Day 6 - we still love Gotenburg

sorry having lots of trouble with wireless connection - cannot upload any more pictures at this time - will try later - words will have to do for now...

We still love Gothenburg – it is walking friendly city and we certainly have been doing a lot of that. Our host here is the Brunnsboskalan School (another public school that specializes in choral music). We had a rehearsal for two hours this morning to get ready for our evening performance as guests at the Brunnsboskalan School’s year-end / graduation concert. After lunch we headed into the city for a rehearsal at the concert hall. Another stunning venue – in fact, 20 years ago the hall was noted as having the best acoustics in Europe. We were told that today it still ranks in the top three, and that’s not hard to believe.

After rehearsal we had some free time and since Gothenburg is such a pedestrian friendly city, we let the kids leave in groups of 5 or 6 to explore some of the little shops and boutiques. Walking down the main street we could hear hooting and hollering of groups of teenagers, loud music and the sounds of a good time being had by all. We were witnessing what is apparently a Gothenburg tradition, the graduation celebration. Imagine if you can – a graduating class, on the back of a flat bed truck, or dump truck, or trailer being towed by a truck. All the kids were dressed in white, most were wearing sailor’s hats and most appeared to be drinking spirits of some sorts (remember the drinking age here is 18). Parents carrying posters of their kids when they were babies walked along the street cheering them on as they were driven up and down the main street over and over again. Call me crazy, but the frenzy of preparing for semi-formals and proms seems a lot less hassle now.

The choristers met us back at the concert hall at the appointed time - they have been really good at being on time in the right place at the right time for the whole trip – ok a few small hiccups but nothing major that was cause for significant concern. The choristers were picked up by their billet families and taken home for dinner. They returned at 6, in dress uniform for the evening’s performance. Because we were the guest choir at Brunnsboskalan’s year end celebration we had limited time to perform. Zimfira was given 15 minutes on stage – but we were also asked to perform in the foyer for 20 minutes prior to the concert. I was a little worried that we might have gotten lost in the shuffle of people meeting friends, moving to their seats etc., but no worries. As you can see form the pictures it was a beautiful spot and when we sang people stopped to listen – you couldn’t help it.

The concert itself was good, although as guests we had a limited amount of time – the choir sang Uber, Adiemus and Tjack! This is always a crowd pleaser when there are young people in the audience. When the concert was over the kids all went back to their billet homes safe and sound and got ready for day 6 and our trip up the coast.