BLOGS: Days 1-4

AAHH.....problems with access here we go!

Day 1 - Wednesday 1^st July 2009

Katherine Clark

Today we had to get to Sydney Airport at 4.55am so everyone was really tired. We had an 11 and a half hour plane ride. It became really boring and it was impossible to sleep. The food was pretty nice.

When we arrived in Seoul Korea, we were transported to the Hyatt Regency Incheon. It was very nice and comfy. We were served a buffet dinner and breakfast.

Marcus Gatt

I spent most of the time sitting next to Tom playing Pokemon and watching movies. After we landed in Seoul, we were driven to the Hyatt Hotel and ate dinner after checking out the garden and motion- sensitive escalators. I partnered with Josh in our room and eventually went to sleep.

Marcus Gatt

I woke up at 3.30am. Checking that everything was there my mum drove me to Sydney Airport where I collected my band T shirt and we passed through customs. After waiting a few hours we boarded the Korean Airlines plane. The flight lasted about 11 hours.

Michael Avgenicos

I arrived at the airport at the gruelling hour of Sam. The taxi driver didn’t know where he was going and we had to direct him all the way to the airport.

Anyway the baggage line was huge and I was right at the end. After an hour of photos talking and waiting, we had a few meetings and explored the airport, and then went through customs and a security check. It was exciting even though it was the boring part of the trip. After that we went to a few stores and duty free places and met at the boarding gate. My brother vomited everywhere. Sick one Thomas.

I think it is safe to say Chatswood owned the back of the plane; I was bumped from my exit row seat and was stuck with my legs hanging out of the aisle. Still it was exciting.

The first thing I noticed getting off the plane was how humid it was. We were then checked with temperature probes by swine flu police wearing masks. Luckily nobody had the flu, it was pretty boaring (not my joke). We did the usual airport escaping thing and the coach took us to the amazing 5 star Hyatt Regency. Everyone got out their cameras like typical tourists as we entered the reception, and we had a couple of meetings with the main man Gavin. We explored the hotel and found a huge garden, a gym, a swimming pool, some statues and other cool things. We chilled till dinner, which was probably the best we would have all trip.

After dinner we chilled some more in our newly found dressing gowns and slippers, and later managed to lose our key by leaving it in the room.

I slept like a baby; the beds were so comfortable, I wanted to take them with me.

Our first day of the tour was exciting, interesting and pretty funny, and was a great start to what I hope will be one of the best experiences of our lives.

Teacher Highlight

The spontaneous clapping and “yeayyyy” by all the students as we took off!

Finally on our journey!

Day 2 – Thursday 2^nd July 2009

Amy Goodman

Today we left the glorious luxury of the Hyatt for another long flight much to our dismay the seats didn’t have individual TV screens but we managed to survive. The trip was mostly uneventful with a slightly turbulent descent and our arrival in Vienna was greeted with very warm weather and 2 very nice coaches.

Our accommodation is ……… basic but we didn’t really expect anything better, there are thousands of hallways, which are very confusing, and there have definitely been some wrong turns.

Dinner was pretty good but we are all looking forward to tomorrow in Vienna.

Frankie Biltoft

We woke up early and left our really good rooms in the Hyatt and headed to the buffet and had an amazing breakfast of eggs, bacon and a lot more. We then headed to the airport. We arrived at the airport and it was huge. We had donuts from Dunkin Donuts and I exchanged my Korean money for Euros. Eventually we boarded the plane and were all peeved that there wasn’t personal TV’s. The flight was boring and the food was pretty bad but I read a biography of Pablo Escobar. We arrived at a pretty small airport and waited for ages for our bags in the humid terminal. Once we had our instruments we made sure they were not damaged. We saw some Rabbis and one of them had Downs Syndrome, it was pretty amazing. We walked to the buses and met the bus drivers Mario and Miro. We arrived at the accommodation and it was pretty creepy place, Sam was scared that the owners would kill him. We had a pretty average dinner and went to bed.

Mevagh Clarke

The day was started with an amazing buffet breakfast at the Hyatt hotel. The chefs were kind enough to pose for all the photos we were taking. Having learnt from our previous experience with plane food, I smuggled as many pastries as possible for our next excruciatingly long flight…..

The plane departed on time and we spent the next 13 hours or so seat-hopping as we tried to quell our boredom with various games (including cards, iphones, a collaborative game of Pokemon, and even trying to guess each others middle names). We were thankful as we finally arrived in Vienna!

We continued to our accommodation; a rather scary looking boarding school. I’m sure everyone was excited on the inside to finally be in Vienna, although we didn’t appear that way after not having slept for a bout 24 hours. We all welcomed a warm bed and had a good sleep (well most of us anyway) in preparation for our first day of exploring.

Teacher Highlight

Vienna Airport Luggage carousel and hundreds of international visitors watching as we test played our instruments!

Day 3 – Friday 3^rd July

Josh Purnell

We woke at a quarter to 5 due to jet lag. A nice breakfast followed the many hours sitting in our room. We moved off to rehearsal and attempted to sing our parts from Danza >.<. Then we went on our coach on a tour of Vienna and the Imperial Summer House, which was very interesting. It used to be a private residence to the Imperial family and had massive well-groomed gardens. The house had over 2000 rooms all immaculately decorated with wood carvings and gold foil. A memorable experience

Sarah Brown

For my cabin and I our day started at 7 am when the clock tower right next to our room began to ring for about 5 min. We dressed and headed down to breakfast where all the croissants had gone and I was left with cereal. Rehearsal was next, ending with a quick German lesson from Ms Lambert. After this we headed off to the city where we grabbed some lunch and shopped. A tour guide took our band around the city where we realised just how beautiful it was, although decent photos were hard to take on a moving bus. The last stop was the Summer Schoenbrunn Palace where we went straight to the garden to quickly take photos. The Palace was absolutely stunning!! It was a pity we only had 10 minutes in the garden because it was huge and it took about 5 min to walk to the fountain at the end. Our guide, Thomas, took us around the palace where we pretty much suffered from dehydration and an incredible urge to sit down and never get up. Yet, with all that aside, the inside was just as amazing as the garden. Every room was different and must have cost a fortune to build. Although we weren’t allowed to take photos so you’ll just have to take my word on it!

When the tour ended it was 30c and we headed back to our accommodation, chilled for a bit then had dinner; whatever it was. We then had free time till our10.30 lights out. During that four hours, trying to find something to do, Izzy, Lea and I explored the Gymnasium, all we found was dead ends and hallways that we were too scared to go down. Although we did find a secret garden with rabbits, duck, pigeons and a guinea fowl (if that’s what it is) and more. We continued to entertain ourselves with pointless exploring and picture taking when we came across Tim, Riley and Jack. They were telling us about this really creepy room that we had to see. Lea bailed and Izzy and I went with them, down two levels and ending with a pitch black room. Izzy and I had been incredibly reluctant to go down because we had a strong suspicion they were playing a trick on us, but Riley had promised me several times that they weren’t. I went into the rooms first because Izzy was too scared and I made Jack and Riley go in before me so they wouldn’t lock me in. All of a sudden Ned, Sam C, Carmen and Frankie jumped out of a cupboard screaming at me. I screamed so loudly and nearly ended up crying. Never again shall I trust those boys. But I must agree, it was such a good prank.

Teacher Highlight

When telling a student Napoleon stayed in the palace, the student said “The Napoleon?” The historical value of our visit is sinking in!

Day 4 – Saturday 4^th July 2009

Evan Coupe

Hey! It’s Evan and I’m writing today’s events. First, the breakfast, which was hilarious because my girlfriend left her passport, credit card & money in the hotel cafeteria.(a student handed it in). Afterwards, rehearsal then we hit the town. We walked down one of the largest roads in Vienna. It was like George ST back home, with cooler shops. At 3.30 we walked to the opening ceremony. We had a nice chat with a Canadian choir. One of them asked “Do you ride kangaroos to school?” We of course said yes and told them beware of the drop bears. Towards the end of the ceremony they introduced the participants. People stood as introduced and we cheered, it was crazy. Back at the hotel that night we had a disco, which wasn’t exciting. A highlight was buying a massive Chup-a-Chup.

Roxy Cooper

Today we had our first rehearsal in a far away room. It was immediately after breakfast, which was fantastic because they had nutella sachets. Mrs Lambert taught us some necessary German phrases and then we left to sight see the beautiful Vienna City Circle and finally the summer palace. The senior tour guide Thomas was really awesome and told us heaps of helpful, interesting and sometimes weirdly irrelevant information. The sights were amazing and the palace was gorgeous. The outside was a colossal courtyard which had in it fountains, small gardens and huge statues. Inside were a series of bedrooms and breakfast rooms. We then returned to the hotel where we chillaxed before dinner. Then some of the band went to town to watch a Mozart concert. It was a great day.

Teacher Highlight

The Opening ceremony in St Stephen’s Cathedral

(Note to oneself….must put in DET Risk assessment next time to warn students that horses don’t have brakes!)