Cape Town, South Africa // DAY 12

Hello everyone!

When my parents asked me what the highlight of this trip was, I couldn't give them an exact answer. This tour was indescribable and was a "once in a lifetime" kind of story. How many people can say at the age of 15/16/17/18 they got to travel around Europe with their friends? We are incredibly lucky to have been so fortunate to go on a journey like this. It has been one exciting adventures, with many ups and downs. The bonds that were made on this tour will be lasting past the time all of us leave Springfield.

Thank you to our wonderful teachers, Mr Bentley, Mrs Corlett, Ms Martens and Mrs Steenkamp. It takes a lot of hard work and patience to put up with us. Thank you to all those with encouraging comments on the blog or kind words via SMS, those meant a lot on days when we were missing home. And last but not least, thank you to the wonderful girls who made the tour possible, I couldn't have asked for a better group to get lost in the streets of Europe with.

Hello Cape Town! Ahh, home sweet home!

Love the Music Touring girls x

(written by Caroline Petersen)

Munich Airport, Germany // DAY 11

Hello everyone! 

I'm sure many of you know by now, but our flight from Munich in Germany to Dubai was cancelled last night. I'm not going to lie to you all, we were all very disappointed. As much as we LOVE travelling and Europe, we all felt it was time to go home. Many phone calls were made to our parents and tears and hugs were a common sight to see in our group.

But after that was all over and we pulled ourselves together, us Springfield girls made a plan! We got a bus to a new hotel near the airport, got some food in our tummies at around 00:30 and went to bed to get some much deserved sleep. "This was a new adventure" we had to tell ourselves. 

Currently, we are sitting in the Munich airport (again) waiting to check in (again). Hopefully things will go according to plan!

And what the plan is exactly? 

Our flight from Munich is at 15:45 and we arrive in Dubai 23:40. We then leave Dubai at around 03:00 and arrive in Cape Town again at 11:40. 

See you all very soon!

Love the Music Touring girls x

(Written by Caroline Petersen) 

Salzburg, Austria // DAY 10

Hello everyone!

Today was our last day in Europe! The girls realized that once we return to Cape Town to see our families again and eat our familiar home cooked meals...we also have go back to school and do catch up work. We decided that staying and travelling around Europe would be a much better option. 

However, we had to check out of our hostel, where many memories were made. We were very fortunate to get free time, the time we had been so longing for...only to discover that all the shops we wanted to go to were closed due to the public holiday (except Starbucks...we all enjoyed some Starbucks!).

Our frowns got turned upside down when we walked to an Italian restaurant called L'Osteria for lunch. When the teachers said that the pizzas were huge, they were not over exaggerating! One pizza could feed the whole of Africa, I'm sure of it. We enjoyed a delicious lunch and all left with a big doggy bag to take to the airport. 

The volcano pizza!

The final goodbyes to Austria were said and we boarded a bus to Munich, Germany to get on a plane and head back home! 

See you soon. 

Love the Music Touring girls x

(Written by Caroline Petersen)

Salzburg, Austria // DAY 9

Hello everyone! 

I hope you all had a splendid Easter. The girls are missing their usual Easter traditions with their families but keep some leftovers, we'll be home soon! 

We went to an Easter mass this morning at the Salzburg Cathedral. It was such a treat being in such a beautiful cathedral for an Easter mass. Even though it was in German, we could admire the beauty of the walls and ceiling and listen to the choir who really woke us up. 

We had time to explore the area around the cathedral after mass and found some souvenirs for those back in South Africa. We also found some delicious savory pretzels and the lucky few found Starbucks. 

We started our Sound of Music tour which we were all anticipating since we saw it on our itinerary last year. 

It was a bus tour and we got to see the places the cast stayed at, where they filmed and interesting facts about how they filmed the musical. 

This is the house that they filmed at for when Captain Von Trapp finds the children and Maria swimming. This is used as the patio in a few scenes. 

This is the pathway Maria skips down while singing "I've got confidence" carrying her guitar and suitcase. 

This is the gazebo that Liezel and Ralph danced in, in the song 16 going on 17. 

This is St Michaels that Maria and Captian Von Trapp got married in. 

Another "swag" photo of Mr Bentley. 

After filming the wedding scene, the Von Trapp children had Apple Strudel at this bakery, Braun (The maroon building). Some of us enjoyed an apple strudel ourselves or something else equally as delicious.

Tonight is unfortunately our last night! To celebrate we did awards evening which made fun of tour members and shared personal jokes from our tour. 

We are all sad to leave this Music Tour, it has been one of the best expirences we have all had, and best yet, we were all together. 

Love the Music Touring girls x

(Written by Caroline Petersen)

Salzburg, Austria // DAY 8

Hello everyone! 

We really do apologize for not putting up our Bratislava post last night, there has been problems in our new hostel in Austria, "Jufa." But besides that minor inconvince, we've been loving our new hostel! It hosts so many people from all over the world and tonight we got to get to know students from Cambodia, Australia and Austria. 

Today, sadly, was our last concert of the tour, however we did manage to go out with a bang! We performed with an all boy vocal ensemble group from Salzburg, Austria called the Protons. The Springfield girls did us proud with our  African vibe from the marimbas and our last brilliant performance. The Protons really blew us away with their music too. For "ukuthula" and "shoshloza" they joined in and even did the dance with us. It was strange to think that all the singing was over and that all our hard work and Tuesday evening practices are finished. It emphasizes the fact that we're going home soon (which is bittersweet really).

Some busking was also thrown into the mix and our newly learnt Glee songs came in handy!

We returned to our hostel for supper and began chatting to the boys in the Protons or the Australians who are sharing the hostel with us. We exchanged Facebook names and got to know more about the culture and fun things teenagers our age do in different places in the world. We're not so different after all. 

It was a great night relaxing and bonding.  We're all pretty excited for tomorrow's events where we get to go on the Sound of Music Tour, a soon to be highlight of this tour and celebrate Easter in this beautiful city.  

Love the Music Touring girls x

(Written by Caroline Petersen)

Bratislava, Slovakia // DAY 7

Hello everyone! 

I hope all you had a blessed Good Friday. To our surprise we arrived in Bratislava and the sun welcomed us with open arms! We had a vitamin D boost and all sat outside our fancy, four star hotel, Hotel Bratislava, grabbed some lunch from Tescos and absorbed the sunlight. 

We started our tour of Bratislava with our tour guides, Milan and Dom. We saw the Danube River which we thought we said goodbye to in Budapest! It was still as beautiful as when we last saw it. Just walking around the area near a completely modern shopping mall was beautiful with such interesting land marks. 

The Danube River

We walked around the city for a while exploring the streets, learning about the culture and buildings. 

We even found the apparent "best ice-cream in Bratislava." This was not an exaggeration. The ice-cream was out of this world and the people who worked there were so friendly and got everyone laughing with their ice-cream tricks and amazing skills at scooping ice-cream. Yes...scooping ice-cream. I'd go back to Bratislava just so I can get another ice cream from Lucuclus. 

We burnt off that ice cream extremely quickly on our walking tour around the city with Dom and Milan. We walked up to a high castle and saw a gorgeous view of Bratislava. From the top of the castle, we could even see Austria, how incredible? 

The girls have become addicted to performing in public for tourists and locals passing by. It's probably the rush from doing a perfected song to an interested audience. Inside the castle we started singing some African songs like Siyahamba, Uthe Wena and Die Alibama to a crowd walking past. They all were incredibly impressed and whipped their phones out to take pictures and videos of us. 

After our walking tour, our group split in two: those who wanted to explore the city centre, the more outdoor option, or the mall, the more modern option. The city centre was a great option for those who wanted to explore the city more with cobbled streets, the sunshine and people sitting outside, having coffee with beautiful pastel buildings surrounding the area. Those who wanted to go shopping for friends, family or themselves went to the gigantic mall and found great buys at places like H&M, Kotton, Cropp, and New Yorker. 

The two groups gathered at 19:00 for supper at Zichy to fill our hungry tummies which were desperate for some food after a full day of unpacking Bratislava in a mere six hours. 

See you all very soon!

Love the Music Touring girls x

(Written by Caroline Petersen)