2008-2009
Nineteenth Season
 | |
|
Notes from the Road
June 2008: MYSO
embarks on a trip to Budapest, Prague and Vienna. Read more
about our experiences:
|
Hello from Budapest!
Well, we are all here and what an exciting
and LONG 24-36 hours it has been for us!
The great news is all musicians, instruments
and travelers are safely here and we are at
the Hotel Mercure Buda.
For our first travel group, things began
early on Saturday with a 6:30 am arrival at
Hartsfield Jackson. United was a little
slow checking the group in, but we had
plenty of time to get through security and
still have time to grab some breakfast. The
next two groups took off later in the day,
with an 11:30 am and a 4:40 pm departure.
There was a tight connection in Frankfurt
for our first travel group, but we all made
it and all groups arrived in Budapest by
12:30 pm on Sunday. Some folks had their
bags stay in Frankfurt, but we expect these
to be delivered to the hotel this afternoon
or evening.
Our first stop was a trip to the Market at
Hero Square on the Pest side of the Danube
River. This is a huge street festival with
a horse show, arts and crafts and food
vendors. It so crowded and we were so
tired, but it was great to absorb the
culture of some of Budapest. We were able
to buy some unique items and sample some
authentic Hungarian food. We also drove
along Andrassy street (a main thoroughfare
of Pest with embassy and some higher end
shops) and saw the Opera House and St.
Stephen's Basilica.
After the visit to Hero Square, everyone
headed to the hotel. One of the early
arriving groups had time for some relaxation
and even a swim before rehearsal. The other
groups had time to shower, but then head
straight to rehearsal at 4:00 pm!
So the musicians are rehearsing, the
chaperones are recovering and we are looking
forward to dinner and bed!
I will try to keep you updated as long as I
have internet access. Bottom line though,
if you don't hear from your musicians -
don't worry! They are busy and having a
great time!
|
|
Buda, Pest and a Concert
This has been
another full day in Hungary with non-stop activity from
morning until tonight!
We began
this morning with a bus tour of Pest, seeing some of the
same things as the day before but we were much more
awake and aware of our surroundings! After a bus ride we
then stopped at Castle Hill for a visit to Matthias
Church and Fisherman's Bastion. What an amazing view of Pest
from here!
Next was a
stop on one of the main shopping streets in Pest at the Vaci
utca. This shopping street is pedestrian only with shops,
food and at the end the central market hall, Vasarcsarnok.
This indoor market was filled with food and craft vendors,
so some ate and some bought their souvenirs.
After
several hours in the shopping district we headed off to our
concert venue, located about 1.5 hours from Budapest in the
town of Dunauvajros. The musicians rehearsed at the Bela
Bartok theatre from 4 until 6 pm. They had a short break for
dinner and time to change into their concert attire.
The Bela
Bartok theatre had seating for about 400 people. As the
doors opened just before 7 pm, we were thrilled to see the
people from the community pouring into the concert hall. Our
concert kicked off the annual summer music festival held at
this theatre. By the time everyone was seated the concert
hall was over 75 percent full.
The concert
was beautiful and the audience showed their pleasure with
the performance with a special type of clapping. The
audience would clap in unison, starting slow, then speeding
up. This was a request for an encore, which Dr. Seelman
happily provided. They requested another encore, but due to
a long drive back to Budapest we had to get on the road. As
the musicians exited the theater they found a group of
teenagers who attended the concert waiting to talk with
them. Some musicians stopped and posed for pictures, which
the Hungarian teenagers seemed to really enjoy.
So we are
now back at the hotel, with a full day of experiences and
memories. Your musicians have been wonderful and you would
be very proud of how they have represented Atlanta and
America!
More to
come..... |
|
Eisenstadt -
On the Road to Vienna
Today we
traveled from Budapest to Vienna, with a stop along the way
in Eisenstadt.
We left
Budapest in the morning, traveling along the Danube. We
didn't leave the hotel until 9:30 am, which is good because
most of the musicians were up late the night before eating
pizza. They were starving after their concert and we
decided to order pizza around 10 pm. The pizza didn't
arrive until after midnight! So we had a late night pizza
party before sending the kids to bed.
The ride to
Eisenstadt was enhanced by us viewing the Sound of Music and
all of the adults singing very loudly (much to the kids
chagrin!). We arrived in Eisenstadt around lunch time with
several hours available to have lunch and tour the Esterhazy
Palace and The Haydn House. The photo above is in front of
the Esterhazy Palace.
The group
split up into a few groups to tour the various locations.
The Haydn House is where Joseph Haydn lived while he was in
service to the Esterhazy family. In the Esterhazy palace is
Haydn Hall, one of the best acoustical concert halls in
Austria.
We arrived
at our hotel around 7 pm. The musicians had a quick dinner
and then a late night rehearsal. The hotel we are staying
at is a small family owned hotel that is quaint - but has
no air conditioning. We have awoke on June 4th to the sound
of rain, so this will be an exciting day I am sure!
We are now
headed into Vienna for a full day of sightseeing and an
optional concert tonight to see the Vienna Mozart Orchestra.
More to
come.... |
|
Vienna We
awoke to more rain today at 6:00 am. We had a full day of
sightseeing and music in Vienna - from our departure at 7:30
am until our return at 8:30 pm.
 We
started with a tour of Schonbrun Palace - summer home of the
Hapsburgs. After the tour of the palace and the beautiful
gardens we had a driving tour of the Ringstrasse - the road
around Vienna with many famous buildings, museums and
churches. We ended up at the Albertina (a fine arts museum)
where we were able to have free time for the afternoon.
Free time was spent
visiting churches, museums, the House of Musik, the
Opera House, the Sacher Hotel (home of the famous Sacher
Torte) and shopping, of course! Thankfully there was very
little rain throughout the afternoon!
After free time we returned
to the Albertina (in a light rain) and caught the bus to the
Auerburg Palais to hear the Vienna Residenz Orchestra. We
enjoyed a beautiful chamber concert with opera and dancing.
Everyone that attended enjoyed the experience! Those that
did not attend had some additional free time in the city
before we headed back to the hotel.
After a late dinner at the
hotel we all headed to bed to prepare for another long day
on Thursday! We will be sightseeing in Vienna again with an
evening concert at a very old church in Vienna.
More to come..... |
|
Vienna Another day in
Vienna and we woke up to harder rain. We had a long day
planned - waking at 7 am and not returning to the hotel
until at least 10 pm. Everyone had to have everything
together - all their concert attire and everything else they
needed for the day!
As we arrived in Vienna, we
were glad to have our bright yellow rain jackets (even
thought some say they will never wear them again!) as the
rain continued. We began our tour at the Winter Palace of
the Hapsburgs. Here we visited the Museum of Musical
Instruments, seeing all of the familiar string instruments
as well as some very unique instruments from several hundred
years ago.
Our next stop was the
Mozart House which chronicled Mozart's musical career. It
was also one of the places Mozart lived in Vienna with his
family. This was a self guided tour, but some of us (at
least some of us adults!) could have spent more time than
allowed.
After our two tours we had
free time until early afternoon. Groups were able to eat and
shop a little more in the area near St. Stephens church,
then met at the Schweden-platz to catch the bus. We had a
short bus ride out to the Central Cemetery. This is where
many of the musical greats are buried - Beethoven and his
family, Brahms, Strauss and others. Mozart has a memorial
there, but no grave. He died during a time when everyone
except royalty were buried in mass graves - so no one knows
where his remains are.
After leaving the Central
Cemetery we traveled back to Vienna. We had dinner at the
Rathaus (city hall) in the Rathauskeller restaurant. After
dinner we made our way over to the concert venue -
Minoritenkirche. This church is home to a life-size
reproduction of The Last Supper painting. It was a beautiful
venue!
The musicians played to a
full house and the sound was angelic. They played
beautifully and the audience clearly wanted an encore, which
Dr. Seelman again provided. Some of the audience stayed
after the concert and spoke with some of the musicians.
After the concert we
returned to our hotel where the musicians had some free time
before curfew.
We leave today to travel to
Prague. If we have internet service in Prague I will
continue to send the daily updates.
Hopefully - more to come! |
 On
the Road to Praha
Today we
traveled from Vienna to Prague by bus. This was about a 6
hour trip, with a stop along the way for lunch. As one of
our hosts would say - this was a "cruisie" day with time to
recover from our busy days in Vienna.
We arrived
in Prague (or Praha to the locals) around 4:30 pm. We went
to the Old Town part of Prague for a few hours before
dinner. There was shopping and sightseeing, with some
visiting the Jewish Quarters.
We then
went to the hotel for check-in and dinner. We had to go in
shifts because the lobby of the hotel is small. However,
this is by far the nicest hotel we have stayed in. We have
robes, slippers, air conditioning and wash clothes!
After
dinner several groups traveled back to Old Town on the tram
for a view of Prague at night. We felt very European as we
rode public transportation and made our way through the
large crowd of those out on a Friday night.
Tomorrow we
have our final concert at the Rudolphinium - Prague's
equivalent of Carnegie Hall.
More to
come.... |
|
Prague and the Rudolfinum
The day began
with a short bus ride into Prague and the Castle District.
The Castle District contains Prague Castle and the famous
St. Vitus church. We had a walking tour of the area and a
visit inside both the church and the castle. The line to get
into the castle was very long, but it was worth the wait. It
is the 7th largest church in Europe and is very beautiful.
We then
returned to Old Town and had several hours free to explore
more of Prague. After the free time we returned to the
landmark Charles Bridge to all head to the restaurant for an
early dinner. Dinner was at a restaurant in the castle
district where we had some traditional Czech dishes. After
dinner we headed for the buses to pick up our concert attire
and instruments and take a short walk to the Rudolfinum.
 The
Rudolfinum was a fabulous venue with wonderful acoustics. We
played to the smallest crowd yet, but it is hard to compete
with Czech soccer (the Euro soccer competition had the Czech
team playing this evening). The musicians sounded amazing
and they did a fabulous job. We were so proud of all of
them!
It was a
late night and we did not get back to the hotel until well
after 10 pm. The kids are looking forward to their final day
in Prague and a full day of visiting some very special
sights. We will end the evening with a night cruise along
the Vltava river.
This is
likely the last blast since I will not have much time
tonight to get a final blast out. Your musicians have played
wonderfully and enjoyed this great experience. You should be
very proud of them!
Ashlee
Cribb |
|
|
