Árpád Choir in Barcelona

Kaposi-Kovács Mira Sára 10.a osztályos tanuló angol nyelvű beszámolója.

A week in Barcelona with the choir

In the middle of July, I travelled to Barcelona with the school choir to take part in a choir festival with choirs from all over the world. To be honest I was nervous beforehand, because I didn’t know what to expect. I was scared I would have no one to hang out with and that I would be bored. Oh boy, was I wrong. We stayed at a religious guesthouse, which was somewhat disappointing because there were only 14-bed rooms with only one power outlet. I slept in a room full of girls in my year which was really nice, since I got closer with them. Everything went pretty smoothly at our accommodation expect the nights when a lot of students got way too drunk and there was total chaos.

Throughout our stay we gave several concerts in all kinds of churches, including big ones in the city center and small countryside ones which we barely fit into. But of course, we can’t forget about the one we gave in Sagrada Familia which was the biggest honour. Even though it was only 10 minutes long, it still was a huge thing, and we were all mesmerised by our surrounding, and the music teacher was so excited she gave us a wrong tone before one of our songs, so we decided to sing it a second time, but that time correctly. It was really funny since everyone was rather confused.

Every afternoon from Monday to Friday we had a 3-hour rehearsal with a renowned German choir conductor who had a great sense of humour which is always a plus. Out of all the choirs there, we were the only youth choir which was both awkward and flattering. Anyway, we were paired up with another choir formed by elderly Catalan people. We sometimes held our own rehearsals in the mornings to perfect our melodies.

Besides all the hard work we also had some time for fun. A few days of the week we were set free in the city center for a few hours without teachers to do whatever we wanted to do. We wandered through streets full of history, visited tourist shops, saw the Gaudi buildings, tried local dishes like paella and took loads of pictures. We spent two of our nights at the beach. It was this euphoric, almost surreal kind of happiness – the kind that makes you smile so hard your cheeks hurt. Everyone was acting as if they had never seen the sea before, and it was just an unforgettable experience. We always took the latest subway which was stuffed with people, but we looked after each other.

One morning we visited Güell park which was breathtakingly beautiful. We spent about half an hour there and took the most incredible pictures. We ended the week with the final concert, where all the choirs could show what they had been working on all week. It was held at Palau de la Música, a spectacular concert hall. It was a beautiful concert and the perfect end to our trip. I will never forget about this experience, and all the places I visited in Barcelona. The city has earned a special place in my heart.