The night before, as we were all heading up to our respective rooms, Dr. Pittman said to me, "Find me in the morning!" Which made me happy that he still wanted to hang out with me-- in spite of my practically puppy-dogging him this entire time. :) So the next morning, after kindof a groggy start on everyone's part (our one and only day without a wake-up call, we all slept in!) we headed out, along with Scott, to do the obligatory souvenir shopping! Hit up a bunch of little shops around Wenceslas Square (yes, that Good King Wenceslas) and I got some very pretty amber earrings (the guys helped pick them out, lol) as well as a few other cute souvenirs. Delicious lunch at an "Italian" (Czech Italian, or however they do it over there) restaurant-- back to the hotel because it was starting to rain-- Dr. P and I went back out to the Cafe Louvre for coffee and cheesecake. Good coffee! Incredible... and I have come to realize that "straight" coffee is much more palatable as long as it is good coffee. It's only the nasty, cheap coffee that needs disguising with milk & sugar. Anyway, back to the hotel, packed for a while and got ready for the dinner cruise!

Which was really, really lovely. Still hanging out with Dr P-- (he chose to sit next to me! I honestly wasn't being a pest, haha) and Penny's amusing brother Andrew also sat at our table. We were given complimentary glasses of champagne, which was fun for the toasts that were going around (including a father's day toast-- Happy Father's Day a day late, Dad! I'll see you tomorrow. :) ) and provided a moment of amusement when Trinka snuck up behind me and plopped a strawberry in my glass...! But I eventually snuck up to the bar and got a glass of ginger ale. :) Really, really gorgeous scenery along the Moldau river. The day had started out with me taking very few pictures, but I think I took more shots of the cruise than I did of any other place we visited!

Bekah had been hanging out with her Czech friend Lenka all day, and they invited Dr. P and me to join them at the Cafe Louvre for hot chocolate... (Invited others as well, but we four were the only ones who went) Well, even though all four of us had already been to the cafe at one point that day, the "melted candy bar" hot chocolate sounded so good that Dr. P and I just had to say yes! And ohhh my goodness, it was fabulous! Also funny how Dr. P and I realized that the "wrong" staircase we had taken earlier in the day (and turned around from) was actually the right staircase... oops! It's amazing we found our way back from the Charles Bridge the other day! haha. But anyway. Marvelous hot chocolate-- that honestly tasted just like Mom's homeade chocolate pudding when it's still piping hot and "runny." Fun stories from Dr. P's student days... general silliness. :)

Back to the hotel-- party going on down in the bar/restaurant! Much hilarity, especially with Trinka. You know how I get "punch drunk" when I'm tired? Yea, pretty much like that only more so. :) Then more staying up being goofy amusing Bekah while she packed...

Then goodbye this morning! What can I say-- I'm going to miss Trinka so much! I was one of the first to get my luggage checked, but I stayed and talked (or rather just stayed) with her until the very last member of our group had gone through the line. She said goodbye to that last person then put her arm around me and said, "Well, I'm taking this one with me if you don't mind..." Quick goodbye, and then off to the gate!

But not before yet another instance of Trinka's ingenious mind. Dr. Pittman's suitcase was over the weight limit, and since I was just hanging around with her at that point, what does Trinka do but wave me over and ask if I have any extra room in my carry-on suitcase! So yes, I have been hauling Dr. P's shoes with me since Prague! haha! I don't mind at all, but it has made going through security (every time I have to open and close my bag to take my laptop out and put it back) veeeerrrry interesting, LOL.

Long flight-- not nearly as bad as going over-- but certainly long enough. A couple hours' stop here in Memphis, then on to Wichita where my aunt & uncle will pick me up...

So how does one wrap this up? And not to say that there won't be more reminiscences trickling out... but my goodness. These have been two of the most utterly fabulous, marvelous, memorable, wonderful, beautiful weeks of my life! I love this group of people-- and I love traveling around the country singing in these gorgeous cathedrals! Now to just make a career out of it... ;)

Looking forward to singing with everyone again in Summer Chorus. And as for the immediate future... off to the last leg of our flight! :)

Lots of pictures! http://picasaweb.google.com/ICouldGoOnSinging/PragueDay4

We went up to the Castle (I wish I could remember proper names of these places-- and I probably should be adding visual aides with pictures... but I'm just getting this written so I don't forget everything so there!) and walked around. We couldn't go into the cathedral because they were ordaining a priest, but because of the ceremony they rang the church bells, including the very largest bell which is the largest bell in... the Czech Republic*? My goodness, I wish I could remember. Anyway, it trumped all of the church bells in the surrounding area by a long shot! It reminded me of the end of Mahler's 2nd symphony...

Tour of the castle itself, pretty awesome! Gorgeous gothic vaulted ceilings, huge spiral staircases (a military bland playing "Carmen" in the courtyard below us-- surreal) and stories of defenestration...!
Dr. Pittman-- I'm going to tell my students about that...
Jennifer-- But you don't have a window!
Bob-- You'll have to come up with something else... Debalconization?

Well, we left the castle and the smaller cathedral (only about 1000 years old!) and it started to rain. Thankfully I had brought my jacket-- at least I had my hood! Well, it poured for a good several minutes as we dashed through the "Gold Street." The little shops in the tiny little houses would have been darling if we hadn't been soaked! Huddled, dripping, in a cafe at the bottom of the street and attempted to revive ourselves with hot chocolate. Walked down-hill away from the castle. Stopped in at a beautiful park / castle garden... me & my gang broke off for lunch at yet another Svejk restaurant... which quite possibly had my favorite menu ever. Not only did they have "desserts" but they had "sweet meals!" Yep, pretty awesome. So I had a "sweet meal" of pancakes and ice cream. Mmm... slowly made our way back to the hotel, across the Charles Bridge, reading our map (thank-you Trinka!) to find our way.

Got ready for the concert in Dobrichovice... but I need to get ready for today now. Even with a day off, we're busy busy busy enjoying it! :)

OKAY! More than a day later...! Now I get to sit here in the Memphis airport and try to concentrate enough to finish writing this. :)

Got ready for the concert in Dobrichovice (which I think we finally figured out how to pronounce-- some of us), finally wore our "dressy blacks" again-- it had been polo shirts for the most part! Rode the bus (one of a series of new buses) out, were received in a charming fortress-turned-restaurant for a "welcome drink" (yay for orange juice, haha!) then we went to the church. Brief rehearsal, then the concert! This church was over 1,000 years old, was very tiny, and was packed to the gills with a very appreciative Czech audience. I don't think our performance was as good as the night before at the music museum, but who's complaining? My main problem arose from the fact that somehow I found myself three rows back, and of course I couldn't see Dr. Pittman! (I got to stand in front for my solo, but then it was right back to my invisible corner.) Since we did do "Esto Les Digo" that night (and we didn't the night before) I got my own flower-- a lovely white rose! And it caught me unexpected, too, they had to yell at me "Hey Chantelle!" to get my attention, lol. Then it was back to the fortress-restaurant for a "reception." A nice buffet to browse from, instead of a sit-down-and-be-served meal, and very very friendly local people. A little too friendly, in the case of the woman who was obviously trying to play match-maker between me and her son! Eeek! No comment. ;) A local music group gave us a concert of baroque / Renaissance music that was absolutely fabulous! The bass had a particularly stunning voice, and to quote Trinka I was quite "enjoying the view." Haha! I asked Dr. Pittman what the odds were of getting him to enroll at K-State... ;)

Nice exchange of pleasantries and gifts between the officials of Dobrichovice and the "representatives" of "sister city" Manhtattan, KS. We all received a little something or other.

Well, we packed up and said goodbye and headed back to the hotel... and then let me see. I guess we all just hit the hay, immediately after arriving back at the hotel. And the next day, Sunday, was our day off...!

PS- We performed "Otcenas" by Janacek again, and the audience actually applauded when the name of the piece was announced, even before we sang a note! Too cool. And of course they just exploded after we sang the piece... That was when all the flowers got handed out. And we still had two pieces to go-- "Battle of Jericho" and "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing." I really nailed the high C descant in Battle this time (in my humble opinion), and another soprano chimed in on the high C at the end of Come Thou Fount (by then I was exhausted) so that went well-- except for completely changed keys at the acapella beginning of Come Thou Fount! Ooops! Bad soprano section...

* Yea, the bell is called "Sigmund" and it is the largest bell in the Czech Republic. (I think!)

Photos of "Prague Day 3" - http://picasaweb.google.com/ICouldGoOnSinging/PragueDay3#

Friday (day before yesterday) morning. We walked through the Old Town, toured several synagogues and the Jewish Museum, as well as the oldest Jewish cemetery in all of Europe (so gorgeous in the rain!). On the way back to the hotel, my usual lunch crowd and I peeled off from the rest of the group and ate at a "Svejk" restaurant on Paris Street. And Paris Street is everything you might imagine-- Dior, Gucci, Louis Vitton, Burberry, Prada, and everybody else all on the same street! The irony is that that quarter of town, and that street, used to be the Jewish ghetto.
Anyway, lunch was "fried cheese"-- hermelin cheese, which was all right (an acquired taste I think, but not bad) until I found out later that hermelin cheese is also known as white mould cheese... urgh!

After lunch! Penny's brother Andrew and his wife Ingrid were also with us, and so we all went over to the "Slavia" cafe, the most popular cafe in Prague (according to our guide Eva), right across from the National Theatre. I had tiramisu-- real tiramisu (which everyone was teasing me about!) and a latte with honey in it... yum! So then we walked back to the hotel... and it was time to get ready for our concert!

Concert at the Czech Museum of Music. The building actually used to be a church, so the acoustics were fabulous. We did a really long concert, plus rehearsal beforehand. I felt really good during rehearsal, so I had the brilliant idea to tackle the high C at the end of "Battle of Jericho." Of course, by the time we got to that song at the very end of our performance, I was so tired... but I guess it was all right. I really loved that concert-- our reception from the Czech people-- and there were representatives from Dobrichovice there to welcome us-- was so nice and friendly! We did the "Otcenas" for the first time-- and the tenor solo (performed by Dr P, who else?) was absolutely stunning. And the Czech people seemed to really appreciate our attempt to sing in their language!

Anyway, lots of back-patting and hand-shaking after the concert... Dr P, Mary Ann, and Penny were invited by the mayor(?) of Dobrichovice and his crew out to dinner, and although I could have gone with the rest of my "usual crowd" I was so exhausted, I just wanted to go back to the hotel, get something quick, and crash. Haha. Trinka and I went into the hotel restaurant at 9:00... and we didn't leave until after 11:00. About 75% of our group decided to eat there, as well as several other groups, and the entire staff consisted of one waiter (who had to have been also cooking!) and two trainees. I was really impressed with the professionalism of the waiter-- he wasn't slow and he wasn't harried, he just was doing his job as smoothly and efficiently as possible. Still! Trinka and I were thoroughly loopy by the time we were able to go to our rooms!

And the next day...

(Oh, finally uploaded pictures from our first day in Vienna! http://picasaweb.google.com/ICouldGoOnSinging/ViennaDay1 No captions yet though... working on it!)