Castle Singers International Tour: 2012: May 4-7

It's been a few days, but here's what we've been up to!

May 4:
After having a night to ourselves, we woke for another day filled with activities. We had breakfast at the hostel and then made our way back to Tallinn. There we were able to spend more time walking the streets of the old town and doing the souvenir shopping. There were lots of cafes and restaurants to eat at; they all offered different atmospheres of what the city had to offer. After lunch, we met up with the whole group to tour the Kadriorg Palace, which is an art museum and palace. It was filled with paintings, art, and architecture that reflected a lot of the Russian influence that Estonia has. While the tour was interesting, by its end we were all ready to head to the dock of the overnight ferry to Stockholm. We were excited to spend a night all together on the ferry boat having fun and bonding!

The ferry wasn't much of a ferry that most people think of. It was more of a small cruise ship with live entertainment, dance lessons, and bingo. We all had dinner together in the dining room and then were free to roam the ship and discover what it had to offer. We found latin dance lessons, lounges to relax and chat in, bingo, and even a disco! One of the highlights of the time on the boat was the disco. Much of the choir met there and danced and laughed the night away.

May 5:
We disembarked around 10am and went straight to the Vasa Museum in Stockholm. The Vasa Museum is a museum of the Swedish war ship that had a somewhat similar story to that of the Titanic. The Vasa ship was one of four new warships Sweden wanted to make in order to increase the strength of their Navy. It was the biggest and grandest of any of the Swedish ships that had been made. However, its first voyage turned out to be its last. Due to the large size and high center of gravity, gusty winds overtook the Vasa only 20 minutes after leaving the harbor. While it is was extremely unfortunate at the time, if the Vasa had not sunk, we would not know as much about Sweden and that wartime as we do today. After the Vasa Museum, the choir was allowed to separate and go their separate ways in the great town of Stockholm. While many people did many things- shopping, boat tours, eating- a main point was the walking. Walking, walking, walking. No matter, the day was enjoyed by all and finished with more bonding in the evening at the hotel.

May 6:
The 6th brought a fairly calm, traveling day and our first homestay. We started at 7am with breakfast and proceeded to drive around 6 hours to the city of Halmstad, Sweden. On the way we stopped at a picturesque town named Gränna for lunch. It really looked like a town out of an old movie. When we reached Halmstad, we set up our concert equipment, rehearsed, then performed. After our performance we were introduced to our first homestays! We were all anxious for the experience of living in a home with a family from the congregation for a night. The boys and two girls all got to stay at the Parsonage next to the church, and the rest of the girls went in singles and pairs to homes throughout the city. This experience is incredible! It was so amazing to see how Swedish people and their culture are similar and different to our own in the U.S. Homes and cars are generally smaller, the food includes different vegetables, and the toilets all flush very differently. All the homes brought different stories and experiences, but not one came back with a negative report.

May 7:
After having breakfast and saying goodbye to our homestay families, we drove across town to Hallandsgården, an open-air museum with houses that represent what Sweden was like in the 16-17th centuries. It was neat to see how simple families and villages lived. The houses were very small and usually held 5-8 people and the village usually used one windmill to grind the flour to make bread and feed the animals. Also a part of the tour was the school house where the children went to school. It was one classroom for all ages in one half of the building and an apartment for the teacher, his wife and five children in the other. When the tour was finished we walked to downtown Halmstad and had lunch and the afternoon on our own to sightsee as we pleased. There was a town square with a market and shops, great restaurants and cafes, a river with a boardwalk, a new public library, and if you walked far enough, a beach complete with a lighthouse and seashells. When our afternoon was over, we drove just over an our to Helsingborg, Sweden to meet our second host family. Tomorrow we will have a concert in another beautiful church and get to have dinner there afterwards. Thanks for keeping posted!!