Drunk roommates and hostels:

So, due to the fact that I'm a student (ergo limited travel budget) I'll be staying mostly in hostels for the duration of my trip. Amsterdam, for those of you who don't know, has a bit of a sketch reputation so, I didn't go for the cheapest hostel in the worst area of town. I figured it might be wise to be in a little better spot. I was actually a little worried last night b/c the train station I had to get off in is in a less good area of town, then I had to take a tram to the south of Amsterdam and then walk a couple blocks my hostel. I got there no problem. That is where the fun began! I walk into my dorm style room and am greeted with a waft of, well, it will be described as stench. In fact a mix of pot at alcohol. Now, thankfully, the hostel has strict rules about no alcohol, but there are about a gazillion pubs in amsterdam. There are eight beds in my room and there is a group of 7 from Ireland or Scotland (can't remember which) there. Anyways, they were a friendly, happy bunch of people that were just going out to go pubbing.... at 10:30 pm. I wrote a couple emails and went straight to bed.

I was awoken at around 3 am by a very happy, tipsy crowd. One was having a little problem getting into bed without falling. Anyways, I had trouble going back to sleep and got woken up at 5 by a ridiculously loud telephone. One of their moms was calling to be sure they were alright! Anyways, I couldn't go back to sleep and was really enjoying (not) the chorus of snoring that was happening. Of the 7 other people in the room (5 guys, 2 girls) a grand total of 7 were snoring. REALLY LOUDLY!!! This was snoring on a level that I had never dreamt of.

Heres a short recording.

I think it may be hard to hear, but, it was amazing non-the-less!

Anyways, I couldn't sleep since 5, so, I dozed a bit and then went on the internet on my phone and planned my day. I'm going to go to the Rijksmuseum, and a couple churches.

Hope you all are doing well. 

Tuesday, may 29, at some on earthly hour after being awake for an unearthly amount of time:

It has been an interesting 24 hours. Almost exactly a day ago, I boarded a plane and flew from LAX to AMS. I was lucky enough get to sit by a window, in the front of the 747 (no, not first class, unfortunately) with my two parents on a KLM flight. It was long. and boring. and I did not sleep anymore than an hour.

I landed in AMS, did the usual clearing of customs (really easy in EU) and got my bag. Then i got a sim card and called Egbert Schoenmaker (a Dutch organist i met at Southern). I waited at Schiphol for him and then we left to Leiden. Leiden is a fascinating city. Very hold and historically a university town. It has a thriving student population. We met Egbert's friend Eric van Bruggen who is the caretaker of a small parish church in Leiden as well as organist at the church. I didn't write down the specifics of the organ. It was about 14 stops in a Werkmeister temperament. It was built around 1730 and has been unaltered since. The only thing that has been done is adding a motor to drive the three bellows. We sat around, talked while Eric smoked a cigar, then walked to Pieterskerk, Leiden where there is a ~50 stop, meantone Van Hagerbeer organ. Unfortunately, while the organ is usually very accessible, I could not play it because they were prepping for a recording session that evening. So, we took pictures and walked back to Eric's parish apartment.

Eric then demonstrated the organ, then he and Ebgert left and I played for about an hour an a half. It is a fantastic instrument with a very old, intense sound. The praestant was lovely and the flutes were very nice also. However, I was not fond of the reeds.

From there, Egbert and I took the train to Haarlem, where we got some food (bread and cheese) and went to perhaps the most famous organ in the world. The Muller organ in Grotekerk St. Bavo Haarlem. Grote translates to "big" and, the name doesn't lie. The church is HUGE!!! the organ alone is 29 meters tall while from floor to ceiling is a mere 40 meters, not counting the second ceiling/roof or bell tower. It is over a hundred meters long. Egbert then left to go home, where I'll meet him on friday and I hung out in Haarlem. It is a charming city with a lively dynamic. I enjoyed people watching as I had about two hours to kill, read part of a book then went for a walk to find the Nieuwekerk (which I failed to do) and returned for a concert at Bavo by Jos van der Kooy, who is the municipal organist of Haarlem. It was a fantastic concert. He played the Buxtehude ciacona, Bach's "Schmuke Dich" some Messien, Piet Kee and ended with Liszt "weinen klagen sorgen zagen". It is a magnificent piece that ends surprisingly with a well developed yet simple setting of the chorale "Was Gott Tut Das Ist Wohlgetan" (What God does is Well Done). It was the perfect ending for the concert. I left drawn closer to heaven and pondering how, indeed, what God does, is always well done.

On that note, I'll say goodnight, try to get some pictures of these instruments up tomorrow, and get rested for another day of looking at orgels.

So... This isn't a fantastic blog post, but, I'm in LAX with my parents flying to Amsterdam. Yay for business lounges!!!

I'll be posting pictures periodically. And, I'll do my best to fill you in on some details of what Im doing as well as some history of the instruments.

Stay tuned...