Update from our three country journey from Hungary via Austria to Germany…
I am writing this on the coach, not far from Vienna, as we are heading towards our lunch break. The weather for our final full day in Europe is pretty much as it has been for most of our trip: sunny, with a gentle breeze and a few clouds in the sky, with a temperature of 30°C. Any student that has complained to me about being hot has been not so gently reminded how lucky they are to be experiencing a small dose of summer in July. Our journey started in Pécs at 8am this morning; we stopped for 30m for a quick break near Budapest and it is now 1:30pm. Everyone seems to be taking the long trip well, but I imagine there will be some tired teenagers in Munich tonight!
Here are some of the tidbits from our trip that I haven’t mentioned yet:
* Two of our concerts have been interrupted by planes. The first was in St Gilgen, where three WWII replica fighters (possibly Messerschmidt ME109s) were putting on an aerobatic show high above the lake. The second was in Pécs, where a decrepit looking biplane did a series of low passes over the town during most of the concert. It did feel like we’d stepped back in time.
* All of our outdoor concerts were interrupted by barking dogs, but particularly so in Bad Tatzmannsdorf, where an annoying lapdog decided to bark at anything that came vaguely close to it. It also seemed to like us playing Austrian music more than anything else. The other memorable thing from that concert was the pair of storks nesting on top of a chimney, that watched the whole concert.
* Whenever the group has walked anywhere en masse, members of the public have been peering at our uniform tops, trying to figure out who on earth we are and why there are so many teenagers taking over their town. We’ve met several kiwis on route and lots of people have come to our concerts simply because they had asked who we were and what we were doing. When people find out where we’re from, they usually mention Lord of the Rings, or possibly the All Blacks. Occasionally we get the odd “Oh, you’re from New Zealand! Do you know [insert name] from [insert town]?” – and sometimes we do!