. Rose. Window. 

Hello, gorgeous.

The back of St. Vitus Cathedral. Beautiful architecture.

Prague. 

Day Six: St. Stephan Church Service/Telč/Prague

Happy Sunday! It's the day of the Lord... so let's all take a second and thank Him for His bountiful blessings. 

To celebrate this wonderful day, we were privileged enough to sing in the church service at St. Stephan's Cathedral in Baden. This is an exceedingly beautiful church, and we got to stand right under the MAGNIFICENT organ. And we got to sing. It was really a beautiful thing, and we sounded AWESOME. Oh, and props to Sarah for taking my solo... because that's right... I STILL didn't have a voice. Boo :(

After the church service, we jumped on the bus (BODB*) and rode for around 4ish hours to Telč-- this adorable little Czech town on the way to Prague. 

This is Telč.

I am so in love with this little town.

It's like a European version of the small towns in Westerns. Anyone? Anyone? No? Okay, Never mind.

Guh.

The other side of the square. I believe there's a monastery or a castle or something over in that direction, but we'll never know. It will remain in magical European mystery forever. (Or, you could Google it. That would probably work too)

Well, that was the longest caption ever. That's what I get for trying to be witty. 

After we visited this darling little town (and got yelled at by Johan for being late to get on the bus), we were back en route to Prague. We arrived just in time for dinner and drinks at the super cool bar in the hotel. I called it a pretty early night, though, because not only had I lost my voice at this point, I was also feeling like absolute poo. Hooray. 

So after a short little Skype date, I was off to bed after a LONG day of traveling. 

*BODB-- you know you're wondering what this beautiful and mysterious grouping of letters means. Well, little did you know that it's an elite club of six members, that are known to always, ALWAYS sit at the back of da bus. Nathan, Devon (#1), Mama Germie, Nicola and Molly. And me, Princess Kenzie. It's official. Like lock on a lock bridge official. But that's a story for a different day. 

Day Five: Baden

Since we did not advance to the next round, we got to spend the whole day in Baden, walking around the beautiful little town and doing some well deserved shopping. 

In the morning, we had a short performance in the square of the town, which I was unable to sing for... due to a complete and utter lack of ability to phonate. That's right, folks. I lost my voice. On a performance tour. How's that for some unlucky irony? So here's what went down. I stood out there in my spot, with the rest of the choir. And pulled a pop star. Full animation, mouthed every word, absolutely no sound. Except there was no auto-tuned, perfect track of my voice being played over speakers to fool everyone into thinking that I was singing. Nope. Instead there was an anemic-sounding soprano section and a little hint of frustration on my face. And Chris only laughed a little bit when he scanned the choir and saw me full-on lip synching. But it's okay. We all got through it. 

Anyway, here's a picture of us performing, compliments of Wolfgang, the guy who was in charge of organizing all us crazy choir kids from around the world into a well-oiled machine of a competition. (And let me tell ya, folks, that ain't easy to do. We're kind of crazy.)

That building behind us is the theater where the competition took place. It was way beautiful and historic... which almost made up for the fact that it was not air conditioned. Almost. 

After this little shenanigans was over, we got to spend the whole rest of the day shopping. And guys.... it was awesome. I bought this adorable little mint-green skirt (that I may or may not have kind of stolen from Molly. She picked up the wrong size, and I picked up the right one. OKAY?!) and.... a beautiful new handbag. 

Isn't it beautiful??

Molly and I. This is the "WE JUST BOUGHT BAGS!!!" picture. 

And after a full day of shopping, we stopped at our new favorite coffee shop, Clementine, and got the best chai in the world. Seriously, guys, this chai is so good. I mean, it even looks pretty. GUH.

The. best. chai. ever

And after our afternoon of shopping and fun, we went to the final awards ceremony, where we were awarded Silver, with a score of 88 out of 100. (Let's take a second and review. 88. Out of 100. AT AN INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION. Haec Dies!!) And the winning choir, this AMAZING choir from Argentina, also performed at the ceremony. They were real good. What made them different from us? They had so much fun up there performing. They were dancing, they were smiling, they were having fun. And they were dang good. 

To celebrate the success of the competition, we were then invited to this wonderful little events venue thing, and we all partied together! They played awesome music and we danced the night away. So. fun. :) 

Great day, guys, great day. 

Day Four: Baden (AV-ICC)

I would venture to say that this day was the shining moment of our tour. 


We woke up early. We got on the bus to Baden. We had our warm up. We walked over to the Auditorium.


And then Prima Voce gave the best performance that we possibly could have given that day. Every single person in that group rose to the occasion, and we kicked butt. And I have never been prouder to be in a choral ensemble than I was up on that stage, singing in that moment with a bunch of close friends. 


So we went and celebrated at the Baden Hot Springs! We swam, we splashed and we had so much fun people watching! Seriously. We saw old. We saw wrinkly. We saw fat. We saw speedos. So. cute. 


Oh, and then we sat down for dinner... and we were served our food by one of the most attractive men I have seen. And those of us who were attracted to him (everyone except Devon) got a picture with him (taken by Devon. He was that friend). Oh, and he totally touched Nicole's and my butt  put his arms around us while we took the picture. ;)


We did find out while we were eating that Prima didn't make it to the next round of the competition. And I'll be honest. We were real disappointed. But what did we do next? We jumped back into our concert attire for the "Long Night of Choral Singing" and gave another killer performance. (Take that, judges!!) 


Sorry, no pictures from today... I didn't bring my camera along to either place. 

Day Three: Eisenstadt/Esterhazy and Baden

Day Three. Awesome day. (I will warn you... they were all awesome... so don't get too tired of me using the word 'awesome' yet.)


We started nice and early, and headed for Eisenstadt, where we visited Esterhazy Palace, and heard more about Maria Theresia and her family. Seriously, they were EVERYWHERE. I don't think we went a single place on the entire tour without hearing Maria Theresia's name.


Anyways.... Eisenstadt? ADORABLE little European town. Esterhazy? Surprisingly unexciting. I don't know... I guess it was all of the grand places that we had already been that caused the simple Asian-inspired decor to be less than exciting. (Sidenote: Asian-inspired... in Austria? I don't understand either.) The cool, part, though, was our informal concert in Haydn Hall-- acclaimed for it's seemingly perfect acoustics. We even attracted an audience of other tour groups that requested an encore! (Thank you, thank you very much)


Here are some pictures:

Esterhazy.

Again. Such beautiful architecture.

Courtyard. 

Little miss Jo. Posing with the Asian decor. (Oh hush, ya little racists, she did it on her own. I took a picture because it's adorable.)

What did I tell you about the ceiling pictures? They have pretty ceilings.

Haydn Hall.

CEILING. 

Prima :) 

Ceiling. Again. (I told you there were a lot...)

Ceiling. But seriously, guys. This is so cool, is it not??

After this wonderful little adventure, and a beautiful lunch at a café in Eisenstadt (and some well-deserved gelato), we jumped back on the bus and took off for Baden and the Ave Verum International Choral Competition. (sounds legit, huh?)

Once we had checked in at about the crappiest hotel ever, we headed for Baden. In Baden, we were greeted by an adorable local, Sabina, and led to the park in town, where we were greeted by a bunch of different local groups performing for us. However, my jet lag chose this exact afternoon to slap me upside the head, so... I may or may not have fallen asleep on the grass nearby. (Okay, I did... let's get real. And apparently, there was some little local boy staring at Molly and I as we slept... charming.) And then we got* to go see the opening concert for the competition.

*Note. This was the longest/weirdest choral concert I've even seen. And I'll admit... I slept for about half of it. I know, I know... I should have payed attention. But my little friend named jet lag was not done tormenting me. So I slept. And the gods of choral music did not smite me down, thank you very much. So, Ha!

But then, folks, then we went to the opening party for the competition. At the local casino. And guys, I was officially carded (technically, I was passported) and allowed into a casino. Yep. It was legit. 

And then. Then I got to sleep. :)

Day Two: Vienna/Klosterneuberg

On Wednesday, we had a half-day in Vienna, packed full with lots of sight seeing, and our formal concert with Chor Weidling in the afternoon.


We started with a walking tour of Vienna... and folks, this is a B-E-A-UTIFUL city.

Look at all that architectural wonderful-ness. 

I just had to. We don't have cute flower shops like this in the states.

This is a cake. No, I'm not joking.

Hofburg Palace. This is the home of the current government of Vienna.

This was in the courtyard of Hofburg. Some ruler-person dressed up in Romanesqu garb to make him look special. (Yes, I really did pay attention to the tour guide, thank you very much)

Cool horse-person statue. He was on the other side of the Hofburg.

This was the town hall-ish establishment. REALLY? Our town hall is so lame. 

GUH. St. Stephen's cathedral. 

First of many, MANY ceiling shots from the tour. Their ceilings are so much fancier than ours. 

Stairway to heaven... erm... the pulpit. 

They hung colored cellophane in front of the windows (hence the club-y vibe to the church). 

KLOSTERNEUBERG. This place is just so darn photogenic. Ivy walls, round towers, red roofs? I mean, come on.

My first (and only... ick) beer on the tour. It tasted okay, but sat awfully in my stomach. 

And lunch. Salad with chicken. (Sidenote: I tried Wienerschnitzel at this meal. Verdict? Good, but REAL heavy. I'm glad I only had a bite.)

And this, my friends, is the inside of Klosterneuberg.

My head exploded a little when I saw it. I won't lie.

Ladies and gents, this was Anton Bruckner's church. We sang Bruckner. In Bruckner's church....

LOOKING AT BRUCKNER'S ORGAN.

Guys. I need you to understand that this is the ultimate level of music-nerd-freak-out. Like if this was Music Nerd Hero, this would be the level where all of those little colored circles all blur together and you practically have to have a seizure to get all of them correct. (Guitar Hero reference, guys, COME ON.)  

No...? Moving on. 

Well, suffice it to say, this was a wonderful day. Good food, good people, good places. I'm officially addicted to Europe. 

Toodles for now! :)

(Yes, toodles. You're fine.)