CSYO Croatia/Pula Tour August 2005
Tuesday 2nd August 2005
It felt early as we got up just after five for a 6.45 start from Bannerdale car-park, but our instruments had been safely and carefully packed two days before and had set off before mid-day on Sunday. Who would be first to arrive in Pula? Check in at Leeds Bradford went without a hitch, though a rucksack unattended in the search for food caused a small security alert! There were spectacular views as we approached Venice, very exciting for those enjoying a first ever flight. We had nagging doubts about the promise of coaches to meet us for the onward journey, but there they were – and looking quite luxurious too. Sadly the toilets on board were out of action but a toilet race at the border crossing from Italy amused other travellers, just how fast can 89 use two toilets? The answer – pretty fast! We arrive just before both van and the nine o clock deadline for food. Great, we’re all starving and ready to eat most anything, but what is this we hear – 5 beds short. Those tents on the Youth Hostel site don’t look spectacularly inviting. We eat and look out at the bay…relax, Edward says we’ve all got a bed. Bar on site, bliss, we celebrate an 18th birthday, some take a first dip in the sea and we collapse into the chalets; small, basic, very hot, but not tents!
Wednesday 3rd August
It’s raining, no it’s pouring. We all splash along to 8.15 breakfast, everyone up for the first full day and waiting on the arrival of bus passes so that we can get into town to the ‘university’ for rehearsal. Nine o clock and still no passes, does Edward show a hint of panic? Of course not and soon we hear that a bus is to be put at our disposal. Umbrella’s and cagoules at the ready we trudge up the hill to the main road and one quite small bus awaits. We’re good at sardines! High security for us and our instruments at a beautiful rehearsal hall. Not altogether surprising when we discover that this is not the University, but the ‘House of the Armed Forces’ – a cultural centre too but upstairs iron padlocked doors quite daunting. We’re set up and rehearsing just after ten, then back to the hostel for a late lunch. Still it rains and suggestion of a siesta seems pretty good. Most sleep or rest the two hours before another meal - early tea before indoor rehearsal with the Ballet. With the dancers immediately in front of us it is hard not to be distracted. Chris cajoles us, their choreographer growls at them and we manage to get through a couple of acts before they have to leave for their ferry. Many are staying on the island of Brijuni where we will perform later in the week. Still on a high we get back to the hostel, time for a few local beers, some swim, others dance – eat your hearts out Bolshoi.
Thursday 4th August
Not quite so many for breakfast today, but then it is still raining a little and we were quite late to bed! Sardines again and we meet with Denis Modrusan who is to conduct us at the private concert for the president on Brijuni. New ways with Shostakovich Symphony No 1, it’s a different experience, and for many a first without Chris. We work hard and the sun shines on us! After lunch free time to enjoy swimming, pedalos, sunbathing, trampolining, and a little relaxing. This little bay really is pretty spectacular. Spirits are high as we have a meal and head off for the ‘university’ to collect instruments and walk to the huge Amphitheatre for dress rehearsal of Swan Lake. News not good. Stage not yet erected. We get a free hour to sample the delights of Pula and meet once again at the amphitheatre at nine. In the distance, lightning and the rumble of thunder. We walk to collect our instruments. Surely it can’t rain again. It does, just a little, but enough to halt the sound and lighting crews and make the stage surface unsafe for the dancers. We retreat to an unsuspecting bar – no alcohol because we might yet rehearse. Its yes and no until at ten they decide we’ll go at 10 in the morning. Beers all round as we wait for the coach; then suddenly its all on again and by 11.15 we’re all set up and ready to go!
After rehearsal we need a little relaxation. We have beers and soft drinks in the trusty van, pizzas are ordered – isn’t that what everyone does at two in the morning! We party with the dancers, the atmosphere is magic, sharing songs, break dancing and dizzy sticks. Sadly the military police did not share our enthusiasm for ‘cultural bonding’, a show of guns, the possibility of Ed on the next plane home and we quietly tidy up and beat a hasty retreat. We knew though that tomorrow the performance would be as one. We count everyone onto the coach, all students present and correct: it’s only one of the staff who go missing!
Friday 5th August
Its hard to remember anything except the evening, but we had a day for relaxation and glorious sun. The bread and honey/jam/cheese gets a little less enticing as the week wears on, though the bread is very good and those sharing breakfast with a dwindling staff get less by the day. We don’t rehearse again with Bolshoi dancers until six and the sound system is only just up and running. We break and eat our packed tea – doorstep wedge sandwiches. Security is tight, the President’s wife is to attend. Edward is interviewed for Croatian and German television. We change under hastily erected tarpaulins strung between the ancient Roman walls and then by nine the amphitheatre is beginning to fill. Time is not an issue in Croatia, the performance begins half an hour or so late, no one worries. The audience must number five thousand including the President of Croatia’s wife. The party last night was worth it; our performance, the dancers and ours spectacular! A night never to be forgotten. We hope Croatian television caught every last minute of it. The reception which followed was truly amazing too – the food out of this world and the wine flowing freely. No-one was really ready to leave when our coach arrived – we could have ‘danced all night’ as the saying goes.
Saturday 6th August
The sun shines on us once more as we prepare for the trip across to Brijuni. Wind is forecast so we all hunt out our clothes pegs. Spirits dampened by the news that Chris has been admitted to hospital and on a drip to counter dehydration. Although not well the previous day nothing would have kept him from Swan Lake with us! Regular bulletins and we hear he’s back at his hotel and resting. The logistics of getting an orchestra with its instruments – including a harp – onto a passenger ferry are quite a challenge, but as always we rise to it! The locals were bemused as instruments passed in what seemed like a never-ending stream along the crocodile of helpers from van to ferry. A short journey and we were on to Brijuni – a protected national park A stage was ready just a hundred yards from the jetty, no chairs, no lights, but a stage. We had time free to explore the island – beware the elephants said Edward. Some hired cycles, some enjoyed hotel facilities, and some snoozed under the trees, none saw an elephant. A seating rehearsal was thwarted as chairs were still in use in the hotel restaurant. There were no lights until an obliging hotel allowed them to be strung from the balconies behind, and even these spluttered and left us in complete darkness as the first half drew to a close. A selection from Swan Lake was followed by a piece by Bashkim Shehu, artistic director of the Histria Festival, instrumental in our invitation to perform in Pula. We closed with Shostakovich, but our audience melted away as a very late start meant that many had to leave for the last scheduled ferry at eleven. It was disappointing; publicity had been poor, the president not able to attend, an appreciative but small audience, and our performance not of our best.
A special ferry arrived to take us back to the mainland and Gill led us in rounds of ‘fish, chips and vinegar’ which must have echoed across the bay as we landed to be greeted by music from all sides – a local celebration for the fishing population. Reverse process to load the van with large instruments, smaller ones we carried through the crowds to the bendy-bus rendezvous. No bus, no surprise. Soon we hear that it is waiting on a side street and trapped by cars parked back and front. The fire brigade has been called to assist but our staff not to be beaten and within minutes cars are ‘bounced’ out of the way, fire brigade stand down, and we all pile in for the journey back. A quiet winding down at 3am and cheering up on the beach is the order of the evening/night/early morning and only the staff have trouble in keeping to the rules!
Sunday 7th August
Rain is possible and so for tonight’s concert instead of the small and possibly damp Roman Amphitheatre we are to play at our rehearsal venue. Our enthusiasm not dampened because Chris is up and running again, maybe not quite running, but we are relieved to have him back. We meet Rita Kinka from Serbia to rehearse the Grieg piano concerto, our confidence returns and rehearsal goes well. Today we somehow fitted in preparation for the evening’s cabaret and managed to have time for tea out in Pula. The eating out was cheap and the food very good. We returned revived and the concert performance that evening one we could be proud of, Shostakovich near to our best after it had faltered yesterday and the piano concerto a resounding success. Denis Modrusan congratulates us on a truly outstanding performance. Time marches on and we retire to dark corners to practise our sketches, return to eat pizza and then the inevitable and always utterly brilliant cabaret evening. Nothing quite like this has been performed here before, I’m sure. Hastily tidied bottles and boxes then back for a few, a very few hours sleep; there will be no time for such luxuries tomorrow!
Monday 8th August
It is hard to believe that this will be our last concert day, or that we will have the energy to survive it. Only four join two staff at breakfast this morning! It’s a free morning but we all have to be packed, rooms cleared and ready for off by mid-day. A few manage to have time for a last hour in the sun and sea. Only a single bendy-bus arrives to take all 89 of us plus luggage to rehearsal – this really was sardine practice! Thank goodness we had only the one packed ‘lunch’ each rather than the three on offer. The venue for tonight’s concert an old monastery, a little oasis of cool, calm and quiet –until we arrive. Quickly back into the routine we move a few pews and rehearsal begins. For the Bach piano concerto Zdenko Osip joins a small orchestral group. He is happy and so are we. We replace the pews ready for evening service and, storing instruments in a room with stunning floor mosaics eight hundred years old, disappear into Pula for a meal before changing to walk back up to the Church of St Francis and our final performance. Tiredness disappears and as we tune up there is an unusual request to be a little quieter as the father is resting. We stop talking, but tuning quietly?! The church is packed and we give of our best, it is a wonderful concert to end what has been a quite wonderful tour. Back at the ‘university’ (for we never quite got used to its military history), once the van was repacked and sent on its way to Sheffield we sadly said farewell to our leavers, thanked the staff with reminders of a never to be forgotten trip – which one had a gift in memory of an electric fan, very practical cagoule and missing underwear shall remain a closely guarded secret. There were a few teary eyes, and many weary eyes at half past one as we boarded coaches to take us to Venice.
Tuesday 9th August
And still it is not over. From a dreary car park in Venice we walk, at just after six, to board one of the many boats which take us along the canal to St Mark’s Square. Suddenly we are all wide-awake once more and three hours in this beautiful city nowhere near long enough. In that cool morning light I saw enough to be convinced that I would have to return. What hadn’t felt like such a good idea as chilly, tired and hungry we first boarded the ferry, turned out to be a magical finishing touch. The remainder of the journey to the airport and finally back to Sheffield passed in a sleepy blur. What a brilliant tour!
Our thanks must go to our dedicated staff group and to two unsung and unassuming heroes, our van drivers. Not only did they pack and unpack countless times, but they provided a mobile drinks and food store and more importantly were our personal film crew shooting 12 hours of video tape, some of which is to be used by the BBC Look North team. Intrepid, well that scaffolding in the Arena was safe wasn’t it? Personally I can’t wait to get my DVD.
At 21, this was my last tour with the CSYO, and what a tour to be leaving on. I cannot even begin to express my thanks for these past seven years of courses and tours – I can say that they have provided a store of never to be forgotten friends and memories. And so…to all who have helped to make it possible, too numerous to mention, I say a heartfelt and enormous thank you.
Sarah Elliott, CSYO |
