Lindsey's Eur-A-Peein' Adventure

I feel like I will spend the next few months of my life processing and reflecting about the trip that we just returned from and I still won't have been able to understand just how profoundly it impacted me. The experience was nothing short of incredible, and I will forever be grateful that I got the opportunity to go, and I will forever be hungry for more. So instead, I'm going to share my goofy little tradition that I started while I was abroad. Because I am an American, have no class, and because I fully commit to the bit, I present to you...my collection of European toilet selfies that I posted on my snapchat story to show off where I was in Europe during this J-term trip. And in no particular order because they got all screwed up in my camera roll. I do hope you enjoy.

This was the first toilet selfie I took on the trip...but not the first one I've taken ever. The Berlin Philharmonker played Elijah that night and totally blew all of our socks off.

Thomas Kirche was beautiful, and another highlight because Parker got to play the organs there and then had a lesson with the organist that Lillian later sat in on!

I can't remember what exactly I saw on this night, but I do know that every performance we saw in Leipzig was spectacular. I'm pretty sure this was taken during intermission at the Rachmaninov Concertos 2&3 ballet.

The description says it all. This museum was one of my favorites of the music-focused ones that we visited. The virtual conductor room was so fun and the audio system in there was really great, so listening to Medelssohn in the space was lovely.

Parker, Lillian, and I all walked about twenty minutes to the Bayerischer Banhof restaurant right after Parker had his lesson with Johannes (the organist at Thomas Kirche in Leipzig), and the food there was delicious. Lillian and I walked back with a bad case of the giggles and silliness ensued. It was a great night.

Vienna was a funky spot for me, but that didn't mean that the music was any less amazing than any other city that we visited.

Once again, the museums in Vienna totally made that city experience for me. The Belvedere houses lots of Gustav Klimt's work, and I took this selfie right after I saw "The Kiss" and lost my mind.

I'm gonna just rip the bandaid off and say it- I enjoyed the Vienna Symphony Orchestra more than I enjoyed the Vienna Philharmonic Symphony. The playing was just more expressive. Boom. There it is.

And AGAIN, the museums of Vienna were incredible.

This was a...strange moment...

This was our first night in Salzburg and I was already in an incredible mood because we were out of Vienna and in a city that felt like home to me. Salzburg had a lovely soft snow that Parker, Lillian, and I walked through to get back to the hotel that night. But the singers at this dinner were not my favorite. The baritone badly needed to lower his larynx, and the soprano seemed overly concerned with being heard in the space over the diners, so she pushed her sound a bit. Overall though, the music was alright and the food was also alright. The experience is what made it good.

When the tour guide took us out of one of the rooms in the Slazburg fortress and into a hallway/lookout space, I immediately spotted the toilet, and where there is a toilet, there is an opportunity for me to take a selfie with it.

There was no way I was going to sit down over this foundationally questionable toilet that was built sometime in the seventh or eighth century. Not a chance.

The Vienna Philharmonic is a technically perfect orchestra. But outside of technique, I did not experience the same amount of emotion I did listening to the other groups. The music was beautiful, and they executed it well, but I was disappointed in the lack of feeling that I sensed. They also refused to follow the expressive conductor, who, I'll admit, might've been a bit performative, but either have the conductor or have the orchestra. Don't have them both up there performing seperately!

This is a true fact. Unfortunately.

I think I have been a bit Mozart-ed out after hearing so much of it for so long.

More of Salzburg and more of Mozart.

This was a bittersweet ending. I was ready to listen to something other than Mozart.

This bathroom had a fun little vending machine that for the small price of 2 Euro dispensed shiny thongs in plastic eggs.

Airplane toilet selfie. I didn't sleep a wink on this flight. It was awful.

Seeing Dresden, even if just from the train, was interesting. And I liked the train station there.

This was a tough day. I had a pretty bad panic attack while inside Terezin, but being in that space, while horrendously scarring, did put a lot of things into perspective as far as what is happening in the world today.

Fun fact: the Prague Palace Complex is one of the largest (if not the largest) in Europe!

If you want to know about this story, please go look at my Prague post. I loved visiting with my aunt and the food here was amazing!

This was another great museum! I loved being able to play some of the instruments that were there and available to visitors. I really just used the guitar room for about thirty minutes because I missed playing music.

I got lots of dirty looks from old ladies that night. However, I didn't have time to stop at the hostel that night, so I prioritized just showing up, and I didn't regret it!

Kate & the Devil by Dvorak was a gorgeous and silly and strange opera. I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

This was our first night in Vienna, and it was a strange one. Lillian and I formed a band with the accordionist that we met there. We are yet to post our tour dates. (;

Overall a good time. Hope you liked that. Thanks for the memories.