Today we drove 2 hours from Londonderry to Belfast. We entered Ulster Hall (where we played Concert #6 tonight) and unloaded our instruments, before grabbing lunch at nearby cafés. It’s a little disorienting seeing prices here because since they’re now in pounds, and pounds are worth more than both euros and USD, everything looks cheap, but we have to keep reminding ourselves that it’s really not that cheap.
We had rehearsal for an hour this afternoon with the Irish baritone, Peter Corry. Obviously as a baritone, he had a different vocal range from Paul Byrom who was a tenor, but at the same time, I think his style was not something that was super appreciated by us and he could have connected notes a little more? Regardless, rehearsal went okay I guess, thankfully we didn’t have to play Rocky tonight (because the trumpet parts in the beginning are super inconsistent and they always frack and the whole orchestra worries about that part), and instead we played Academic Festival Overture, which is even better because the hall has wonderful acoustics.
After orchestra rehearsed for an hour, jazz combo rehearsed with Corry and a lot of us walked around the hall (it used to hold boxing matches) and some of us played Euchre (card game). Then we headed to our hostel. After living in nice college dorms and hotels, a hostel was super … uncomfortable, to say the least. We did have to ask the front desk for towels (there were limited towels), pay 50pence for a bar of soap, and our room is absolutely tiny and 4 people are in my room (two bunkbeds) and we share an extremely small bathroom and shower. There are no tables at all and we have a mirror and sink directly in the room. I guess we don’t have it awful because some rooms have to share bathrooms.
Again, like with the last hotel, wifi doesn’t work from the rooms and you have to go to the lobby to access it (in the previous hotel, only the ground floor wifi didn’t work and I happened to be in the ground floor…which meant I was sneaking out in the lobby past curfew to quickly post pictures to facebook). Other than that, and the showers being basically a room with a showerhead, and no curtain, and therefore no place to put a towel, it is manageable. Definitely not comfortable though.
Dinner was some meh Indian food (which is silly to think that we’re eating Indian food while in Ireland), but at least the chocolate cake was good. We then (in concert clothes) went to Ulster Hall, the orchestra stayed in the dressing rooms and waited back there while jazz performed, and then at intermission, orchestra went up and played.
During the wait backstage, some of us in orchestra started a Euchre tournament and Eric and I (the two people newest to the game and thus not very good at playing) were randomly paired together (we essentially drew partners out of a hat), but despite our dysfunctionalness, we still managed to win one match! So we’re up on the bracket (the bracket will continue for the rest of the trip…it’s how we kill time, namely busrides and boring waits).
Concert first half goes well. So Academic, Hovannes, and Hoedown. Then when Corry comes on stage, no one knows what piece we’re supposed to play when Dr. D gives the downbeat, so all of us are scrambling to flip to Phantom of the Opera and play. It’s a disaster. And then the songs are kind of meh, and afterwards, Dr. D gives so many encores that sure it’s fun to play Irish songs and all these encores, I guess, but at the same time, it was perhaps a wee bit too much and the audience just was tired and ready to leave.
Tomorrow we have a free day and no concert, so we’ll be exploring Belfast. We’ll spend one more night in this hostel before we head for Scotland!
Oh yes, voting for whether UK should leave or stay in the UK was today from 7AM-10PM. Results will come out tomorrow. I'm ashamed to say I don't know much about it, but as we're driving in Northern Ireland, I've noticed all these billboards and signs saying either "Leave" or "Stay" and some even list reasons for their respective sides.
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