Austria

Austria was my first choice because it is clearly another world very much in contrast with Hong Kong. I was born and raised in Hong Kong, when we speak of culture, it is mostly food related. From young, we're exposed to many disciplines, drawing, maths, science, language (mostly Cantonese, Mandarin, and English), and music. We're taught their technical skills, but we're never told of their spirit and beauty. I picked up piano when I was 9 years old, a relatively old age compared to my friends. Music to me is colourful, rich, heavy, solid, if we close our eyes we can touch music, or rather, it touches us.

I don't see music as a skill, I don't see it as only existing in a vacuum, in a room, with a desk, a pen, a piano, and a teacher. Often I wonder who has sat on my very old piano stool, whose fingers have pressed on those old plastic keys, how much happiness, joy, excitement, disappointment, and pain have my piano been a part of. I don't know the answers to those questions, but then again that's not really important either. The important thing is, a history lay in the piano, it's been a part of other people's lives, and now it's a part of mine, and I am a part of it. Salzburg and Vienna, are very very big pianos. History has pressed its hands on them, different countries have tried playing them, but only MUSIC has truly owned them.

To be fair, I can't say I know anything about Austria, Salzburg, Vienna. Even after the trip, I’ve experienced its culture and rich history, I’ve done the research like everyone else, I see the many music artists born and raised there. Most noticeably, Mozart - a household name, yet foreign and distant, like a legend. Now, I've walked on the streets he’s walked on, seen the sky he was under. I read the words Gothic, Medieval, Baroque, and I now know the meaning of those words, I've seen majestic churches, the columns reaching for the sky. I know the Sound of Music, I've seen the movie, and I’ve been to the pavilion where they shot the scene for “Sixteen Going on Seventeen”. Before Austria, I never sung, and I'm happy to say that I’ve now performed for about two hundred people. Although I’m not a confident singer, I participated, singing loudly and proudly if it meant meeting and making new friends with local Austrian students, and simply building stronger bonds with my school-mates.

To me, Austria is like a piano, I read all about it, I hear it from Spotify, but I really don't know it until I see a piano played live. Even better, if I can touch it with my own hands, press those keys, step on those pedals. After Austria, I’ve made new friends, seen the Sound of Music, seen the lives of composers like Mozart. I’m proud to say I’ve played the piano.