Tivoli

Yesterday morning was very low stress…aside from the disgusting shower that all of us were forced to take at the hostel. There were only 3 showers per floor, and 15+ rooms (with multiple people in each) on each floor. Thankfully, I did bring my shower sandals, which helped a bit. The breakfast wasn’t too impressive either; I had a piece of bread and some watermelon. Yum.

I bought some internet time to catch up on some work (and facebook, of course!), and then met some people at 11am to go on an optional boat tour of the city. Since it was not "official", it took us awhile to find where we were going! I love how everyone will follow “the leader” blindly. I think we even went in a circle once, and no one even noticed!

The boat tour was really nice, and a great way to see the city. I was really impressed with the guide, as she did the whole thing in 3 languages; Danish, English, and German. Copenhagen is a beautiful city, with a lot of old buildings juxtaposed with brand new architecture. It was cool to see everything from the water, along with the explanations from the guide. I even got to see where Hans Christian Anderson lived!

After the boat tour, we had about 2 hours to kill before we needed to meet for the rehearsal and concert. We had some ice cream, then some coffee, and did a little window shopping. The weather was beautiful! We’ve been so lucky! I’ve even been getting some color on my skin (finally!)

I was able to lay down for a granny nap before meeting everyone at 2:40pm to walk over to Tivoli, where the concert was being held. Tivoli is a small amusement park in the middle of Copenhagen. It was so funny for us to walk into this place with all of our instruments and concert clothes. However, regardless of the rides and games right outside the windows, the hall was acoustically great (not decorated very great, but I guess they were trying to fit the “amusement park” theme) and the percussion equipment they provided was really nice.

We had lunch at the cafeteria at the hall. Food in Scandinavia is so much better and more fresh than in Germany. Not only taste wise, but my digestive system appreciated it as well! The percussionists had to eat quickly to help the crew set up the stage. It’s really funny because the one old man always calls me ‘Mariah’, and I don’t have the heart to correct him. Wictor and I set up most of the percussion stuff, and we were ready in plenty of time for the rehearsal.
The dress/touch-up rehearsal was really efficient and light. It was perfect just coming off of our first performance. Plus, the drums really sounded great in the hall, so we didn’t have to do much adjusting.

The concert itself went really well, and the audience loved it! I think that the overall performance was better than the first, but there were some weird things that happened in the Stravinsky that hadn’t happened before. I also challenged myself to focus on listening to different sections during my “rests”, and because of the new acoustics I was able to hear instruments that I hadn’t before, which was really enjoyable.

After the show, some of the orchestra members went out with family. Many of the musicians are from Sweden/Norway/Denmark, so it was a popular venue for friends and family to visit. I found some people to eat with, and we walked all over Copenhagen looking for some place open for a late dinner…but everything was closed! They weren’t serving food anywhere, which really mad us mad because we were so hungry! We ended up just eating at Burger King, which was not very pleasant. However, it was probably the only type of food I could afford considering Copenhagen is so expensive. We ate quickly and headed back to area where the hostel was located. Everyone from the orchestra was hanging out and drinking outside. Then, most people left the courtyard for a club, and I decided to go to bed. I really must be getting old…saying no to dancing?! Who am I?! haha  I guess I was just craving a good night’s sleep in our smelly hostel room…

Next time in Copenhagen I’m definitely going to spend the money on a good place to sleep, good food, and maybe a few rides at Tivoli.