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I don't think I mentioned this before I left, but I just got back from a 10-day (or so) tour of Spain with the Edinburgh Chamber Orchestra. We played the Overture to The Magic Flute, Schubert's Unfinished Symphony, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 5. Anyway, it's time to lay down some thoughts:
First off, let me just say that going on tour when feeling "kinda sick" can only really result in either getting "really sick" or in my exact case, "fighting off the sickness for the entire journey." To set a time table on this, I got a nasty throat infection about 4 weeks ago. Even with anti-virals, it took over a week to clear up. A week later, my immune system was so weakened from the whole experience that I got a typical sore throat/head cold shortly after. I had been fighting this for a while, despite being stuck with only paraceptamol (albeit mixed with caffeine and aspirin), but at this point, the tour began.
To go from Edinburgh to Spain is approximately 1,200 miles. We took a 12-hour coach drive down to Plymoth, England ('not really as nice as our Plymoth) and from there a 20-hour ferry down to Spain. The night on the bus - with recycled air and cramped foot space, etc., - just absolutely destroyed my last bit of healthiness. Truth be told, at least the ferry was quite nice the next day. Ocean makes Patrick happy. But the damage was done, and I spent most of that night up and down from my reclining sleeper chair to get water.
Spain begins and I'm still feeling much worse than when I initially left. Our first stop is in the city of Burgos, which like most Spanish cities is known best for having a big fuck-all cathedral. As far as they go, it was a pretty nice one. Actually had some good gargoyles on the outside, which is rare in Catholic churches. I did not want to slow people down though by taking dozens of photos of them, however. I also rediscover the joys of Spanish cafes. We get our first taste of tapas, cafe con leche, chocolate caliente, and the staple of touring student diets: dried ham.
The best thing, hands down, about the entire tour also began at this point. Instead of the advertised hostels which we all thought we were getting into, the tour leader actually booked mildly decent and cheap hotels for most of the journey. So, for all except two nights of the tour (not counting bus/ferry), me and Helen got a private room to ourselves. Not only did this give me a sort of mini-vacation with the new girlfriend, but it also ensured me plenty of privacy and time for healthy sleeping.
Burgos wasn't really much of a city for sight-seeing though, as the main focus of our party was to... well.. party. The Brits took the pub culture to Spain, and whether the Spanish were ready or not, we were there to drink as much beer, wine (vino tinto es muy barato!), and gin & tonic as possible (the latter of which came in massive punch-bowl sized glasses which inebriated many a female orchestra member...)
Strangely, the tour actually had a difficult time performing in this city as well. We were originally booked to play in some cathedral. However, because we weren't playing any "Catholic" music, they didn't want us. So there was much fussing about, and the end result was a wonderful outdoor concert in the public bandstand. It began raining quite heavily about halfway through (oh yes, there was much rain all week), but the adoring public stuck it out and we had a decent audience of people on balconies and windows. Beethoven #5 is especially nice in a downpour.
Another fun thing about Burgos is the mall-sized indoor market: Two floors of butcher shops, fish sellers, fresh produce, and even a few bakeries. It was while wandering the city in search for medication that I found such a venue, and promptly wished that I had a place in which to cook such delicous products.
Over the course of the week, I was quite surprised at how well my spanish returned to me. I revised a little bit before going down, but my verb conjugations were admittedly horrendous. Only one girl, Kate, knew a decent amount of Spanish and she basically carried the entire tour group on her shoulders for getting us past local customs. More on her in a bit...
Next stop: Logroño. This may be my new favourite Spanish city ever. Logroño wasn't an 'old' city by any standards, and it was partially a university town. That being said, it was just touristy enough that broken Spanglish can get by, and yet there was certainly an atmosphere of authenticity to the entire place. I regret that, during my whole tour, I was never able to experience some local theatre or performance art outside of street musicians (And yes, I did look at every place we went), but Logroño did offer the best museums and freedom to wander and just discover culture.
Our concert in Logroño was cancelled completely, as the venue was too small.
Oh, and there was a massive hail storm which happily trapped us all in a cafe for a few hours one afternoon. This was probably the turning point for my language skills, as I was the only one in the group of 10 who spoke any Spanish. I carried us through a meal and subsequent snacking after, quite proud of myself.
Alright. Halfway point in the storytelling. I am going to go back to watching some shit TV and unwinding. Be back soon.