Music Tour- Day Sixteen

On our first morning in France, we went to Paris. We were dropped off near an obelisk near the Seine and were given a couple of hours of free time. The Louvre was nearby, but Jenny said that the queue can take several hours and Claire said that the last time she went to France her parents, who were art enthusiasts, went to the Louvre for three days in a row, so consequently she wasn’t all too interested in the Louvre any more. We went to the Musée de l’Orangerie instead, which was a smaller art museum nearby. There was a good view of the Seine nearby, so we went to have a look in small groups so as not to lose our place in the queue. Nearby, a tour group from another school walked past wearing fluoro yellow jackets. We were grateful that we didn’t have to wear them!

I’m not an art enthusiast at all, so all this museum left me was the question of why there are so many naked people in art. I did find some paintings which interested me, though.

After the museum, we went for a walk to the cathedral where we would be playing next. On the way, Stevie J and Tori insisted on having a photo taken in front of a water fountain which they apparently visited as children. Once we had reached the cathedral, we were allowed to split up into small groups to explore the surrounding area and perhaps go shopping. This was a fairly expensive district so all we ended up doing was window shopping and meeting up with other groups which had arrived. Eventually, it was time to go back to the cathedral. On the way, I crossed when the pedestrian lights were green, which was a bad mistake on my part considering that I was in France and pedestrian lights don’t take turning traffic into account (turning traffic doesn’t have turning arrows to my knowledge, drivers turn when it’s safe to). First, I almost got run over by a white van rounding a corner and then I almost got run over by a motorcycle going in the opposite direction (in some roads in France, bikes and buses have special lanes and have to keep left instead of right). When I told Blake later, he said, “Okay, so first you almost get run over by a paedophile, and then you almost get run over by a bikie?”

At the cathedral, which was l’Église de la Madeleine (the Church of the Madeleine), Jess B met up with her family before we had a rehearsal. Only small instrumental groups were performing as well as Chorale. The acoustics in the church were great, especially in Joshua Fight de Battle ob Jerico.

Following the concert, we were driven down the Champs-Élysées to l’Arc de Triomphe. At first, I was a little scared that we would have to cross the roundabout, known historically as the Place de l’Étoile, but according to Wikipedia is now called the Place Charles de Gaulle. This roundabout is notorious as being one of the most difficult for motorists because not only are there three or so lanes in the roundabout, there are also twelve lanes leading in and out of it. If you don’t know what you are doing, you are in trouble. I didn’t have to worry for long, however, because we were soon led to an underpass that led directly to the central island where l’Arc de Triomphe stands.

Every evening, at 6.30pm Paris time, a ceremony known as the La Flamme ceremony takes place. Wind Orchestra performed our three ceremonial pieces (Largo, Blessed are They and Well Met, My Own True Love) as well as the French national anthem. After the ceremony, which I didn’t understand any more than I understood the one at the Menin Gate, one of the soldiers complimented us on our performance of La Marsellaise (the French national anthem).

After the ceremony, we were given some free time to wander down the Champs-Élysées in fairly large groups. We went to a few stores and I tried on something at one of the stores, but after experiencing just how annoying it was to go clothes shopping while wearing formal uniform, I gave up and just window shopped (though I did buy some earrings). Towards the end of our free time, we bumped into Murphy Minor who told us about the Sephora that she just visited, and all of the other girls in my group were excited about that so they insisted on visiting even though we didn’t have any time, much to the chagrin of the boys and I. It didn’t help matters that the Sephora store on the Champs-Élysées is massive either.

By the time we made it back to the restaurant we were to meet at, I thought we were the last group back. (I don’t think we were, as later on when I went to get non-carbonated water I think I saw some other people from our tour group queuing up.) The food was pretty good, but unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to taste my dessert. I thought that I should go to the toilet before finishing my meal so that I didn’t get held up later, but the queue was far too long and moved far too slowly. To make matters worse, there was no toilet paper left by the time the last few people went so Murphy Minor had to give some tissues to people (unused, of course!). I had had tissues in my pocket, but unfortunately they were all used up due to my cold. I also had a full toilet roll in my bag (I find toilet rolls are better than packet tissues as packet tissues never seem to be absorbent enough for my nose, and besides Mr Hey had scared some of us, including me, by saying that there isn’t any toilet paper in public toilets in Hungary) but as we were told to bring only what was necessary to a crowded street such as the Champs-Élysées, I had left my bag on the bus and brought only my camera and the cleaning cloth for my glasses.

When we left, it was a rush to get back onto the buses. We were told to cross at the junction where the pedestrian lights were green, but I knew that it didn’t make too much of a difference because it’s France, so I made sure to look before crossing anyway. (I became a decent jaywalker in France because of the terrible pedestrian lights.) There were a couple of other people ahead of me because they’re more confident in their jaywalking abilities than I am, but I am a pretty good runner too, so I caught up to them. Eventually, after these annoyances, it was another hour or so drive back to our hotel in Senlis. The annoyances and long drive were pretty minor compared to the rest of the day, so overall I had a pretty good day with the bonuses of performing beneath the Arc de Triomphe and in the Church of the Madeleine.

Music Tour- Day Fifteen

On our final day in Belgium, we packed up and moved our suitcases downstairs in preparation to leave. It was raining, so instead of walking down to the buses as was our original plan, we had to wait for the buses to come to us and park illegally in the small road so that we didn’t have to carry so much in the rain. As we hurried on to the buses, I dropped my neck pillow in the gutter. I picked it up and resolved to wash it at the earliest opportunity.

It was a long trip from Belgium to France, during which we stopped several times. Our first stop was at two graveyards. Buses 1 and 2 went to one and buses 3 and 4 went to the other. A former student of our school was buried at each graveyard. One of the girls from Bus 3 was a distant relative of one of the former students buried at the graveyard that we visited. We had a small ceremony where the student gave a speech and we sang the school song and the national anthem. It wasn’t all too fancy, but it was certainly a very moving experience. If I hadn’t had to conserve my tissues due to the fact that I had a cold at this point, I would have shed a few tears.

Our next stop was a graveyard seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Apparently, a distant relative of Angus’ was buried at this graveyard, so we stopped for a short while to give Angus and his dad time to look at the graveyard register to find the grave and pay their respects.

Stop number 3 was at a fairly large town. If I remember correctly what Stevie J said, this town was called Lille. We had an hour or so to have a breather, eat, find a toilet and do a little bit of shopping. The toilet was a pay toilet and required 40 cents. The smallest change I had was a 1 Euro coin, so I shoved that in the change machine. I counted the number of 10 cent coins that came out to ensure that I didn’t get ripped off.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6...

7, 8...

9...

10...

11!!

After we all made a trip to the toilet (our tour group made for a long toilet queue!) we had a look around the shops. We went into a game shop and saw Pokémon Black and White in French (Pokémon Noire et Blanche). We also had a look at some jewellery stalls, but none of us were really in the mood for shopping that day so we went back to the entrance where Stevie J was. Stevie J said, “You can tell that French people really like clothes, judging by the fact that 90% of the shopping centre is clothes shops!” (That’s probably the same for all countries though.) We ended up playing Cheat around the shop directory on the bottom floor until the security guard asked us to move off to the side. He asked us in French, so it was pretty good that we had Camille with us to translate.

Soon, we were back in the buses for the long trip through several toll booths to Senlis, where our hotel was. As we were waiting to receive our room keys, a few people who had already received their keys were making a big fuss about how there were double beds in the boys’ double rooms. Oddly enough, nobody was making a fuss about the double beds in the girls’ double rooms.

The hotel was more or less divided into two halves, with reception and half of the rooms in one building and the other half of the rooms in the other. I was in the same room (in the second building) as Jess C and Boyuan, and although we only had three in our room, we had a double bed and a bunk bed. It was fairly cramped in our room, but there was still just enough space to manoeuvre our suitcases, my clarinet and Boyuan’s violin.

Once we were settled, it was dinner time. After dinner, we went for a walk down to the fair. When we got there, it seemed as if the fair was closed, so we walked on past the cathedral in Senlis. It seemed huge to us, but then Mr Coy told us that the one we would visit in Amiens in two days would be three times larger.

As we walked back, we discovered that the fair was, in fact, open. A couple of people bought some lollies and things from the counter. Someone had a go at the skilltester (you know, those machines where you have to pick up a toy with the claw that can’t pick stuff up to save its life). Amy had a lot of goes on the Pokémon skilltester but to no avail, though apparently she has actually won stuff from skilltesters in the past. Eventually the climax of the night came: some people wanted to try the “ejection” ride, so the people working at the fair started it up for them. Two people could go at a time. When Jordyn and Courteney went up, one of them screamed. To this day, I have no idea who it was. Apparently it was Jordyn. If it was, that was one high-pitched scream, though I probably shouldn’t be too surprised: apparently Jordyn’s voice went up two octaves after the wedgie he got from the Big Swing on Health Camp.

Eventually the teachers decided that it was getting late and we had to head back to the hotel. On the way back, some people crossed the road at a junction because no cars indicated to turn into that junction. A truck then drove past, honking loudly, and the people on the road screamed and quickly ran off the road. The truck didn’t turn. I expected that the drivers of that truck laughed their heads off to wherever they were going. 

Music Tour- Day Fourteen

On the morning of my birthday, at breakfast, Jenny wished me a happy birthday and presented me with a gift of Belgian chocolates! These six chocolates were cat-shaped, and there were two white chocolate cats, two milk chocolate, and two dark chocolate. Later, as we prepared to leave the hostel to visit the “In Flanders Field Museum” that morning, while Stevie J was teaching someone how to tie a tie, Murphy Minor gave me two more presents: a chocolate dog and a pink and white large spiral lollipop, which she warned me not to eat all at once. It was great being showered down with gifts!

At the museum, Mr Hey mentioned me and two other people who had their birthday on the same day. We then got to enter the war museum and I took my time looking around and reading a lot of the information (though don’t ask me to recall any of it!). I think most of my friends had left by the time I left but I wasn’t the last one to leave.

We then had a little bit of time to spare at the hostel. Some of my friends were already walking around Ypres at this point while others were looking at manga stuff on the Internet. It didn’t occur to me to leave the hostel on my own (because I’m lame like that), but I did have some washing to catch up with (because I’m doubly lame like that). I think I also used that time to send a few emails as well on the annoying AZERTY keyboard the hostel had while listening to the Narwhal Song that some other people from my tour group had playing on the computer that they were using. In the end it was probably a good thing I didn’t see where the others were or that would have ruined the surprise for me when they came back: they presented me with a lovely ladybird cake. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to eat it at that point as we were about to go to Fromelles in France, and I wanted to save it for later because it almost looked too good to eat!

Oddly enough, although I hadn’t felt motion sickness at all earlier on tour, I felt slightly ill on the bus on my birthday, of all days. When we stopped at the first war memorial, I gladly took a breath of fresh air. This graveyard was rather small compared to the other ones that we had visited, but it was still fairly substantial. I wonder what Archduke Franz-Ferdinand would say to all of this? (I’m pretty sure most if not all of the graveyards we visited predominantly consisted of graves from World War One, and I think the death toll for World War Two was supposed to be higher.)

When I had finished looking around, I joined some of the others who were standing around near the bus. Someone went to the toilet on the bus, and not long after they did, we heard a whirring sound and then the splash of water hitting the road! Of course, that just led us to pretty bad conclusions. Sarah said, “Okay, guys... nobody do a number 2 in there!” Eric later tried to reassure us that that water was simply tap water waste or something.

We visited another two war memorials after that. The first was very small and didn’t have any graves (to my knowledge)- just a sculpture showing a man carrying a wounded comrade to safety. The second was larger. Eden borrowed my camera at that point so he could take 11 pictures of the door of the war memorial. Apparently the door was “cool.”

Our next destination was another town, Radinghem en Wappes, or to be more specific, a cathedral in Radinghem en Wappes. We had a rehearsal here for the concert that night. Wind Orchestra wasn’t playing, so I just warmed up with Chorale, and ate bits of my (now partially squashed) cake when I had a break. We then got to have a quick rehearsal on stage, after which Mr Hey called the three birthday girls to the front, and Chorale sang “Happy Birthday” to us- in four-part vocal style, which sounded really nice and was by far the best I’ve ever had this song sung to me.

Dinner soon followed and was prepared by the local people. It was only sandwiches (ham sandwiches and cheese sandwiches) but that was probably to be expected as there were so many of us to be served. The cakes that were served for dessert tasted pretty good though.

Following dinner, we got changed and had to walk to the cathedral in concert uniform. If I remember correctly, it was a pretty cold night, and I was quite grateful for my black wrap. In this concert, we got to sit on small chairs to the sides if we weren’t performing which allowed us to see what the other groups had to perform. Senior Wind Quintet was of particular interest to me because they played one of the songs that Junior Wind Quintet was learning before it ceased to run.

We returned to the hostel pretty late after this concert. On the bus, everyone in Angus’ room yelled at him to do his travel diary on the bus so that they didn’t have to shove him in the bathroom again. When we got back to the hostel, it was 11.30pm the first time I checked my watch. We were served waffles for desert, following which we didn’t have a specified lights out, it was just “go to bed as soon as you’re ready.” I don’t remember exactly what time I did end up going to bed, but it was almost definitely after midnight.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is following me everywhere!

So, I start reading Frankenstein, and what do I see on the bottom of page 21?

"I am going to unexplored regions to 'the land of mist and snow'; but I shall kill no albatross, therefore do not be alarmed for my safety, or if I should come back to you as worn and woeful as the 'Ancient Mariner'. You will smile at my allusion; but I will disclose a secret. I have often attributed my attachment to, my passionate enthusiasm for the dangerous mysteries of ocean, to the production of the most imaginative of modern poets."

My comments:

1. Some "allusion" this is! Did the narrator want to be any more explicit in which poem he was referencing?
2. The word "modern" in the last sentence is just further proof that 200 years ago didn't seem like 200 years ago back then, it seemed modern. According to the appendix of Frankenstein, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner was written in 1798. Frankenstein was written in 1818.

Music Tour- Day Thirteen

We spent our first morning in Belgium touring battlefield sites, starting with Hill 60 and Hill 62. Before tour, Mr Hey had warned us that if it had rained at all in the past week, our shoes would get muddy so we should bring old shoes that we wouldn’t mind throwing out after visiting the battlefields. It hadn’t rained, however, so I could keep my shoes with me for the rest of the tour.

Anyway, the first hill we went to (I can’t remember whether it was Hill 60 or Hill 62) was absolutely beautiful. We went to a clearing with a man-made lake in the middle. Apparently, the lake was caused by a mine explosion during World War One. On the other side of the lake, we could see many trees shrouded by mist. It’s hard to capture its beauty using words only. In fact, not only a picture could give you the full sense of what it was like there- you’d have to go there to get the entire effect. It’s odd how such destruction could have caused such beauty.

The other hill had a fairly convoluted landscape, again due to the battles during WWI. Some of the bunkers still remain there. You could tell which bunker belonged to which army due to the directions they faced.

After visiting the two hills we visited several other war memorials. The situation was the same- beautiful scenery in a place that exists to remember those who lost their lives during the war. Who would have thought that the death of an Austrian aristocrat could spell the death of so many others?

We had a little bit of free time in Ypres. I got some Belgian chocolate from one chocolate shop but then found out that the chocolate shop we had visited before that had had a special deal where you could get quite a lot of chocolate for only 10 euros! I was a bit annoyed at myself for that.

After that, we had a concert in the market square. Wind Orchestra was performing, as well as the Saxophone and Jazz ensembles. After playing Fantasy on an Australian Folk Song or Waltzing Matilda (can’t remember which one it was that we played) one of the members of our audience yelled, “Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!” I was surprised at this- I didn’t know that so many Europeans knew the Aussie Aussie Aussie chant!

Wind Orchestra performed last. After we were finished, we all packed up and headed up the road towards a restaurant to have dinner in our group of 166. I think we practically took up the whole restaurant. I think we had steak or some other kind of meat served with chips, which is basically what we had the night before (vegetarians had had omelette that night, but I’m not sure about this particular night).

This restaurant was where we all had our most awkward toilet experience ever (well, those who needed to go had an awkward experience anyway). The toilet was a unisex toilet. Basically, the door opened to reveal the urinal and a sink, and there was another door which led to the toilet itself. Nobody used the urinal, and I don’t blame them. It was barely concealed by a screen- in fact, the people sitting across from me at my table could see the urinal clearly. In the queue for the toilet, the boy behind me asked the waiter if that was the only toilet in the restaurant, and he said yes. The boy then said, “Good, because I’d feel awkward if I was queuing up for a girls’ bathroom.” I didn’t say anything, but I thought, “How do you think I feel?! There’s a urinal here!”

After dinner, we went back down the road but instead of going all the way back to our hostels, we stopped at Menin Gate, an arch-shaped memorial. Wind Orchestra was playing its memorial repertoire again for the ceremony, while the choir, which was present this time, sang. Quite a lot of people were watching the ceremony. I didn’t understand what was going on a lot of the time, but at least I understood what I had to do, unlike at the Dawn Service where confusion abounded.

When the ceremony was over, there were some Australian army people there handing out badges, stickers and balloons. I considered getting a badge for Tyko but by the time they got to me they had run out so I took a few balloons instead. As we walked back to our hostels, I heard someone behind me say, “Wow, what time does it set in this place?!” I looked at my watch and understood what they were talking about- it was 8.50pm and it still looked like 5pm on a summer evening! (I’m not sure what time the sun actually did set because I wasn’t paying attention.)

Lights out was 10.30pm, half an hour after the hostel manager said we had to be quiet otherwise the neighbours would complain. At 10.32, Mrs F came to our room and asked us why the lights weren’t out. She must have been pretty exact considering that our room wouldn’t have even been the first one she would have visited! I must commend her for trying such tactics on a group of teenagers on tour.

Music Tour- Day Twelve

At 3am, we woke up.

Yes, 3am.

No breakfast straight away, either- we had to get dressed, go to the Dawn Service, and sing for our breakfast.

I didn’t know that we were allowed to wear our jumpers for the Dawn Service (though not for the service afterwards), so I didn’t have mine. I found out when we got on the bus, but by that time, I thought that I would be okay without it, and besides I couldn’t be bothered going back to get it or lugging it around Westminster Abbey later. So I soldiered on without it.

When we got off the bus at the Dawn Service, I found that I may have been wrong. Actually, I’m not sure if wearing a jumper would have helped because it was my face and legs that were cold- apparently 120 denier just wasn’t going to cut it for me on a British spring morning. I probably would have been semi-okay for tiredness if I wasn’t feeling so cold. The cold just made me feel terrible, and the terribleness made me remember my tiredness. In fact, I lamented to someone, “This is my first Dawn Service- and it’s probably going to be my last.” Stevie J happened to overhear, and he laughed before remembering that he should be serious and said, “Don’t say things like that!”

Programmes were handed out, but they never reached my end of the choir. If I had had a programme, I would have known that we were to sing verses 1, 2 and 5 of Abide With Me, and I would have known what the words were. Unfortunately, I thought that we were going to sing verses 1, 3, 4 and 5, the way we had practised in choir, and in choir we had been told that we hadn’t had to learn the words for verse 2. That was the first problem I had in the choir. I managed to borrow a programme off someone else later (they at least had someone that they could share with while I didn’t) when we had to sing New Zealand’s national anthem, so at least I had the words for that. When the band played, they left a random pause before the last line which threw everybody off, at least the first time around. I think they may have also done this for the Australian national anthem too. In any case, it was pretty annoying.

After the Dawn Service, we headed off somewhere else for breakfast. I can’t remember what the place was called but I do remember that one of the chaperones or teachers said that it was a “bloke’s club” which is why there were only two ladies’ toilets. (I was lucky enough to go when there were only three or four people in the queue- by the time I left the queue was several metres long!) Anyway, when we got to the place the ten of us found that most of the tables were taken up so, after Mrs F telling us/half-yelling at us to sit down, we accepted our fate and split up. I ended up at a table where I was the only girl. We went up table at a time to get our breakfast, and when our table was called, Mrs Harvey said, “Okay, boys, you can get your breakfast!” I went up to her and indignantly told her that not everyone at that table was a boy. According to her, I was the lucky girl among all the boys. (So she says.)

The next event after breakfast was our performance at Westminster Abbey. There was a bit of panic at first as the instrument van was not waiting for us and some of the teachers were trying to ring up to find out where it was. I was a bit nervous at this- the only time I’d left my clarinet on the van, it failed to arrive! Fortunately it turned out that the van was simply late, and not too late either.

Only Wind Orchestra performed at Westminster Abbey- everyone else was singing at the Cenotaph service. It made things a bit awkward when on the Westminster Abbey programme it said that one of the songs (Thine be the Glory) would be led by our choir- which I soon realised was represented only by us band members! There were some bits in the service which felt a bit drawn out but there were some bits which I found fairly moving, even though I’m an atheist.

The service was followed by a hectic pack-up of instruments before returning to the youth hostel. Eventually we loaded everything onto the buses, and after getting on the buses, a lady got onto the bus and told us that as there would be no eating on the buses and there would be several hours until we got onto the Eurostar, we would have to eat before leaving, so we did. When we returned to the bus, Claire, sitting at the back, said, “If anybody needs to go to the toilet, go to the toilet at the youth hostel! We will seriously punch you if you use the bus toilet.”

On the bus, I played Mario Kart DS with Angus, Boyuan, Jess and one or two other people. Angus was using his sister’s DS, and for some reason his sister had set the DS name to “Lindsay” so everyone was laughing at him for it. I did pretty well at the races but soon it was time to get off temporarily at the Eurostar station. I had a look at the bookshop inside the station even though I wasn’t planning on spending any money (I wasn’t even going to bother finding anything that I could buy with 7p).

Eventually we got back on the bus and the bus drove into the train. I was excited about going on the train because of course it’s a totally new experience. I also thought that there would be carriages for vehicles and then a passenger part of the train, but I was wrong. The train we were on was entirely for vehicles. There were 17 carriages (if I remember correctly) with toilets at either end, though I’m not sure if the toilet carriages were included in that count. We were in the second carriage, not counting the front carriage with the toilets (which apparently were vacuum toilets but I didn’t need to use them).

Our ears all popped as we went downwards into the Channel Tunnel. Although I don’t usually get claustrophobic, I did feel a little hemmed in because the train didn’t have any windows. I went out of the bus to take a bit of a walk to the toilet carriages and back. I had a bit of an odd fear that I would get trapped between two train carriages and fall between them but it was okay because most of the time someone would be opening the door on the other side so I didn’t have that to worry about. It seemed like only an hour before we had to reboard the buses to resurface but apparently it was only about 45min or less!

We drove out of the train into France, and then north into Belgium. Apparently there’s a sign indicating the border between the two countries and we shouldn’t blink or else we’d miss it. I think I blinked because I didn’t see it. My first indication that we were in Belgium were road signs in Dutch, especially the one pointing towards Ypres (Ieper in Dutch). Eventually we arrived in the beautiful Belgian town which apparently got practically rebuilt after WWI. We headed towards our different hostels. Bus 3 and Bus 4 shared the Salient School Hostel, and it wasn’t too much of a walk, which was good. After listening to the talk about rules and so forth, we headed up to our actual rooms, where I began to make a list of pros and cons about the place.

There were only six of us assigned to room 3, and it was a room designed to fit ten, so it was pretty comfortable. One of the bunks was pretty isolated, so we divided the remaining four bunks among us. I had a bunk to myself so I took the bottom part. My suitcase stank pretty badly due to the clothes that didn’t dry properly while I was in London, but Julia O possibly had a worse problem- one of the liquids in her suitcase spilled over half of her clothes. Once we were set up, we went and looked in one of the other rooms, where they weren’t so lucky- they had one of the attic rooms which looked quite cramped due to the slanting roof but at least there was the novelty factor I suppose.

Other good things about the hostel included the showers. Larger rooms had two showers, and since our room was meant to fit ten, that included ours. We had two showers for six people, which was as good as the shower to person ratio in the hotels. The showers were quite good as well. We also had access to computers downstairs (though they had AZERTY keyboards which were pretty annoying for us English-speakers used to the QWERTY variety), with free internet and calls to landlines. Finally, we had sole use of this hostel, as well as the hostels that Bus 1 and Bus 2 were occupying, so we didn’t have to worry about security.

There were some drawbacks, though. Firstly, we had to carry our suitcases up the stairs. I’m pretty weak, so I was glad that I only had to carry my suitcases up one flight of stairs. I felt sorry for the people who were sleeping on the 3^rd floor. Also, the next day I found that we were to have continental breakfasts as opposed to the full cooked breakfasts that we had been having previously. All in all, though, the hostel was a pretty comfortable place to stay.

Music Tour- Day Eleven

Although Sunday was yet another free day, we had a tour of the Tower of London scheduled in the morning. Bus 3 and 4 were first, followed by buses 1 and 2 later on. This was fortunate for us because that meant that we could have the rest of the day to explore freely without having to worry about being anywhere at any particular time (though we had to be back to the hostel fairly early-ish due to the early morning the next day).

At the Tower of London, we waited in the absolutely massive queue for the Crown Jewels. That must have been the longest queue I have ever been in. The queue went through some of the other rooms of the building, out the door, snaked around for a bit and then stretched out down the path from one wall to the other. Outside, someone got their photos taken with one of the guards. In the rooms, there were little videos playing displaying some information about the crown jewels so that you had something to do while waiting. When you actually got to the jewels, you had to go on a conveyor belt so that you didn’t stand gazing at them and holding up the queue. The end crown, if I remember correctly, was only worn once because the king or whoever had to wear it complained that it was too heavy!

After coming out of the building, we had lunch and were given some free time to explore the Tower of London (which, incidentally, is made up of several towers) as we wished, though we had to be back to the spot we were eating by a particular time. After eating lunch I decided to explore the central tower which displayed lots of old weapons and armour which were quite interesting to look at. Towards the end of it I needed to go to the toilet, so I waited to go downstairs in the super slow-moving queue and then made a beeline for the toilets (at least the queue for the toilets was relatively fast-moving!) before dashing back to the meeting point. I ended up being exactly on time (to the nearest minute, at least- not sure about seconds).

When we left, we decided that we would head for the British Museum. The British Museum is absolutely huge, and it’s free to enter. We had time to visit the China, Korea and Egypt rooms before it was time to head back downstairs. When we did head back downstairs to our meeting place (under the banner which said “Australian Season” on it), we were told that we were allowed to have another 30min to explore, but it was a bit pointless since the museum was so large we wouldn’t be able to do very much with half an hour, especially now that we were away from the exhibits, so we went to the gift shop instead. I had £5.06 left to spend by the next day, so I spent £4.99 on a Horribly Famous book about Julius Caesar and was left with only 7p, so I had spent my money fairly neatly. (I found another 1p coin when I got home, so now I have 8p. Whoop-de-doop.)

As we left, the other members of my group decided to stop by some of the souvenir shops. I had a look around as well, to see if there was anything that 7p could buy or if anybody was 7p short of anything. The cheapest item available was 10p, and that was a postcard.

Finally, we returned to the youth hostel for dinner. That night, Diffy and I were the sensible ones. We both set our alarms and made plans to go to bed at least semi-early. Xanthe and Boyuan, however, decided to go to Jess’ room. I decided to go after them and give them one of the keys to our room so that they did not have to wake us up when they returned. I gave them an awful fright when I went over there. When I knocked, I heard agitated whisperings: they thought I was a teacher! I waited while some of them hid and the rest tried to look like they were almost ready for bed. At long last, the door was opened, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. I handed Xanthe the key and headed back to my room to hopefully get some decent rest before the next day.

Phobia Awakens

I have mild composer's block. So this section isn't quite finished yet.

And I apologise for the terrible quality voice over and my retarded voice :P Ah well this was a test run.

Music Tour- Day Ten

The previous night, Stevie J had told us that breakfast would be served at 8, so I planned to get up at 7.45. I changed my mind, however, and got up at 7.30am instead. This turned out to be a good thing: at 7.48am Stevie J came to our room and told us that the buses were waiting for us! We hurriedly made our final preparations to set off. Unfortunately, the clothes we had hung up to dry didn’t dry properly and were instead starting to stink, so we all had to set off smelling odd.

When we got to the ground floor, Tori said that about 10 people were late, so at least it wasn’t just our room. Everyone was equally confused. When we got on the bus, some of the chaperones were “tut-tutting” us and other people said, “Well, you guys took your time!” The ten of us who were late were understandably annoyed. After a little bit of asking around, we managed to piece together what had happened.

We were the first bus back, so Stevie J was simply telling us the original plan for the next day. After everyone went off to their rooms, the adults on our bus went to the shops so they missed out on being told the change of time. By the time they found out, they assumed that all of us had been told. We weren’t: some people went around door-knocking the next morning at 7.30am warning everyone that they had to be on the buses by 7.45am, but they missed two rooms: my room of 4, and Jess B’s room of 6. In any case, I’m one of those people who isn’t comfortable when things don’t go to plan, so this didn’t go down too well for me.

We set off for Westminster Abbey. Wind Orchestra set up facing an orchestra from New Zealand. The three songs we practised were our “war memorial” songs- three slow songs that sap all of your breath if you’re playing a wind instrument. They were Handel’s Largo, Blessed Are They and Well Met, My Own True Love. After practising, we went outside and I began to nibble on some of the biscuits in my brown paper bag- the only breakfast I got that day (this was possibly the first day in my life in which I didn’t have breakfast). I was told to put my clarinet in the pile of instruments to be loaded on the instrument van so that I didn’t have to carry it around London. I did, and watched the instruments being loaded onto the van until mine was safely loaded on. As I watched, I felt an odd sensation: I felt a sense of loss as my clarinet was parted from me.

We then set off in our bus groups to explore London. Our group went shopping for a bit and then to the park outside Buckingham Palace for lunch. If I remember correctly, we heard a fanfare and could make out the shapes of soldiers marching near the palace. After that, we went to Oxford Street and, while we were at H & M, we saw a protest march pass by. When we were done shopping at H & M, we went into another shop and then took the tube to St. Paul’s Station. We stopped off at a café to have milkshakes before heading off for St. Paul’s Cathedral.

St. Paul’s cathedral has several floors. The first long flight of steps took us up to a ring-shaped floor called the “Whispering Gallery” because apparently whispers can be heard from the other side. Julia O came up here with us, but when we went up to the next gallery, she went down because she’s scared of heights. Jess C went down as well to keep her company. I can’t remember what the next gallery was called, but it was outdoors and afforded a good view. The last gallery was called the Golden Gallery, and to get there, you had to go up lots of metal steps above… the unknown. It was a little scary at times, particularly because you were trapped in a way: you couldn’t go up or down  because so many people were in the way. At the top, I walked around the Golden Gallery, took a few photos, and bumped into the attendant at the exit who was trying to get as many people to go down as she could so that more people could come up. I told her to tell my group that I’d gone down.

At the bottom, we saw Jess C and Julia O waiting for us. They told us that they could hear Stevie J talking through the headsets so they were eavesdropping on them as much as they could.

When everyone was downstairs, we headed back for the tube station. First, we took the train to Bank and then took the Waterloo and City line to Waterloo. The Waterloo and City line is the best train line ever- it only has two stations! Waterloo Station itself is huge as it also houses trains going around England, so we got lost looking for the correct bus. We ended up having to take lots of tube trains until we finally found the right bus! At the end we were exhausted from public transport, and were grateful for getting back to the hostel. We had some time to get ready for watching Wicked, which was a really good musical and had everyone saying, “That was wicked!!” at the end of it.

Music Tour- Day Nine

Friday was the day we travelled to Bath via Stonehenge.

As we left, we got a view of the Buckingham Palace gardens. Angus said, “Now here’s a photo opportunity I’m not going to miss!” and got out his camera, but soon a bus came and blocked his view. “Oh no!” Angus exclaimed. “Bloody bus!”

We had a rest stop on the way to Stonehenge. At the rest stop, some of the boys had decided to annoy Scotty. They asked me to help by taking his bag and hiding it under the bus. I didn’t do that, but I did run around the buses until I lost him and then ran back on the bus and hid his bag in the toilet. When Scotty got back on the bus, I had to tell him where I put his bag.

Eventually we got to Stonehenge. It was a lot smaller than most people expected it to be. We were given headsets but I don’t think anybody listened to all of the information- there probably wasn’t time anyway. We took several pictures of people in such a way that it looked as if they were holding up Stonehenge with their arms and also a couple of pictures of sheep on the hillside. (Yes, we went to Stonehenge to take pictures of sheep.)

After an hour or so, we set off for Bath. Our first stop in Bath was Parkview Gardens, where we gave a concert for an hour. Halfway through the concert, Jonty went to the cathedral in Bath because Mr Hey said that there was going to be a special Good Friday Mass there. Unfortunately, it turned out that it was cancelled or something so he had to come back and play Marche des Parachutistes Belges. His piccolo wasn’t warmed up so it was extremely out of tune when he had to play. Poor Jonty!

After the concert, some of us left our instruments for the chaperones to look after while we had a guided tour of Bath, which didn’t last for very long. At the end, we had a little bit of time to get an ice cream and watch a horse and carriage tour pass by. Right before we went back on the bus, I asked if there was a toilet nearby because I wanted to avoid using the bus toilet as much as possible, but it was probably going to be a fair distance considering we had to be on the buses soon. In any case, there was going to be a stopover on the way back.

When we were near the buses, I got my clarinet back from the chaperone. When I got on the bus, Alastair had given us another reason to avoid bus toilets.

He dropped one big stinker in there.

Additionally, the bus toilet wasn’t a vacuum toilet: it was worse. It was one of those toilets that had a flap which opens directly over the septic tank, so you can smell of the contents when you flush.

Everyone was cursing Alastair for stinking up the back of the bus. Eden sprayed Eau de Cologne everywhere.

After most of the smell had diminished, Stevie J came on the bus holding a Buffet R13 case, asking for me! I was dumbfounded: I thought I had already put my clarinet into the overheads! Upon further inspection, I saw that Stevie J was indeed holding my clarinet. Confused, I opened the overhead locker and took down… Adrienne’s clarinet! Everyone had a good laugh at the confusion between the identical clarinet cases.

Finally, we set off. On the way, Eric had motion sickness, giving us yet another reason not to go into the bus toilet. At this point, I decided that I would do whatever I could to avoid having to clean toilets for a living.

Eventually, we stopped off at the rest stop, and, after making a massive fool of myself when I bought food, we set off for the youth hostel for the night.