The week since

You know, it's been more than a week since we returned from our trip. It seems far away now, but the memories are pretty vivid because I've written about them. I showed the pictures to Eszter today, and tried translating all our stories into Hungarian. My favorite one to tell is about playing trombone in Nuremberg. Funny.

The week since has been pretty lazy. Get to sleep late (for some reason), wake up late, practice and eat. Mom's Easter package to me was full of chocolate and pop-tarts, which made my recuperation time very comfortable. That included two days of sleeping, watching movie trailers on apple.com, and more sleeping. Over the past few days I've gotten back into the rhythm of student life, like real practicing and class. Joey Wilson visited on Saturday night, and we showed him around the city nightlife (what little we know of it). I've written a lot of postcards recently, too, so check your mailboxes in a week or so.

Practicing is good now. I've figured out what to play for my jury at the end of the semester, and after half a week of hard work on it, I'm feeling confident it will go well. Guszti gave me great confidence during my lesson this week. He asked what my plans are for the future, and I said I didn't really have a specific plan as yet. He said that in only three months of lessons, he think I have come a long way and would be sorry to stop when the summer comes - it would feel incomplete to him. "Would you like to come back?" Oh yes. If I choose to pursue a master's degree, he said he would like for me to return to Budapest.

I will stop writing here, because I can't give a good testimony for my feelings after hearing those words.

Spring Break photos

The Director's cut of the photos (with captions!) are viewable by clicking here. Upcoming and developing plans include going to Transylvania with Mariann, Szeged (with Jack, hopefully), and hiking in the Dolomites of northern Italy with myself.

Check out the Vienna post below.

Vienna

Ok, it looks like I strayed a bit from "what I learned" in the Salzburg entry. Sorry to waste your time, everyone. Here is Vienna.
We were in Vienna for three nights. I think, for this entry, chronology will not be important, so I'll just talk. Our hostel "Wombats" was enormous and well run. I have mixed feelings about our stay there. The staff was very helpful and gave great information whenever we needed it, which was often. Breakfast cost 3.50 euro in the morning, all you can eat. They had peanut butter and a panini press, both of which I abused to no end. Everything was clean and comfortable, as well.

On the other hand, it had that party atmosphere I think I've mentioned before. There was a huge bar downstairs, and in the stairwell were those 20's spoof ads for binge drinking, like "have you hugged your toilet today?" I noticed that not all of the lodgers were college students - I saw numerous older couples and even a family with young kids. Not very tactful, I think. The nice desk folks provided us with maps of greater Vienna, which we appreciated to some degree. It had a good layout of the city with roads and major transportation lines, but I found the 100 item "tourist key" kind of a sell-out. The first twenty listings were for museums, sights, cultural landmarks and the like, but the remaining items were devoted to restaurants, bars, cafés, clubs... Places every city has were time and money can be lost. The reason I found this so appalling was because they were listed at the expense of Viennese cultural attractions which deserved the space. There is amazing history in this city in all aspects. I need someone to tell me why Murphy's Irish Pub is included while St. Stephen's church is left out.

Anyway, we had a little culture book with us Jack's friend Diana had lent us during her visit to Budapest. We took a great walk along the ring road around the city. Many of the big sights are here, including the museum quarter, parliament (top photo), the old town hall, the national theater, and Vienna University. This last one was particularly interesting. We pretended to be students and slipped into the courtyard in the center of the complex. Lining this beautiful area are busts of academics who studied or taught there. It was fun to name-hunt, trying to find ones that looked familiar. I found Schrödinger, Doppler, Freud and Martini, who I assume invented the martini. All dead white guys. Gorgeous place, though.

Our big concert experience of the city was seeing Wagner's Parsifal at the Staatsoper. It was an incredible event. Only the 3rd full opera I've ever attended (if you count Porgy and Bess at the Maine Center for the Arts... which I do), and I'm not sure if I was fully ready for it. I guess I think of opera as something you have to train for, like a race. You need to review the synopsis, learn about the composer, and know something about the time and events surrounding it. I think it makes the experience richer, anyway. Wagner is a marathon. I knew enough general information to enjoy it, but I could have studied harder for that richer experience. However, academic knowledge isn't a requirement to enjoy the wealth of music Parsifal has to offer, of course.
Tower of Babel, Pieter Brughel the Elder
Vienna for me was mostly about the museums, however. Over two days I went to five, and spent good time at each. The Kunst Historisches (Art History) museum had three of the five remaining landscape paintings by the famous (and Flemish) Pieter Bruegel (the elder). His paintings are really interesting because they are the first landscape paintings to focus on day-to-day life instead of being in a religious context. Also, sometimes he paints famous events while putting them in a larger picture - for example, painting the crucifixion of Jesus in the midst of people carrying on with their lives, and the fall of Icarus in the corner of a grand seascape. We saw his "harvest" landscape in Prague, and the final one on our little pilgrimage is in the met in New York. Also in this museum were paintings by Titian, Veronese and Tintoretto, contemporaries of El Greco. We saw an El Greco exhibit at the museum of fine arts here in Budapest earlier this semester, and it was interesting to see some of his characteristics in the paintings here.

The Naturhistorisches (Natural History... duh) museum was full of fascination! They had rooms full of rocks! Fossils! Huge crystals! Global warming information! Dinosaur bones! I lost ten years when I walked into the museum and got a hug from the huge lion in the lobby. Jack was pretty bored here, I think, and followed my prancing self around reluctantly for three hours. One of the most incredible things here was the Venus of Willendorf, a statuette over 20,000 years old! I read about this in my cartoon history of the universe book when I was younger, and it was a complete surprise to find it here. Another happy surprise was a small exhibit about deep sea vents! These were the painful subject of my first research paper in 5th grade for Mrs. Bickford (who I am told is now frantically catching up with my blog). Deep sea vents form on the very bottom of the deepest parts of the ocean floor, where water is superheated beneath the earth's crust and jets up through massive stalagmites. This water carries minerals and nutrients with it, and makes it possible for a limited ecosystem to exist in this extreme part of the world. Giant tube worms and crabs are the most interesting to look at. The cool thing is that this life is almost completely cut off from the rest of the world. Just a few meters above this, the crushing cold of the ocean takes control. COOL!

Besides those, the 2nd floor was full of animals from all over the world. They had microscopic bugs swimming around little bits of food. That was really gross. Then all kinds of pinned and labeled bugs, sea animals, amphibians, birds, and larger land mammals. I'm pretty sure the elephants were artificial models, but I think the birds were stuffed. Most of the writing was in German, though. I know there is some little Austrian kid who goes there every weekend to wander around. I'm so jealous. This place is so cool.



For something completely different, the Leopold Museum houses contemporary Austrian artworks. I got a good education here about the works of Klimt (above), Schiele (right), Kokoschka, Egger-Lienz, Gerstl and Moser, just to name a few and sound like a pretentious terd while doing so. This is a fantastic museum for the artistically uneducated like myself, because they often divide galleries by artist and give brief bios on each, to give an idea of where they're coming from. I find I really like how Klimt paints people, but not so much his landscapes. Trees and fields and sky kind of blend into each other, and it throws me off. Schiele paints and sketches nudes in a kind of unnerving way, but I love his facial expressions. Gerstl was interesting to me because the history I know of him and the Schöenbergs. He ran off with Arnold Schöenberg's wife Mathilde for a while, and after she returned to her husband, Gerstl killed himself. The self-portrait you see to the left is one he did in that year, and it gets top marks on my grippingly-creepy scale.

The Belvedere palaces were spectacular on their own. A museum in addition to the incredible architecture and gardens was almost too much. In the upper Belvedere we saw the works of some French impressionists, including the famous Napoleon Crossing the Alps by Jacques-Louis David. I spent most of my time getting more acquainted with the Viennese painters, however. There were many Schiele and Klimt works, including Klimt's masterpiece The Kiss.

Our last museum was the Schöenberg Center. This building is not just a gallery but a great resource for learning about the Second Viennese school. Besides a library of Schöenberg's scores and recordings, there are reproductions of things he actually used in composition, or just random things he made for fun. This guy was the grandfather of thrift. He used tape and heavy brown paper to make all kinds of things. Did you know that he is the inventor of the tape dispenser? There was a reproduction of his study in Los Angeles, timelines of his life side by side with a timeline of musical landmarks of the time. Replicas of address books, sketchbooks, composition tools, photo albums, his art gallery, a film about his family, radio interviews and lectures... on and on. It was the most thorough exhibit on a particular person I think I've ever seen. I see now the importance of learning about him, even though his music is... thick. He was a fascinating human being.

That's what we did in Vienna. The Staatsoper is running a lot of Wagner in May, and I hope to go back to see some, as well as more museums. I missed so many! But in the meantime, I will be reminded of what Budapest has to offer. There are a lot of museums here as well, and I've been to only one. This trip reminded me of the massive collective experience humanity has. I loved seeing such amazing buildings in Prague. The instruments in Nürnberg captivated me. The sounds of the churches in Salzburg will ring in my memories for years. And Vienna... you just read about Vienna. It made me want to paint all the ideas the previous three cities gave me. It's too bad the pinnacle of my artistic career was in 8th grade.

Well, it's happened again. I've dissipated another perfectly good evening writing in this blog. Tomorrow - more practice and classes. Lesson at 7:30pm. Wheee...

Salzburg

In Gramps' autobiography, he details that the Walburn ancestors came out of a Palatinate in southern Germany. So the train ride to Salzburg was of heightened interest to me, as we passed through Munich and a great deal of that part of the country. The vague details about their origins made me spend a lot of time fantasizing about their lives three hundred years ago. Maybe they lived in that valley there? Or went hunting in those woods? Worked in those fields? Doubtless the landscape would be different, of course. My mind did a superman rewind, and I enjoyed watching the huge trees shrink back into the ground, towns dwindle to nothing, ancient groves spring up out of nowhere, and rivers slowly shift their course. I fell asleep somewhere in the Mesozoic era and had dreams about T-Rex eating club-weilding Walburns.

A quick transfer in München and we were Salzburg bound. As the train was pretty empty, the ride was almost cancelled. The conductor asked everyone to get off and wait for another train, but 2 minutes later he shuffled us back on. We sat on the top half of the double-decker with two other families. There were two kids with one of the Austrian families, a boy and a girl. Much to Jack's chagrin, I pulled out my back of small tricks to entertain the critters. Twirling my notebook on my finger like a frisbee hooked the boy, who was reading a very educational book his father had thrust at him. The girl came around later to see what her brother was so fascinated with, and I folded a napkin in the "Birds of Paradise/Sydney Opera House" school Aunt Marsha taught me years back. They spent the rest of the trip running around trying to twirl things and fold things and fed me Easter chocolate.

A chance glance out the window during this gave me my first sight of THE ALPS. I've noticed that as big and rooted as mountains are, they still have a great talent for leaping out and astonishing me. Needless to say, the pictures I took are small and bland and can't compare, so I'm not posting any of first contact. Just wait a few paragraphs.

We arrived in Salzburg in the afternoon and made our way over to the Yo-Ho hostel where we'd stay for two nights (making sure to go via Haydnstraße - there's nothing Haydny about it). As our trip continued, it seems as though each hostel got bigger and bigger. Prague was simply one flat with three rooms. Nuremberg was more dormitory style, added a small lounge and drink menu, but still only had one computer with free use. Yo-Ho charged for internet (uh oh) and had a noisy bar at night. Three floors, lots of people. Advertisements for the Sound of Music Tour were everywhere. Apologies to those who love the movie and have taken the tour with delight, but I can't take it seriously. It's so... yaaak. Insert whatever adjectives you can come up with, because "yaaak" is the best I can do.

We dropped camp and went searching for a place for dinner. No kitchen here. As it was Easter Sunday, most places were closed. We ended up at an empty Austrian restaurant with great tables. Just huge planks of wood - no, slices of tree. "Plank" gives the impression of process. Imagine a basted turkey served on Thanksgiving instead of sliced turkey from a package of cold cuts. That was our table. It was the Grandfather of Tables. The rest of the place fell short of those great standards, however. The only person working was an Indian man who cooked my weiner schnitzel while listening to horrible Austrian pop-covers on a skipping record player. A derelict electronic dart board was an interesting touch - I later learned that darts are pretty popular over here. Weiner schnitzel is nothing special. Fried food is universally delicious and bad for the heart.

Back in the hostel for the night, I met an American girl from Boston, who actually grew up in Jakarta, Indonesia, like momma. I wish I could say we had a long, intense conversation about family and history and current events, but she was leaving at 4am the next morning and we only had a few minutes. Can't find her on facebook with only a first name. I really wanted to learn about Jakarta today from her perspective - Wikipedia can only tell so much.

We woke up early for a walk around the city and a visit to Mozart's birthplace. Much of Europe that I've seen is infested with "Mozart" chocolate stores, which show a facade of the composer dressed in performance clothes holding a chocolate pastry instead of a writing quill or playing at a piano. It's not bad candy, but seeing this depiction of him I think gives people a false impression of who he was.

Mozart's birthplace is near the center of what I'll call the tourist district. Besides the gift shop at the end, however, the museum inside gave great insight into who the man was, his family, and his career. Scores and letters were everywhere, and also souvenirs from their life - lockets, hairs, his first violin, stuff like that. Part of the museum was an interpretation by American artist Robert Wilson of Mozart's life and personality. Part of it included a model of Mozart's Salzburg upside-down on the ceiling, with pictures on the walls of the city at that time, also upside down. Apparently this describes Mozart's revolutionary compositions or something. I remember my professor Ruth Rendelmen describing the place in class after she visited. She really disliked it, and while it struck me as interesting, it didn't seem appropriate to put it there. If it had existed in a private gallery somewhere else, I wouldn't have minded. Kinda rubbed me the wrong way where it was, though.

We returned to the hostel (I'm not calling it by its name anymore, they refused to pay for the advertising) for a 1pm tour of the city and a walk through surrounding hills, ultimately leading to the St. Augustine Monastery. Built in the 15th century, this is a big tourist attraction not for the history or the 'solitude' but for the beer halls in the lower levels. They brew traditional beer here in wooden barrels and serve it in one-liter steins. Monks love their beer, I guess. Or at least they love to sell it to tourists.

While waiting for people to show up, I tried making conversation with the few people there. A girl named Whitney was there. We exchanged the general greeting fellow travelers give each other. "Where are you from, how long have you been here, where else have you been..." etc. She told me she grew up in Nebraska. I've never been there, but I know my great-grandfather Hugh Walburn grew up there. I tried a desperate attempt to make a connection with this.

"You know, my great-grandfather grew up in a sod hut somewhere between Callaway and Broken Bow." Like that will work.

"Wait, what? Really?" I turned and looked at her. She'd stopped moving. "I live on a 4000 acre ranch between Callaway and Broken Bow."

Then we exchanged various "WHAT THE F&£%!?!?"s. I described the land as I remembered it from Hugh's autobiography, and she confirmed and elaborated on it. There are canyons between the towns (which Hugh walked through to get to school) and a one-room schoolhouse still stands close by. Whitney told me her family has been in the area a long time. Is there the chance that her great-grandfather and my great-grandfather went to school together? Played that game with the ball over the roof of the schoolhouse? Gramps, what was that game called? And what are the chances that I would meet someone with this common history in Salzburg?

Thinking about it even now makes my head reel. I have a standing invite to visit her sometime. She proposed to go horseback riding around the area and try to find the location of this old farm. I imagine the land is annexed somewhere within her ranch, but who knows? Unfortunately, she hasn't yet sent me the Facebook message I asked her to. I found her this morning, but don't wanna come off as the stalker kinda guy, so I'll give her more time to "find me" before I send messenger pigeons.

Jack and I broke off from the tour after half an hour to walk on our own. We did an extra hill and found an amazing viewpoint of Untersberg mountain and more of the Alps before meeting at Augustine's a little after they arrived. The beer was good, but I had to leave soon after to catch the sunset at the viewpoint. It's up above.

My big plan for the following day was a hike on Untersberg. I first headed to the same viewpoint as the previous night to catch the sunrise on the same mountains. Untersberg is the mountain behind me. Following a great calming wait for the sun, I returned to the street to catch the bus to St. Leonhard. Due to time considerations, I had to take the "touriste-lite" version and ride a cable car from St. Leonhard to the top of the mountain, but I was happy to walk down from there. Untersberg has many fantastic views, with just as many legends surrounding it. Emperor Charlemagne supposedly sleeps under the mountain waiting for the time he is again needed. You can read a good summary about these here.

While the mountaintop was snow-covered icy, it was surprisingly warm, with only a slight breeze. I was alone with the place. There are two giant crosses on this mountain, one on the Geiereck peak at 1800 meters and one on Berchtesgadener Hochthron at 1972. Also, a mountain climbers memorial between them. I walked from Geiereck to Berchtesgadener and then down a ski-slope back to town. It was wonderful. I've missed mountains so much. On the side, I've decided to try hiking in the Dolomite region of the Alps in northern Italy for my next big expedition. Anyone want to join me? Jack's not into the idea. By the way, have you noticed the motif in all of these? I will take Kat's name for it, and call it the "God-Awful Red Flannel" shirt. It is my favorite travel and hiking shirt now. If I were a more generous and inspired person, I would give the shirt away and from a brotherhood of the traveling God-awful red flannel. But I don't think anyone would love it as much as I do.

Jack used the morning to visit Lake Wolfgang. You can refer to his blog for that account. I got back to Salzburg around 1pm, and managed to squeeze in a quick visit to the fortress in the center of Salzburg - normally an expensive admission ticket, but free with the Salzburg Card I used to get my cable car ride (If you go to Salzburg for more than a day, I recommend buying it). I was surprised to find a museum with more ancient instruments inside! There were also archeological finds of a chapel and plenty of great views. Besides that, just some places to spend money. We caught a 5:30 train to Vienna.

I will write Vienna's entry tonight and tomorrow. For now, suffice to say it was an orgy of museums for me. And if you're a student visiting Vienna, DON'T buy the Vienna card. It's a waste of 18 euro, because student discounts are better on everything. Time to practice. I officially suck at trombone again.

Nuremberg

Before we left for Nuremberg, we made a plan of what we wanted to do and when we might do them. The highlight of our arrival there was a visit to the National Museum, with a huge exhibit of musical instruments over the ages. My first sight at the entrance to the gallery was a case of brass instruments dating back to the mid-16th century. Some of the oldest trombones in the world were there, made in Nuremberg and other parts of Germany. I had read about these trombones for a research paper, and seeing them inches in front of me was astonishing. Jack was similarly impressed with the long line of pianos stretching the length of the gallery. A few instruments were really comic. There were some walking canes which were stringed, so during a rest, one could play the cello for companions. One of the keyboards was built into a statue of a busty woman. The fretted cello/guitar was interesting, too.

For dinner that day we went to Landbierparadics, a German pub outside the tourist area. Here they have a big selection of village brews from around the country, but unfortunately they don't offer a sampler. We just had to split a few bottles between us. The dinner was fantastic, too. I had some potato dumpling type things, sauerkraut and bratworst. Deeeelicious! Everything was made more-so by the fact that there were no loud tourists around. That's another thing I've learned, that I really dislike loud tourists. I'm the silent type. The only guys there were loud Germans, which I didn't mind so much.

Our next day was full of new experiences. In the early morning (all mornings on this trip were early for us) we set out for the north of town to see the Berg. I played trombone in a huge tunnel in the wall for half an hour. Jack later told me he'd walked around the city while I played, and heard me almost everywhere. The stone worked as another amplifier and made me sound like a full trombone section - no, a choir. I was so loud the police came and asked me to leave. Apparently busking is a restricted activity in Nuremberg. The ones that talked to me were real jerks. The guy made innuendoes about me being homeless and a drunk while he took down my information. As it happens, a drunk homeless guy had been watching me play, and when the police started to leave he shouted something at me about my music, and the cops went over to him and started harassing him. The male cop asked me in passing if I was his friend. Putz.

I met Jack at a big church around 9am to go to an Easter mass. It was a freezing, a long, tall gothic church that we at first thought was catholic. As it progressed and we didn't recognize the form, we realized it was protestant-lutheran. That was a big "oops" moment for Jack, who was raised catholic, and took communion that morning. It was fun trying to sing the German chorales, and the sound of the place was fantastic. Stayed for the whole service, and left energized for the rest of our trip. The train to Salzburg left a few hours after.

Prague

Posts about our trip will be coming by city, as writing is going slowly. Here is Prague.

So.

Jack and I stumbled back into our apartment near midnight last night after an amazing week of travel and exploration in the Czech Republic, Germany and Austria. Now I'm left with the challenge of writing about it, and I've been trying all day to figure out how. I did a million things, but what do I write about? I know it would bore me to go through every thing we did, and it would bore you all to read such an account, so I guess I've got to boil it down and just talk about the stuff I learned. We'll start with Prague, I guess.

On the bus to Prague, I learned how beautiful Moravia is. The landscape to the south of Prague has gently sloping hills and fields, many small villages, and sudden valleys with rivers and arching pines stretching overhead. I took few pictures, because I knew that they could do no justice to what I saw. Some parts reminded me of stretches of forest in Maine and Canada.

I didn't come to Prague with a plan. For some reason I wasn't inspired to read up on it before I left Budapest. So when we arrived and began our wanderings, it wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be. Seeing the amazing buildings and river views was simply surface pleasure, and the pack of other tourists stirred the scenery so much I couldn't sink deeper. I saw everything with mild interest, and I couldn't take more because I knew nothing about anything there. I realized that, when in cities at least, goals give my travel meaning. This proved very true over the week.

I took a nap during the concert we went to our first night. I love sleeping during concerts. I still hear the music, and I have incredible dreams. Dvořák's Requiem gave me this one, which I can only describe as synesthetic. As my eyes closed, elements of the stage drifted apart to reveal a bright sunset over a rippling ocean. Then, the buildings I saw in Prague came over the water and I was walking in the city. The music was coming from the buildings, and with every sudden fore, there was a flash of golden light, like the sun coming through an opening between buildings. I heard everything. No drugs, I promise.

Geocache #8

So this is really random. This is Xena, the stray my parents took in this winter. While I was home for Christmas she liked to hop up on my desk to see what I was doing. I found a few videos of chirping birds to see how she would react. I didn't get the crazy leaps at the screen I was hoping for, but she did watch with attention for a good ten minutes.

Anyway, it is Saturday and I will have arrived back to Budapest yesterday (sorry, I know the time tense is confusing, Emese - not even sure if I'm using it correctly). Probably resting. You know I'll post. Hope you all enjoyed the Geocaches!

Geocache #7

One of my bestest friends in the world is currently on almost the exact opposite side of the world, in Anchorage, Alaska. Merry is my eternal spiritual hiking and frisbee buddy, and she has accompanied me and my Chacos through Europe, whether she knows it or not (and I know she's been following the Geocaches with squeals of delight). In 2006, we went on a random walk down a dirt road and found this amazing panorama (click it for a bigger view). That's the Delaware river, about 500 feet below. I hope concert season is going well, Merry!

Saw three museums in Vienna yesterday, and am doing 2 or 3 more today. It has been fantastic. We leave for Budapest at 650. Big hostels suck, everyone here just parties and wastes time and money. Good breakfast, though. Parsifal at the Staatsoper was also freaking amazing.

I see I have been getting no comments. Margaret's shiny new computer must be broken :-(

Geocache #6

Part of my Ultimate team at Earlham, "Elephant Grass". About all things Earlham, I miss these guys most. I still keep vaguely in touch with a few, like Nathan, who is writing, and Jo, behind the kneebrace. I saw Jo and Rachelle (not pictured) in Boston just before I came to Budapest, actually.

Surprise!

I'm in Vienna! We got here last night and are planning on going to a million museums. The hostel is nice, but their map guide lists only 20 or so sights and museums, and 80 clubs, bars, cafes, etc. I'm gonna complain on their review.

Salzburg was excellent. We spent two full days walking and hiking. I saw the sunset and the next sunrise in the alps at an amazing view in the city. Then I took a cable car to the top of Untersburg mountain, about 1800 meters up, and hiked back down.

Nürnberg was great, too. Amazing museum. I played trombone in a huge tunnel that really amplified my sound, and Jack said he could hear me all over the city. Then the police came and almost arrested me, and the guy made subtle mean comments about me being homeless and poor. We had village brews at a non-tourist beer garden. I got you a souvenir, dad!

Gotta go! 50 euro-cents per 20 minutes! Much love to all.

JESSE

Geocache #5

The infamous cheesecake story. It needs no words.

Geocache #4

This was taken by Alison Hudson when we went skiing/snowboarding together at Sunday River. I made a longer video with photos and Queen in the background and put it on YouTube, but it was taken down after a few months for "copywrite infringement". A freaking 35 second film...

Geocache #3

In my senior year of High School, the band finally got enough money to take a festival trip to Williamsburg, Virginia. We went to Six Flags on the way home, and I thought it would be fun to take a picture of myself on a roller coaster. I think this was the Batman.

I'm so glad my roommates broke these glasses for me last year.

Geocache #2

When Dad drove me to camp in 2007, it promised to be a tight ride. Two big men and all of a teenager's needs for three months packed into a Honda Insight promised to be a tight ride... until, he drove into the Portland airport to pick up our rental - a Mitsubishi Spider convertable! A fantastic trip!

Geocache #1

Surprise! I'm not actually posting from the road (by this time I will be in Prague). I've set up a few "delayed" posts, which will reveal themselves at preset dates and times, about every day or so. Each one is a photo from the backroom that I think deserves to see the light of day.
This is Margaret and I in Brussels in the spring of '06! I think my favorite part of this trip was going to Brugge and hearing the bells there. The 2nd favorite part was playing a borrowed (awesome) trombone in her community band and being fed local beer in the break.

We're in Prague, alive, and having a great time!

Debrecen (not kidding this time)

Skip to the end of this for the sparknotes version. Pause briefly for pictures. Sorry they don't have captions.

I spent a good amount of time on the train to Debrecen wondering if I would do well in the competition. This is typical for most performers, I know, and nothing unusual for me. I find that how prepared I feel depends most on how I play in the days immediately preceding. For my recital, each day for a week before was a self-performance and analysis. I used mock audiences, set the lighting, even rigged my cell phone to go off part-way through pieces. That all led me to feel very confident for the real mccoy. This time I've felt rushed the whole way through. The days beforehand were played with a frantic element, which took away from my concentration. There were also days where I played beautifully, however. When this happens, the notes and phrases come on their own, and it all feels as natural as breathing. I'm trying to figure out why things go well and things don't go well. When it comes down to it, the simplest method is just to prepare your best and get a good night's sleep.

Sorry to all the people who just wondered "why did he write that?". Your time was wasted reading. Really, skip to the end.

[on the train to Debrecen] It's a beautiful day. The bleak Hungarian winter has been lifted, and the sun suddenly shows up every day. The train I'm riding in is old, with box compartments on one side and a hallway on the other. All the windows in the hallway are open and air is rushing through. Debrecen lies across the great plain, which stretches across most of Magyarország (the Hungarian word for Hungary). Riding across it, I see barren fields and ordered rows of trees. The towns along the way all have multicolored houses, usually with reddish roofs and small shacks stuck on at random places. Backyards consist of small trees, vines, and vegetable gardens, and often a laundry hanger, too. Shirtless men walk around, examining the spring soil and perhaps planning the season. I imagine walking through this part of the country. Living in the city has made my body feel weak - an afternoon in these fields would parch me.

"Ok, I'm tired of fields now. Bring the trees and mountains of my home!" And with that sentence, I fell asleep in my compartment for the rest of the trip, with the landscape passing by. As nice as this trip sounds, the day ended in disaster. I was woken up in Debrecen by the two other girls in the compartment. They told me to get off unless I wanted to go back to Budapest. I sleepily grabbed my trombone and rucksack and followed them off. They were both students of the Debreceni Egyetem, so I latched myself to them until we got to the school. They also both spoke English, and we chit-chatted until I finally awoke and realized... oh yes. I left my music on the train.

"Kibaszott szar, bazd meg a kurva anyad, szarjal sünt!!" I actually said that in fluent Hungarian, and was unfortunately looking right at my companions at this Eureka. Their faces drained of blood upon watching my sudden transformation into a raging, foul-mouthed gypsie. I hastily apologized and explained my transgretion. I left their company and quickly dropped my things in my room, and took the tram back to the train station. No dice, though. Another folder lost.

I will remind you of a previous entry where I described how tragically forgetful I can be. I won't spend the same time explaining how losing my music before a competition made me feel. Also in that black folder was a Gabrieli piece I am rehearsing with a large group. I think it's an original. Our next rehearsal will happen while Jack and I are in Vienna... I forgot to tell Guszti that. Oops.

A number of good things did happen that night. I did count them, but will call them 'mercies' instead of 'blessings'. At the time all the things going wrong were confronting me, and their combined force was overwhelming. I also needed to poop real bad, but couldn't find a bathroom with T.P.

At one point in the evening I was sitting alone in the lobby, locked out of both a concert and my room. I was contemplating all things dark, including my bursting bowels, when a very empathic man sat down next to me. He turned out to be the tuba teacher at Debreceni Egyetem, as well as an ex-policeman. We talked for a few minutes (in English and Hungarian) about teaching, gypsies, Hungary, America... but mostly just sat in silence. He must have sensed I was struggling with things then. I would like to dedicate my following success in the competition to this man. His temporary barátság really comforted me.

I roomed that night with Adam, another Zeneakademia trombonist whom I rarely see. This is the guy who before has abruptly terminated conversations with "BYE". This time, however, he was very friendly, and we hung out a lot over the two days of the competition. We're riding the train to Budapest together now. He is coming to Bard College soon, too! Apparently Bard also has a good Hungarian connection. I met a trombonist named Janós today who studies there! He knows Mary Weatherbee! Egy kis föld, ugye?

The trombone part of the competition spanned the mornings and afternoons of the 6th and 7th, with a concert after each. I was placed 3rd in the order, right after Adam, in a total of about 15 trombonists. The morning of the 1st round I woke at 7 for a good warm-up beforehand. Also made sure to get lots of sleep. ---- ok, I'm sticking in an edit here because I leave for Prague in 4 hours and I need sleep. The important stuff from this competition is that I played my very best, in some places even beautifully, I made some friends, walked around Debrecen, and got an honorary award at the end. I like to think of it as my "furthest distance traveled to compete" award. Now don't you wish you'd skipped right to the last paragraph?

Debrecen

I will post tonight if it kills me, I promise! Leaving for Prague tomorrow morning. Got a haircut - it hasn't been this short since 4th grade. I like it!