Scotland: Day 1

My first (and only planned) day in Scotland Helen and I set out to do some touristy stuff along the Royal Mile. We went to Edinburgh Castle, which is an amazing castle, and is still used as an active military base.
We took a guided tour, which was really fun. The tour guide told us all about the history of the castle, and all the battles and regimes that the castle has seen. Since it is up so high, the views from the castle are really great.
Me and Helen in the "Great Hall", where kings would hold their banquets and meetings.
The basement of one of the castle buildings used to be a prison for holding prisoners of war. The picture above is an American flag carved into one of the original prison doors. It was carved during the American revolution by an American soldier being held there.
We walked down the Royal Mile to the Cathedral, which was really beautiful. When we walked in there was an orchestra rehearsing at the far end. It was so nice to hear the orchestra is such a live space, it sounded so big!
After the cathedral we went on the Scotch Whisky Experience tour near the castle. The first part was like a Disneyland ride, where we rode in a barrel and a projected ghost explained to us how whisky is made. Next, we went to a room where a guide explained the differences between the different regions where scotch is made. Each region had a scent in a bottle for us to smell (general things like vanilla, flowers, smoke, and herbs), and then we got to pick our favorite smell, and from that the guide would give us a scotch that corresponded with that scent.
Then we got to take our scotch into the showroom where they have the largest collection of scotch whisky in the world- around 3,500 bottles! There the guide told us how to try our whisky and what to look for when tasting different single malts.

Grandpa Gordon, there were four bottles of your brand in the collection! I thought you'd get a kick out of this....
The last display case had all the unique bottles in the collection (all bottles are unopened, which is crazy!). My favorite was the chess set in which each piece is a bottle of scotch- the white pieces are English royalty and the black pieces are Scottish royalty. Our guide commented that "you'd need a drink for that game!"

In the evening, we went back to Helens' dorm and had dinner with some people from her floor. We had a great time, and I kept checking my flight status because I had heard that there were some disruptions. By the time I went to bed, there was still no concrete word about whether or not my flight was canceled because of the ash cloud....

Dublin! Day 4 (part 2)... and first night in Scotland!

After getting back from our road trip, we dropped Catherine and Sarah off at the music academy, picked up Evan and Caoimhin's brother Naoise and we had a guys trip to the Guinness Storehouse! It was really cool to see how they make Guinness, and also the history of the company. The waterfall behind me in the photo below was to illustrate the use of water in the brewing of Guinness.
We learned that the lease that the founder, Aurthur Guinness, signed a 9000-year lease for an old brewery in 1759.... which is a really long time!
We got to taste some Guinness while learning about the process of malting the barley....
Caoimhin ordering our complementary pints of Guinness in the tower at the top of the storehouse.
The view from the top was really great, you could see the whole city, and on for miles. The picture above is me with Caiomhin and Naoise.

After the storehouse, we picked up the girls and went back to the house so I could get my stuff and make it to the airport for my flight to Edinburgh. The flight to Edinburgh went really well, I had a nice conversation with a woman from Scotland who had lived for 20 years in Canada before moving back. The flight went by very quickly, and we got there ahead of schedule.

I took a taxi to meet my friend Helen (horn player from Apple Hill) at a pub. She had just played a concert and most of the orchestra was in the pub. While we were standing around catching up, a guy bumped into Helen, and when he turned to apologize I saw that I recognized him! It was a friend of mine named Dave who is a cellist that I played with at Apple Hill over four years ago. By the time I made the connection, he was on the other side of the pub, so I yelled to him (which was very strange for Helen, who had seen Dave around, but didn't really know him- and had no idea that I knew him). He looked really surprised at first, but he finally recognized me and came running over to say hi. It was so random to see Dave there, since he is from Northern Ireland, and I had no idea that he was in Edinburgh. It was a great first night!

Dublin! Day 4 (part 1)

We slept in a little and then Caoimhin drove us (Catherine, Sarah, and me) out to the countryside. He decided that we should go the scenic route, which I really enjoyed. We went to the ruins of a church and tower (below).


Next we drove a little further down the road to a pair of lakes, which were amazingly beautiful! Caoimhin led the way around- and we did a quick tour of the lakes (to avoid paying for parking!).
It was so beautiful there, even the drive was great. I'm so glad I got to chance to get out of the city and see some of the landscapes.

Dublin! Day 3

In the morning, Catherine and Sarah both had rehearsals and Caoimhin was working, so I had another morning to wander the city and see some more tourist attractions. I started off the morning with an Irish breakfast, complete with black pudding. Then I walked around Dublin Castle (above) for a while.
Next, I went to Christ Church Cathedral, which was beautiful! The picture above was from after I had already been inside (when I first got there it was cold and rainy). Right next to the Cathedral is a museum called Dubliana, which was about the early history of Dublin. It was designed more for children, but I really liked it! It was fun to see the progression from being a Viking settlement to a thriving city. I also learned that the gardens at the Dublin Castle used to be a lake where the first Vikings landed. The reason that the gardens are there is because the ground is too soft to build on.
Walking down the street from the Cathedral, I passed a very old looking church and decided to walk in and check it out. It turned out to be St. Auden's Church, and is one of the older churches in Ireland. The chapel was really nice, and they have a "lucky stone" in the back by the bell tower. Apparently, the stone has been removed from the church several times, but has always somehow made its way back.

The chamber orchestra at the academy of music didn't have a bass player, so in the afternoon I played for the rehearsal. We played Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings, which was so much fun! It was great to play with a chamber orchestra again. The only bow that we could borrow was a French bow, and I play with a German bow (they require completely different bow holds). The first part of the rehearsal I spent just trying not to drop the bow!
After the rehearsal, Caoimhin picked us up and we drove to the concert hall to try and get student rush tickets for the National Symphony Orchestra concert that night. We got there just in time, and sat down as they were closing the doors. The opening piece was Brahms Tragic Overture, and then they played the Dvorak Violin Concerto. The soloist was Arabella Steinbacher, who was amazing! During the last movement, there was a loud snap, and I looked up just in time to catch Arabella Steinbacher trading violins with the concertmaster. One of her strings had snapped, and she played the rest of the concert on the borrowed violin! The concertmaster handed the now three-stringed violin back into the section until the last stand got it, and sat with it until the end of the piece. It was so amazing that she was able to adapt to a new instrument in mere seconds! The last piece they played was Beethoven Symphony No. 7, and the trumpets were using natural trumpets (meaning that they have no valves) which was fun to listen to since I'm so used to hearing it played with modern trumpets. The picture above was taken at intermission when I realized that I didn't have any pictures of people from my trip yet! (in the picture from left to right is Caoimhin, Catherine, me, and Sarah).

That night we went to a house that had been converted into a jazz club. It was really fun, they had different acts playing in the larger living room throughout the night. Someone told me that before we got there, someone played a set in the large bathroom upstairs. The first act we saw was a very modern free jazz group that was interesting... and then we stayed for a funk group that was really great. It was cool to see that there was this kind of enthusiasm for new music. We didn't stay too long because we had all had very long days.

Dublin! Day 2

In the morning, we walked to the academy of music and I got to sit in on two of Catherine's rehearsals. Both of her chamber groups were really great! After that, I wandered around Dublin for a while. I got lunch at a little shop near Trinity College and ate in the courtyard.
In the afternoon, I had ice cream and coffee with Catherine and some of her friends from the academy. Then we met up with Evan and walked down to the new Harp Bridge (top picture), and then the National Theater (pictured above). Both are really cool! It was fun to see all the new architecture.
Caoimhin (cellist from Apple Hill) came up from Cork, and we all went out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant. After dinner, we went back to Catherine's house, played cards and listened to Tchaikovsky. It was such a fun night!

Ireland! Day 1

I got up at 5:30am to walk to the train to the Copenhagen airport. I made it to the airport really early, and the flight was delayed an hour. But I made it to Dublin, and as I got on the bus it started to hail! It was a very short storm, and by the time we left for the city it was sunny and clear. I met my friend Catherine at the bus stop around the corner from her house so I could drop my bag off before going into the city.
We walked into the city and met up with another Apple Hill musician, Evan. Catherine had a rehearsal, so Evan showed me around Dublin for the afternoon. First we walked through Trinity College (the picture above is in the courtyard in the center of campus). He showed me the Book of Kells, which is one of the oldest surviving Bibles, from 800AD. It was amazing to see that the color was still very bright, and the lettering so intricate. One of the other things we walked through is called The Long Room in the Old Library. It has over 200,000 books and is an amazing room to walk through! It smells like old books, has incredibly high roof, and just feels like it contains so much history. One of the things on display is the oldest harp in Ireland, which is really great to see (unfortunately, they don't allow photos of the Book of Kells or the Long Room...).
After visiting Trinity College, we walked to a park in the center of the city called Stephen's Green. It was a really nice garden, and we spent an hour or so sitting and catching up. We went and met up with Catherine and Aoife (violinist from Apple Hill) for coffee. It was great to see them all agian and find out what they've been up to.
Catherine and I got some food at the store for dinner, and I got to meet her roommates when we got back to the house. They have a very musical house- two cellist and two violinists, which is so cool! Catherine and Sarah are both cellists from Apple Hill, and it was so good to see them again!

Valborg Celebrations!

Today was the Valborg celebrations here in Lund. Valborg celebrates the beginning of spring, and here in Lund (as in all of Sweden and many other countries) people celebrate with parties, drinking and bonfires.
I got up early, and went to the city park to hang out and listen to music. There were tons of people in the park, and because as these things go- yesterday was a beautiful, sunny day, and today (as you can see) it was pouring rain. Even with the rain, a group of us set up camp in the park, along with hundreds of other students.
There was music and crazy people all dressed up. It was a lot of fun, but I didn't stay too long because I was soaked within 2o minutes.
Some students decided to get up on the dumpsters to dance until the police, who were out in force, yelled at them to get down...
There was also a little carnival beside the park...
In the evening, there was a bonfire set up....
And because there was a lot of wind, the fire was huge! It was a really fun day, and great to see so many people out in Lund despite the rain!