Concert Weekend in Copenhagen

May 14, 2018

Concert Weekend in Copenhagen

Okay everyone, prepare yourself for a looooong blog post. A lot has happened in the past week, specifically the past few days, and while I'll try to include only the most important details, we all know I'm not the best at shortly summing things up. Monday was a regular day, with some extra practicing for our Copenhagen trip. I also picked up a new horn, thankfully one that worked, to use in Denmark. Tuesday was more practicing, but we also had a different concert in the courtyard during lunch. Wednesday mornings we usually have gym class, but we are working on our dances so my group met up separately and choreographed to "Womanizer" by Britney Spears. After school on Wednesday, everyone from the choir and orchestra that was going to Copenhagen boarded a bus and began the long drive from Oslo.

As you'd probably expect from a bus full of musicians, the next few hours included several sing-alongs, and our conductor gave us some history lessons about Scandinavia as we drove through all three countries. It was interesting to drive down into southern Sweden and Denmark and see the landscape get so flat; you don't think about how hilly Norway is until it goes away. Or until you're on a run and going uphill. You definitely think about it then, too. If you're thinking that it doesn't make any sense that we drove from Oslo to Copenhagen because, isn't there water between? I completely understand your confusion. Thankfully, there's a bridge between Sweden and Denmark that even has a TV show based on it. You do have to pay to go over, and it's quite expensive, so when we got to the bridge and the people there hadn't received proof that we had payed before, we got a little stuck. At that point it was very late, and by the time everything got sorted out, we missed our chance to have been in Norway, Sweden and Denmark in one day. I guess the most important thing is that we made it eventually, though.

We stayed at a hostel in the center of Copenhagen, and shared rooms with six or eight people. By the time we got there (it was Thursday at that point), it was 2 am so we went to bed right away. We had to wake up for breakfast at 8, and those who know me well know that I need a lot of sleep. This weekend was not exactly a weekend with long nights, though, and even after one night with little sleep I was a bit of a wreck. We had rehearsal before our first concert around 9, and while most people were able to bike there, me and the others with big instruments had to take a taxi. The plan was to then take another taxi from practice to the concert, but when we went to call another taxi, there was too much phone traffic. It became a bit of a crisis as when we tried to take a bus, we found out that you can only buy bus tickets on the bus with cash. Long story short, three of us ended up stuck at one church in Copenhagen for about an hour while we waited for the bus that brought us there to pick us up.

Our first concert was in a church, but it ended up being only the choir singing, and I was playing horn so I didn't play then. I was completely exhausted though, so that was okay. Afterwards we had our first park concert, which was a lot more fun and relaxed. We have two different sets of songs for church concerts and park concerts, and I liked the music for parks better. We played in Søndermarken, and some gusts of wind ended up blowing my music up into a tree. It was quite entertaining. After the concert, some of us went to the beach to wade in the cold water after a super warm day. Then we went out in search of food and did some sightseeing. We walked down by Nyhavn and down Strøget, the main shopping street in Copenhagen. Another lateish night, but at that point I was in a much better mood than I had been earlier that morning.

We started on Friday with rehearsal and then a park concert in Kongens Have (the king's garden). We then had some time to eat and relax before a church concert with one of Denmark's best male choirs, Det Danske Drengekor. It was a really nice concert, but quite stressful to play and sing after such a talented group. Afterwards we had free time, and we had planned to go to a taco place my cousin who used to live in Copenhagen recommended, but we had a few communication issues in our group, and we ended up separated and on other sides of the city. Turns out the restaurant had two locations. We ended up meeting in the middle at a relatively good Japanese place, but I do wish we had gotten to try the tacos. After dinner we went back to our room and chilled out eating Ben and Jerry's :)

We didn't have any rehearsal planned for Saturday morning, so Frida and I decided to go exploring. Friday night we had thought to bike to a neighborhood we drove by earlier the evening before, but with all the restaurant confusion, we ran out of time. So instead we woke up on Saturday, grabbed the bikes our group had rented and made our way over. We found a cafe on the way, and got some breakfast. I drank possibly the best chai latte on the planet, which put me in a great mood. Then we went further to the neighborhood and walked/biked around, enjoying the nice weather. Between our morning of exploring and our first concert that day, it got SUPER hot. We had a concert in the botanical garden, right in the sun. We have black Harry Potter-like robes that aren't quite suited for warm weather, and one girl passed out in the heat. Afterwards we had yet another church concert, and at that point everyone was completely worn out. I'm pretty sure I had a fever, but we were all such train wrecks that we just went around complaining but not really doing anything about it. That night we had reserved a bunch of tables at an Italian restaurant for dinner with the whole group, and of course there had to be more singing. Saturday night was also the night of the Eurovision Song Contest which is a big deal in Norway and Europe in general, so we had a bunch of people in our room to watch. I won't spoil the results, but there were some interesting songs... Anyways, it was yet another late night.

Sunday morning was an early one because we had to get packed up and out of the hostel before the Copenhagen marathon got too close for the bus to get out. We then took the bus to the final church for a church service because we were going to perform during and after it. As one final hurrah, the choir sang at the grave of a previous Katta student who did something (really not sure what) important. Then it was back on the bus for another 8-9 hours home. We stopped twice, and between the two our conductor had written notes to all of us instrumentalists to the tune of O Tannenbaum and words to the same to say thank you to the bus driver. So when we stopped we held a little concert in the 7-11 parking lot. Definitely an experience! We spent the rest of the bus ride having (mostly fake) flat earth debates, talking about 19 Kids and Counting, and trying to catch up on sleep to avoid absolutely dying next week. Oh, and writing this blog post. Sorry it got so long; I hope it was at least entertaining!

Word of the Post:
sliten = tired/exhausted

Lots of pictures to accompany lots of words!