Since my last blog entry, we spent our last evening in Tirana visiting the music school there, where our orchestra donated a few more instruments, and helped lead masterclasses for the students there.
Since our cellist Bryan was leading the cello masterclass, I had a bit of free time (after dropping in to photograph the various other masterclasses) to wander around the neighbourhood, before an evening performance at the music school.
After the masterclasses, we sat in on an evening performance at the music school, where many of the students performed, followed by a performance by the WCSO brass, and a chamber nonet of WCSO musicians.
Following our visit to the Tirana music school, some people headed over for a late dinner at the fantastic Italian restaurant across the street (where many of us had dined the previous night), but some of us decided to get a couple of hours' sleep at the hotel, before leaving for the airport. I got a little bit of sleep, packed, and was back out in the Livia Hotel patio at 3:30am. Our tour bus drove us out to the Tirana International Airport just as the sun was just starting to rise, where we checked in and said our good-byes to our Maestro Bujar Llapaj and his wife, Lindita-- our fantastic hosts, who will be staying on in the Balkans for a bit longer.
After three flights: Tirana-Rome, Rome-Toronto, and Toronto-Vancouver, we are now back home, but it is kind of surreal to be back. This has been such an exciting, interesting, and enjoyable past two weeks-- I can't wait to visit the Balkans again soon. Thank you to all who have helped make this tour run smoothly, to those who made it fun, to all our new friends we've met along the way, and to all of you who have been following our adventures on the blog!
-Elizabeth