Another not funny/interesting post (seriously)

The other day, I started off fighting with Anna about something stupid and we spent the entire tube rides well away from each other before I collected myself again. I'm traveling with the girl for two months, we have to get along! My pasta had leaked all over my backpack as well, but we continued with the plan to our London walking tour which began at the Wellington Arch near Hyde Park. I was relieved really - I could spend the next three hours blending in and following a crowd of 20 people and not feel obligated to talk! But no, turns out that if you look like you're by yourself in these kinds of tours, fellow travelers like to use this opportunity to chat up, so I didn't get the peace I wanted and spent the majority of the tour trying to look completely engrossed in the tour guide's words, or amused by some old building or Monopoly-referenced street sign.

Afterwards Anna and I decided to tour ourselves through Westminster in search for food but I was desperate to get to Mass. Harder than I thought! Everything seems to be Church of England. Ended up having to catch the tube to get to Westminster Church (not to be confused with the now Anglican Westminster Abbey). We'd missed Mass already but I was still super excited to be able to do prayer because I really needed to collect myself. Alas we were sent away just as I was about to start because the Cathedral was to close. But it would re-open again at 7pm for the Grand Organ Concert's 7:30pm start so we decided to hang around at the Zara store nearby until then.

Promptly at 7pm I tried to get in but the elegant-looking lady wouldn't let me in because I told her I wasn't there for the concert. I tried three times to get in, telling her and the security guards that I was Catholic and it was my basic human right to go in there for prayer just for thirty minutes, thinking they'd somehow let me in. Each time I was sent away, I swore so loudly on my way out, that I'm pretty sure they seriously doubted I was actually Catholic.

After trying to cool down a bit (through more swearing, of course), I figured, I actually wanted to go to the Organ concert! How cool would that be? A grand organ concert, free of charge, in an old English Cathedral in London! By now, I'm pretty sure Anna was really embarrassed to be with me that she came in separately. I walked straight up to the elegant-looking lady, smiled politely, and told her that I now wished to attend the Organ concert. She asked whether I was serious, and that I would not be allowed out half way. "Of course", I replied graciously. She smiled equally as politely, and handed me a programme.

There were two symphonies, Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4, Op. 36, and Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring - both transcribed for the organ. In total, they were practically movie-length. It was my first ever live symphony and it was so so worthwhile, and pretty much was the best way to end such a hard day. I loved the Cathedral organ's richness and majesty, doing justice to some great orchestral works, its capabilities in terms of its range.. 

Disclaimer: I'm no music critic (nor art/philosophy critic for that matter, in reference to any past and future posts). I can't break down pieces into their musical components or whatever, and I wouldn't be able to sing you back those tunes I heard, but I sometimes do know my personal end results; what I take away from it all.

I loved that I didn't have to direct my thinking for the whole hour and a half, or have to pay close attention the whole time. I could apply my own scenes. I could zone out completely, and still appreciate the rest of the piece because it was still working in me without me being completely conscious of it. This attention deficit I've been having is why films don't work on me anymore, why they haven't for a while. I loved that after the organ concert, I didn't even have to discuss my interpretation of it. I could satisfy other people's questions by just saying "it was beautiful" when someone asks, and they won't press you for more. I didn't even have to specify my favourite bit, you know - that post-movie conversation, "that part when's", etc. as is customary small-talk after having just watched a film with others.