opera day(192/365a)

we spent an hour stuck in traffic, and were worried we wouldn't have time to rehearse, but the opera personnel were great, and our sound check went off without worry.

rehearsal at the beautiful opera house in Algier

we were quite optimistic and felt relatively well rested and ready to play. the contrabass kept being switched and lent to different groups but other than that there was basically no unknowns. we were brilliantly happy. we took a few minutes to go kind of shopping (i spent a total of 1euro) with youcef at the market down on the street where the hotel was. 

the shops were set up in the first floors of houses. it was too hot and dusty for people to be outside so the shop keepers sat inside in nearly dark. youcef made sure nobody gave me the wrong change. then it was coffee-nap time (20 minutes of nap after a quick cup of coffee)... Barbara and I also spent quite a bit of time working our social media outlets to highlight the coolest aspects of our trip.

the concert was to be at 6:30, and we were on at 7, but the first group started late played too long, we got moved to be the third group, and the second group also played things that weren't on the program. we danced backstage, like maniacs, ballet in high heals to "swan lake" and disco dancing to pirates of the carribean etc. we were getting more and more nervous, since we had to leave from the hotel at 11:30 to catch our flight. before that we still had to eat, and we still had to pack [a large amount of our luggage is necessary on stage!] youcef came to say goodbye - he had another group to drive now. we didn't want to say goodbye, so irmtraud made some phone calls and he got to stay with us! "cookie, do we have a problem?" :)

us pre-concert

concert went great! audience loved us, they came backstage to take selfies with us and interview us, ask us for cds, etc, but we were in a great hurry and left as quickly as we could. we were punchy and silly and sad all at the same time. we disco danced all the way in the car to L.E.J. one of youcef's favorites. straight on to boarding, goodbye Algiers!