Yesterday was a day of travel. We drive for over 8 hours to Budapest from Praha, with a stop at a restaurant in Slovakia. When we arrived in Hungary, we immediately had a concert in the hall of the Choral Castle, the place we are staying. The audience of 30 loved us and we gave 5 encores! Amazing concert. :) It is positively beautiful in Hungary, and the people are wonderfully kind and hospitable. And the Choral Castle is positively delightful.
Today was a jam-packed day of stuff; it felt like a week. We started the morning with a scant breakfast of cold cuts and bread, and "tang with pulp" as Rachel called it. Then we rehearsed with Gyorgy Orban, the Hungarian composer of two of our pieces. It was so fun to have him there and to meet him. He may write a piece for us next year! :)
Our next destination was Szentendre, more of a suburb of Budapest than its own town. It sits on the Danube and has some charming shops and streets. It is quintessential Europe. I had the best ice cream EVER here! It was so good, I went back and had more, and only paid 300 Forint (About $1.50).
Our net stop was Budapest proper, where we ate a delicious but fatty meal in a structure that reminded me of the Ferry Building in San Francisco. Then we went up a hill to see a glorious panorama of the center of the city and the Danube.
Our conert this evening was in Telki, a wonderful village about an hour outside of Budapest. We performed as part of the spring festival, much like a small version of the Arts Festival in Salt Lake. The standing-room only audience loved the performance, and we spent the rest of the evening dancing to live music and eating native Hungarian food. Sadly, my pictures from here have not yet been uploaded because my camera died in the middle of the upload.
I will upload some remaining pictures tomorrow... there are spectacular photos left, esp. of the panorama of Buadpest!!
Fun facts:
- Europeans clap in unison if they really like something in our concerts, and it tickles us every time!! And they would clap for hours if they could!
- They have sparkling water EVERYWHERE!
- They have this soda that is like God in a bottle. It's Fanta, but unlike any Fanta I have experienced before!
