A Brand New 'Musicians Union' ;o) Part 2

I knew this would be a big adventure. Not just because of the remote location, but so far all arrangements had been made in cyberspace. And promptly the first scare came when the beautiful Icelandic agent couldn't find my ticket for the domestic flight. My friend Muff, the concert organizer, had supposedly taken care of the reservations. But finally the ticket was found!

Armed with my 35mm camera, I boarded the little plane. It felt like flying over a different planet, with uninhabited land as far as the eye could see. The scenery was breathtaking. In the picture above you can see a huge glacier, a volcano covered with ice in the background, and a mountain lake in the foreground.

When Muff picked me up from the airport with her UV—it must be a law that every car in Iceland has four-wheel-drive ;o)—all our petty e-mail embraces turned into one big bear hug! We had to drive 15 miles over the hill to our final destination (picture!!), one of the most spectacular places on earth, trust me!

That same evening I met my wonderful accompanist, Aladár, and we ventured across the street to the church to check out our concert location. When we left the church, I looked up and there they were: the Northern Lights, a streak of colorful, flickering lights across the whole sky! No biggie, after all, we were only about 150 miles from the Arctic Circle ;o)

The concert at the blue church two days later went well. The diverse audience seemed to thoroughly enjoy the variety program. We had people come from three different camps: the locals, the people from over the hill, which included some American musicians living there, and tourists from various countries who would leave with the ferry the next morning.
Make the picture below (from the actual concert) come alive by clicking it to hear the piece we're playing at the time: a piano duet of Mozart's A Little Night Music.                         

The moral of this story: the Internet makes it possible to meet people from all over the world while sitting in front of your monitor at home, but the real fun is swooping down directly from cyberspace to actually see and feel one of those countless wonderous places on earth once in awhile! Especially if you find yourself in the middle of nowhere.

Special Invitation: Have you been to Iceland? What did you do, how did you like it? Please come and smell the Vienna coffee in our Konzerthaus Café where we editors of Vienna Online hang out every day! On this message board you can voice your opinions and concerns. Don't hold back. Let us know everything. After all, you, the reader, are the boss. What would we do without you? Join in, or just come for the pastry!