Germany!

Here is the last stop of my tour of Eastern Europe. Germany! First we went to a town just outside of Munich and stayed there for a night. When we were done with rehearsals that evening a bunch of people wanted to go to the Hauberhaus in Munich. We rode the metro to the center of Munich and this was the first thing we saw when we got off. It was right above the metro!
It was really fun to walk the streets and see all the German writing. It was something I recognized after all those other weird languages like Czech, and Slovenian, and Hungarian... even though I still didn't understand it.

I really love the ivy... I don't know how I would deal with all the spiders though.

Here is the Hauberhaus. You could hear the music from inside walking up to it.

And this guy was miming just outside the front door.

The inside reminded me of Disney World's Germany section. It looked exactly the same! Except that people were speaking English in Disney World.

There were polka bands on every level!

John, Me, and Ann

Here is our group. I can't believe we found a table for all of us. It was so crowded!

Here is my suckling pig. Mmmm. And those nasty dumplings. What is wrong with mashed potatoes?

I just had to get Apple strudel. Yummy.

Here is Dr. Allred with his apple cider. Sure looks like beer doesn't it?

And he drank it all!!!

Here is the polka band. They would do pretty neat stuff and crack whips and yodel. It was pretty neat.

We decided to take a small tour afterwards even though it was dark. When will I ever get to see Munich again?

This is the hotel we stayed in. Hotel Bauer. I had to take a picture because it is like Jack Bauer from the tv show 24.

Here we are in Marktoberdorf at the International choir competition. There were 13 choirs there total. All the choirs were accepted after 100's auditioned, and we were the only ones from America to make it.

We had our mixed choir concert in the afternoon, then those of us in the youth choir sang another concert mid afternoon, then we all sang another concert in the evening with other groups. 3 concerts a day for 4 days in a row. My voice didn't work for a month after that. Here is one of the evening concerts.. it was us and Argentina singing it out one after the other like a soccer game. Soccer is big out there.



I broke down and ate at McDonalds. It was much more expensive than it is in the US. All of this cost me 5 Euros. But it was really good. Much better quality than in the US. Did you know that you have to pay extra for your condiments? A lot extra! So I only got one.

Goofing around.

Here we were on our way to another evening concert. I loved the cute houses they had in the country side.

Here is the church we sang in for the evening concert.
The inside ceiling was beautiful! This picture doesn't do it justice.

This meal was pretty good.. except for the dumpling of course. The purple cabbage was delicious.

Goofing around again. We were all ready to go home.

Here was a morning concert we did for another mass. We were up in the rafters.

This is a theater we got to sing in that was built for King Ludwig II's death. He died in a lake and no one knew whether he killed himself or just drowned. Only a few days earlier he had found out that he couldn't rule the country anymore becuase his mind was deteriorating.

And here is the lake that was build right in the middle of the stage. It has a fountain in the middle of it. I don't know if they can use this theater for any other production because the lake it permanently there. When another group was practicing for the concert one of their members fell in and I guess it was really cold.

Here is King Ludwig II's castle. I found out after I got home that I am related to King Ludwig II through my dad's side, isn't that crazy! Well, this castle was built and the King only lived in it for 186 days or so before he died. 60 days immediately after his death it was opened for public viewing and never lived in again. WHAT A WASTE! They should have let someone else live in it for a while, maybe the new king or something. It is hard for me to think that all that work went into only 186 days. Sad. Ohhhh, and just incase you were wondering... this is the castle that Disney based their castle off of. Very cool.

I took this to remember the name.. Neuschwanstein.

The Castle up close.

We weren't allowed to take pictures of the inside of the castle, but we could take some from the castle windows, and I thought the view of the country side was beautiful.


Here is a picture of the castle from a bridge in the mountain side. It was WAY worth the hike. This side has scaffolding on it, but it was beautiful anyways.

Me!!!

The other side of the bridge.


This is the castle King Ludwig II lived in while he was growing up. It was only a few miles away from the one he built for himself. They were neighbors!

I just had to include this... we had a wardrobe malfunction before one of our concerts. This guy.. Jared, forgot his black shirt. Soooo, we found one of the girl's skirts and pinned and pulled and....

Ta da!! The arms were a little short, but he just stood in the back. Too funny.

Here is the awards ceremony in Marktoberdorf. It says Announcement of the results.

And here our name, The University of Utah, Prise 1! Wahoo!

It was such a great experience to go to Europe. Singing in so many places was so much fun and we were able to see so much. I loved the architecture and how old everything was. There was so much history and so much to learn. Sorry it took me so long to put them all up. But now I can finally say...

THE END!

Thanks for staying tuned, I loved your comments!
Keep 'em coming!

Austria!

Yay!!! I was so excited to get to Austria, because of my love of the sound of music. I took a ton of pictures and it was hard to choose which ones to put up. I hope you like what I chose!



This is the hostel we stayed in near Salzburg. We were only there for a night and the next day.

This was our view from our bedroom window.

And here is Salzburg! This is the convent that the movie one is based on.

I just love these roads.

This is one of the fountains that is in the movie, there was a lot of construction by it so I couldn't get a good picture.

Here's one with the construction.

I thought this looked like the abby in the movie, so I just had to take a picture.

Here is another cathedral that we went through and decided to sing in. I wonder what the people around us thought when we would just stop and start singing... I would have thought they were weird :)


It was COLD in Austria!

The Convent.

I really liked this hat but it was like 200 euros! Crazy!


Chess! I thought it was so neat that people could play on one this big! Very cool! It's just like the one on mom's vacation!


Okay... and here we are at my FAVORITE part of the WHOLE trip, the cemetery!

This cemetery they used in the movie was a set, but it was based off of this cemetery. I thought it was sooo neat. I loved the iron bars, and the head stones behind them. I had to go back again after we had gone through as a group to see it again. So cool.









This was built into the mountain beside the cemetery. I think things like this are so neat. How did they build things like that?

More of the cemetery.




I really like this picture. I took so many more than I put up. Mom, you'll have to see them when you come out. Im sure you'll like them :)

We also got to see Mozarts house in Salzburg. Which was pretty cool.

This is the little courtyard in the middle of his house. We weren't supposed to take pictures in his house, but I figured this was safe.

This is the church were he premiered most of his music.



I believe this is where Haydn was buried.. his name is on the tomb.. so I think it's a pretty good guess.

Here is Mozart himself. :)


This was one of my favorite things too.. this is the bridge that the Vontrap children, and Maria run across in the movie. This is not a recreation... this was actually in the movie. Very cool.




And look! I was on it!!
Yay!! I had a great time in Austria. We were only there for one day, but it was my favorite place. I would looove to go back. If you are a Sound of Music fan, you should definitely try to visit sometime... Even if you aren't, it would be a great place to visit.

Stay tuned!

Slovenia!

Ohh boy! I have been busy. Sorry about not getting this next one up sooner.

Here is a picture of one of the posters that were hanging around everywhere we would sing. Sometimes they would have the picture up from years ago, which for some reason, would make me kind of angry. I guess I have too much pride, and wanted to be recognized that I was in the group. I am on the front row near the middle.
This was the neatest place we were able to sing in. The ceilings were beautiful. We weren't allowed to bring water in there when we practiced because they were afraid of the damage the moisture would do to the paintings. (I thought that was silly because it was so hot and humid in there that I don't think it would have made a difference.

This is the outside of the building.

And me in the terrace to the left.

I decided to be adventurous and wake up really early one morning with about 5 other people and hike up the side of a "mountain" hill to see this pretty little church on the top. Here is the view.

I wish it hadn't been so foggy because it was beautiful.

Here is the little church. We all got to ring the bell in the tower and write our names in a visitor book. This is a really special church to the Slovenians and every Slovenian knows of it. We sang a song about the little church on the hill (in Slovenian) and it made everyone cry. They said that we pronounced it so well that they wouldn't have been able to tell we were Americans.


I took these pictures with grandma and grandpa in mind. Since Slovenia is so close to Italy, they grow really good grapes too. I thought they may be interested in these orchards of grapes.


A little shack next to the orchard.

Powerful me!

And the little church on the hill from where we started the hike from.

More Slovenian grape fields.

Okay... so this was actually on our way to Italy... so I can't say whether these are Slovenian or Italian grape fields.

This is DEFINITELY Italy! Wohoo!

We had a great Italian dinner at this restaurant. Mmmmm.

\And more Italian fields.


This is where we sang in Italy. It was a beautiful theater, with a neat stage.

Here we are back in Slovenia.

I just LOVE these ally pictures.... and I must say... THIS is my FAVORITE!

Here is the first view we had of the Mediterranean Sea!
Me and the sea!

Soooo cool.

The water was really warm... but there was no sand.

So it really hurt to get in, but I just HAD to touch the Mediterranean.

Ouch!

Me and a bunch of my friends.. left to right: Stephanie, Emily, Dave, Laurel, Matt, and Ashley

I loved the look of the buildings and the architecture.

This is the church we sang in in this area of Slovenia.

This is our German bus driver.

Right before our concert. It was HOT!

... as you can tell by my frizzy hair :)


They threw us a small reception after our concert. They were great hosts.

More of the country side.

Me in our Utah RED!

We got to go to a really neat cave in Slovenia. It was really pretty. Lurray Caverns is better though.

It was kind of interesting.. we had to ride a train to the middle of the caves to see the "good stuff" It was fun flying by all the stalactites and stalagmites.

Me and Stephanie.

A few pictures of the cave. My camera died in the middle of the tour.. oh well, we weren't supposed to be taking pictures anyways. :)


Another pink building!!

Here is another church we sang in... we were in Slovenia for a long time! It was GREAT though. Another place I would say to visit for sure if you are going to Eastern Europe.

We had dinner in this cellar type building. It was really neat.

This is a place called Bled. The lake was crystal clear, and the castle was really neat.


It was gordeous! Im sad we only stopped there for about an hour, but glad we had the experience.



This was my meal in Bled. Mmmmm. Crepes!

And that was Slovenia!! Stay tuned!

Croatia!

We weren't in a very touristy part of Croatia, so there weren't too many things to take pictures of. I thought it was interesting how there were pink buildings everywhere. I guess they must like pink!


This is the one place where we didn't perform in a church. I thought this one was neat though.

There was a park with these huge flower creations that were pretty neat. If you look at the building behind it you will get an idea of how big it actually is.

I loved the windows in Europe. You could find neat designs like this all over the place.

More quaint streets..




This is where we performed when we were in Croatia. I had someone else take the pictures, and for some reason she didn't get them to focus very well, but I wanted to put them up anyway.

I am on the far left in the dress. I bought this dress in Croatia for a really good price and I love it!

This is the view out of my hotel window.

And me! With the view behind me.

This was the neatest swing ever! It was so fun to just lay down and rock back and forth... until a lady came up and tried to tell me that I was too old to enjoy the park. 12 and under. Ugh.

Okay, so I think this is pretty interesting.. and this is mostly for you mom.. Remember how you told me that the waiter on our cruise told us how beautiful the capital of Croatia was, Zagreb? Well, here is the city center, it is beautiful and clean and everything...

There was a McDonalds that was really nice inside (I didn't eat there)...
Then... duh duh duh!!!

This is what you got when you stepped out of the center of the city-

...and this...

...and this...

...and this...

...and this...

....
....

...

..............

... and finally, this. Interesting! They are so proud of their city, but only the middle of the city is nice. The rest is beaten up and not taken care of. Sad.
Okay, one last thing.. and this is mainly for the boys.. Justin, Chancy, Mckay, Baxter... and who ever else is into all those Call of Duty and Halo games. I just HAD to take a video of this because it reminded me of those games and I thought all those brothers of mine would have LOVED this about my hotel room. We think they had this so that they can be ready in case another war starts up because Croatia is always beat up during wars... so here you go!



What do you think of that!? Crazy!

Well, Stay tuned!!

Hungary!

If there is one place that I would tell you to go to in Europe, it would be Budapest, Hungary. (Besides Austria, but I am biased about that one.) It was amazing, beautiful, and delicious. They had by far the best food (not counting the Slovakia one). Prague's food was blah, and Budapest's was delicious. Mmm.

There were so many neat things about Budapest; from the baths, the parlament, the castle, to the underground tunnel. It was all a great experience. I didn't get any pictures of the baths because my camera died, but they were awesome. Budapest is the city of baths so they had a bunch. The one I went to had a hot and cold indoor pool, two hot outdoor pools, two cold outdoor pools, and a wave pool. Very cool. I got really sunburnt though. I sure did enjoy it. Budapest was HOT, where as Prague was cold, so it was a nice change.

Okay, here is the view from the top of one of the hills. Beautiful. Something I didn't know about Budapest was that there are two parts; Buda and Pest. The flat side is called Pest, and the Bumpy side is called Buda. So they are actually two different places beyond the city limits. The parlament is on the Pest side and the castle is on the Buda side, so we were able to see both sides while we were there.
This is a view of the Buda side.

Another river shot

Me with the view.. to prove I was actually there :)

All the soprano 1's Malia, Angela, Jennifer, Rachael, Stephanie, and me.

We sang for a mass in this church.

Here is the inside of the church. Very ornamented.

Dinner in the middle of the Pest side of the city.

A monument.. I don't remember what it was of though... I think our guide was telling us what it was while I was taking the picture.. Hence everyone else is in the background.

For some reason I like these self portraits, so you'll have to deal with them :)

Sitting on the monument. It was HOT.

This was interesting. They built this in the 17oo's but did it in three different styles. So they aren't authentic, but I thought it was really neat.

Here is one of the styles that I can't remember.. maybe someone else knows?

I think this was some middle age era?

And my favorite, the french style. Which is why I remember what it was :)
The back.

Okay, so this was the tunnel that lead to the castle on the Buda side. It was really cool down there, a nice break from the heat. They said it was used as a hospital during WWII, which I think is really neat.



I loved these little ally ways. They were so quaint.

The Parlament. Very neat structure. I wonder how long it took them to build this. It was HUGE. All those spires. Very cool.

This is the castle. I loved the architecture.

More castle.
Even more castle.

Another small view of the parlement with me in it to prove I was there :)

Parlament

Okay.. so I've got a story to go with this one. This is Angela and me riding the bus back up to the castle during our free time.. because I did something really stupid. We were up at the castle the day before and I bought some playing cards and set my money pouch on the counter, and LEFT IT THERE! 95 euros! Gone! I didn't even know it was missing until that night when we went back to the castle we were staying in and realized my money wasn't there! Ahhhh! I ran through the day over and over in my mind until I realized that I left it on the counter in the shop by the castle. At the moment I realized where it was, I felt so calm, like I knew everything would be okay. At breakfast I went and asked the guide if he could get me back there and he said he could, but just knew that the people wouldn't be honest even if they did find the money. Well, in the end, Angela and I went back up there, and it was there! They asked me to describe what the pouch looked like, and they gave it to me. No money was missing at all! The guide couldn't believe it, and I was pretty shocked. But to be honest, I knew it would be okay, because the night before I had a warm feeling after I had thought of where it was. The spirit was telling me I would find my money; and I did.

This is the largest cathedral in Hungary, and it is BIG. I must say though, that it doesn't compare to the National Cathedral in Washington DC.. so go and see it if you live near there. It is the biggest cathedral I've ever seen in my life. Anyways... about THIS cathedral... we went in and sang in it and someone recorded it. It has the biggest reverb I have ever heard. You can go to Youtube and watch it under the title Behold and University of Utah Singers.. or something like that.
The inside.


One of the yummy dinners we had. Me and Caitlin.

I didn't think of taking a picture of the castle we were staying in until the night time.. So these are really poor pictures, but I wanted to show them anyways.


And that was Hungary! Very very neat place. I would definitely recommend going there if you have the chance. Loved it!

Stay tuned!

Slovakia!

We only drove through Slovakia, but we had dinner there and had some fun.. so I am including it in places we visited.This was by FAR the best meal I ate the whole trip. It was a black water steak or something like that. Mmmmm. The one thing that I had a really hard time with in Europe is their love of bubbly water. GROSS. You always had to tell them "no gas", and still sometimes got a little bubble. YUCK. The meal though.. was GREAT.

There was this farm behind the restaurant. I really hope we didn't eat any of the cute animals from it..
Me and Caitlin.
This peacock was going crazy after another pea hen... she wouldn't have him though. It was neat to see him waving his feathers around.

Sorry it took me so long to get this up. I had 5 classes today from 9:40am to 3:55pm, then worked for 5 hours after that. Hey.. at least I got it up before the day was over :) Stay tuned!!

Can't figure it out....

So for some reason, it is posting the next post underneath the prague one. I think it is because I put the pictures up in backwards order... so the post was done earlier.. then I edited it... and even though I edited it after the first one, it is showing up under the prague one.. I don't know if that makes sense.. does anyone know how to fix it?