I like, apart from clarinet, training (by which I mean travelling by train). Training and citytrips. This summer I was able to combine the three of them, which resulted in my most special, adventurous and musical holiday ever. Here is what I want to share with you.
* To keep it private, I will only use the first letter of everyone’s name. If you want more information on the teachers of the ‘Curso Internacional de Clarinete Julián Menéndez’, let me know in a comment, and I can send you an email. Also, I will write names of cities and certain typical cultural things in the original language. If you need translation (which I doubt), request for it in a comment.
Day 1: Bruxelles – Paris – Chartres
I arrived in Bruxelles 45 minutes early. Half an hour later, the Thalys from Köln arrived. But what would the railways be without delays? We had to wait 25 minutes for the other part of the train (which came from Amsterdam) to arrive. In Paris Gare du Nord, it was easy to find the metro entrance, but not that easy to get a ticket. Well, actually it was easy, but I lost 15 minutes because of the stupid tourists in front of me (okay, I was a tourist too). First there was this Australian group, who couldn’t quite decide what kind of ticket they needed. After discussing, and entering their wishes into the machine (and changing them again), they discovered they couldn’t pay with paper money (and they didn’t have VISA). Grrrrrrr. Next, a group of Chinese people, who did exactly the same thing. Grrrrrr. I, on the other hand, only needed a minute. Off to take the metro to Montparnasse, but of course I just missed my train to Chartres. Luckily it was a TER train, so I could take the next one without any further reservation.
Chartres is a beautiful small city. In the middle the magnificent cathedral, and around it, lots of small streets and charming little bridges. The youth hostel was outside the center, but the view on the cathedral was worth the walk. I had some difficulties understanding the employee of the hostel (he mumbled terribly), but I was glad I can speak some French, because his English would probably have been worse. And then there was my roommate who also expected me to be fluent in French. She spoke so fast, I could understand only half of what she said.
Day 2: Chartres – Le mans – Nantes
I arrived in Nantes at 12 sharp, but unfortunately, the youth hostel was completely closed until 4pm. Luckily the Jardin des Plantes (something between a parc and a botanic garden) was right across the station, so I went there with all my luggage and read a few chapters in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
The youth hostel didn’t have normal keys on the dormitory doors, but cards, which they activate when you arrive. Worst system ever, it took me half an hour (and three activations) before the card worked (quite) decent. Then off to the center to do some sightseeing. Compared to Chartres, Nantes wasn’t so charming. By the way, do you know which architectural structures the French like most? I’ll tell you. Big empty squares, straight lines and war monuments. But the last square I encountered wasn’t empty. There was a summer festival with a band playing folk music. A great ending of a less interesting day.
Day 3: Nantes – Bordeaux
Half an hour delay on the Corail Intercité from Nantes to Bordeaux (and always people with small children behind or next to me), but I arrived in Bordeaux at a reasonable hour. The weather was a little strange, so I visited the city by tram. And after that, a quiet night (without roommates, because I stayed in a hotel, due to no lockers for my clarinets in Bordeaux’s only youth hostel).
Day 4: Bordeaux – San Sebastián
After a fluent trip across the Spanish border, I was able to test myself, by buying my ticket from Irún to San Sebastián in Spanish, which went quite well. I could even understand the man when he told me the price of the ticket and when he said which from which platform the train would leave. San Sebastián exists of water, sand and tourists. Not really my favorite place to be, but it was nice to see the sea again.
Day 5: San Sebastián – Valladolid – Ávila
After a short night (19 roommates, most of them very noisy) it was time to leave for Ávila, where the musical part of my holiday would start. The part from San Sebastián to Valladolid was very comfortable, in an Alvia train. The 1 and a half hour from Valladolid to Ávila was in a local train, that stopped in stations in the middle of nowhere. When I arrived, I realised I didn’t know the adress, nor the name of the school the course took place in. I guessed, but I remember that we went wrong last year, and when the road started to go down, I decided to ask someone (in Spanish). The woman asked me if I spoke English (she was new in Spain, and her Spanish wasn’t very good). We started looking for the name of the school. ‘That’s it’, I said when she came to Colegio Diocesano. Apparently, her niece, who was with her, goes to school there. They walked all the way up to the school with me.
As it was only 3pm, I was the first one to arrive. But luckily I could wait inside until R from the organisation arrived at 4.30pm. My classmates S and C, and R, who will be Erasmus in Bruxelles next year, arrived when I had already unpacked everything. After a stroll through the city, there was the usual welcome speech. I understood a lot more than last year (when I only knew what time dinner would be).
Day 6:
C and I, who now belonged to Grupo C, had our first lesson from LG, a Portuguese teacher. His Spanish was quite good (I could understand it, and translate for C), but he could also speak English (pfeww). I played Martinu (Sonatina), and we really worked on the very small details, which was quite interesting. The only thing I didn’t like at all was his way of pushing the tempo across my limits, far across.
In the afternoon, we have a bit of free time (siesta), ensemble rehearsal, and an evening concert, which today included a bad Portuguese clarinetist trying to play the Brahms Sonatas.
Day 7:
Our second lesson was with JS, which was a surprise. They changed some things on the programm, which we (not even S) didn’t understand. This was one of those changes. The lesson was really interesting, I made a lot of notes (in Spanish, French and Dutch). At the of the day, we foreigners are twice as tired as the Spanish people. We have to try to understand as much of the Spanish as we can, we speak to the teachers in French or English, and even when talking to other students, we switch from Dutch, to English, to French, to Spanish and even to German. At the end of the week, we speak all languages at the same time, which is quite funny from time to time. But still, very tiring. So, after we both played, we sneaked out of the classroom and went shopping. Swimming during siesta, choir rehearsal and siesta during HB’s explanation about the bass clarinet (we already heard it in Bruxelles).
Day 8:
Wednesday was the typical ‘ik kom uit mijn kot’-day. We had lesson with our own teacher, HS, which was funny, as we could predict what he was going to say to the others. And sometimes he would say something to us in Dutch and the Spanish students would look very strange, because they didn’t understand a word of it. I played Finzi (Bagatelles) and it went really well. For the first time, I just played what was written, without looking for a story behind the notes. The music speaks for itself.
In the afternoon, no choir rehearsal, because the semi-final of the concurso was at 6pm. In both modalidades, it was very clear who would become the winner.
We went for a drink after the concert and made R talk English for one whole hour. Afterwards we went for dinner (outside the school) with ‘our class’: S, C, me, our teacher H, his wife O, M (who was Erasmus last year), M (who studies at the French part of the conservatory, but was Erasmus with us for 6 months) and R (who will be in our class next year). It was fun, the food was good, and I think we all felt connect as ‘the group from Bruxelles’, which is a great feeling. But we were also becoming more and more Spanish every day. Saying jajajaja (like sisisisi) to confirm when we agreed with each other, staying outside until the door of the school closed at 1. Me like.
To conclude this first part of my trip, some pictures.
. She was very suprised we hadn’t seen the Plaza Mayor yet, so off we went. Furthermore we saw the outside of El museo del Prado, the botanical garden, the Atocha train station, the museo Reina Sofía and the Conservatorio Superior. And the we went to eat churros, because C and I both didn’t know what that was, which N almost saw as a crime.
