I'm sleepy.

As I type this, I'm in Austria on a Mercedes Benz charter bus, surrounded by the Alps... i win :)

Venice yesterday was quite the experience! I really liked the city, I really hated all the tourism. We sang in St. Mark's cathedral right by the main canal, then had a free afternoon to wander. The shopping is great once you get out of the square, but nothing I could carry around for 3 months in a suitcase without ruining... so I bought nothing. (I'm still on the lookout for a curling iron - no such luck.) Four of us wandered and marveled at how expensive everything was - the Italians love their designer clothes. There isn't much of a historical aspect to Venice musically or artistically, except the way the architecture is built. Very narrow & cramped & vertical... great for getting lost, not so great for crowds. This was our first day of the trip that we didn't have a tour or a museum visit... I liked it that way. Wandering aimlessly is way more relaxing :)

That night, we sang for a small Catholic church on the far side of the canal - where tourists never go. They loved us :) The little Italian ladies talked and talked and talked like we understood Italian - I was with one of them for 10 minutes + and I swear I said grazie 16 times... NO idea what she said to me, but my cheeks hurt from smiling. The only sentence I caught all night was 'You're beautiful - all of you are beautiful'.... !!! Such sweetness.

I wish cheek kisses were a thing in America.
And I also wish I could have floated in a gondola without spending a million euro.
But the city didn't smell as bad as I was expecting! They win.

We had a great dinner as usual, but I ordered the local 'Venitian' drink - IT WAS TERRIBLE. I was so sad. Seriously - I took 2 sips and shivered. Worst ever. Don't ever order a 'Spritz' in Italy - you'll spit it back out.

After 1 last cone of real ITALIAN gelato, we took a boat back to the bus island, and headed to the fancy villa hotel we were only staying at for 1 night :(
BUT now I'm on a bus to Modling, Austria!
And I just had an austrian lunch, complete with my terrible yet almost completely correct German translations of menu options... MMMM feels like last July!

We said goodbye to our Italy tour guide Monique last night, which was sad cause she was SO precious & SO helpful - But we got to meet Jop (you say it like 'yahp') today! I've heard so much about him from former Madrigalians. We're just about half way finished with European choir tour. I can't even believe it.

Love yall. I'm tired but I'll sleep when I'm dead!

Sooooo, Please excuse me, everything out the window looks like a postcard and I'M MISSING IT ALL! Byeeeez!

p.s. I posted 3 blogs at once cause we just got internet - scroll down!! ;)