July 3: First Day of Croatia International Choir Festival

Hello, and good day, Boston City Singers Tour blog readers! I hope you’ve been having as much fun reading this blog as I have been having on tour! My name is Brooks, and this is my 5th year in tour choir, and my second tour. I’m going to walk you through my day in Croatia today!

First off, this was a great day because...we got to sleep in until 9:30! Tour days often include an early call time, so it was a nice change of pace to get to sleep in, especially since we woke up at 5:20 yesterday (ouch) to be on Good Morning Croatia. So after we woke up, my friend, buddy, and housemate, Cora, and I got dressed, brushed our teeth and prepared for our day. Then we ate some eggs for breakfast (shout-out to our awesome host sister Ema for making breakfast!) and walked out the door. We walked with Ema and her friend Gita to the main square in Zagreb, where we met up with the rest of the Tour Choir. After applying lots of sunscreen and waiting for everyone to arrive, we started on a walking tour around the part of Zagreb known as the Lower City, led by our fabulous tour guide Harry.

The Zagreb Cathedral

Outside the National Theatre of Croatia

We saw lots of squares, parks, and sculptures, and learned a lot about the history of Zagreb. Afterwards we had some time to kill, so Kimani led a quick rehearsal on the grass in the side of a square.

One of the numerous parks in the heart of Zagreb.

Zareen at the colorful Zagreb Academy of Music

Hollis and Sarah loving the super tasty risotto

We then walked to a restaurant for lunch, where we had a delicious lunch of salad and risotto with carrots and other vegetables. After lunch we were able to walk around in our family groups and do some shopping! My family group (which we like to call SHHABZAG) went to the bank (to get Croatian Money,) a chocolate store, and then to some souvenir shops and an ice cream store. I got a kind of ice cream called Stracciatella, which is basically vanilla ice cream with chocolate chips. It was the perfect sweet treat, as Zagreb is currently experiencing a heat wave, and we were all very hot and sweaty.

Cookie and Alexis touching the lucky foot of Nikola Tesla.

Carmen giving the Zagreb trees some love.

After our time shopping we walked to the church we were performing in and had twenty minutes of rehearsal. After rehearsing we slipped into our concert clothes and went back into the church. The concert consisted of two choirs, Boston City Singers, and the Southland Choir, which was a choir from New Zealand. This was because this performance was part of the Croatia International Choir Festival! We watched the Southland Choir perform their pieces, and then it was our time to shine! I’ll be honest- I wasn’t super hopeful about this concert. We were all tired and the acoustics of the church made it very hard to hear each other. Luckily, I could not have been more incorrect. I think this was of the best concerts tour choir has ever given, at least while I have been a member!!

We all really enjoyed ourselves, and we were all able to work with the difficult acoustics to produce a beautiful sound, and to improvise when things didn’t go as planned! After the concert, we gathered to drink some water and “pass the pulse,” which is something we do every night. Tonight, however, was the first time we successfully completed it! After rejoicing over this, we all went separate ways. Cora and I walked home with Ema and Gita and had some scrumptious fish soup, and then spent the rest of our night relaxing! Overall, I would say it was a wonderful day- one of my favorites so far this tour. I hope you enjoyed this little

update, and that you have a nice day!

-Brooks

Singer of the Day: Luke, for being such a helpful and organized peer leader when the singers had free time in family groups to shop around the main square, and for being a big support for the staff.