Ashley Addington

This fall was a blur of teaching and playing – my intentions of posting on the blog once a week definitely did not follow through.  Luckily, December looks like I will have more time to breathe!  Gregory and I wrapped up November with a long-delayed “honeymoon”, although I like to consider it our “1st  Anniversary” trip since we celebrated one year of marriage on October 3rd.  We left on a red-eye from Boston and work up in Reykjavik, Iceland for a quick 24-hour stop on the island.  A few years ago, we watched this movie “Reykjavik 101” and I kept having flashbacks to the dark, desolate-looking city as it didn’t start to get light until after 10 AM.  We arrived at our hotel at 8 AM and wandered aimlessly for a few hours in the morning around the city waiting for shops to open and people to come out.

City View of Reykjavik

Quiet downtown street

As we woke up early the next morning to catch the flight to Paris, we found out why no one was out on Saturday morning – we had just missed all of the partying until 6 AM when we arrived!  The Icelandic people definitely know how to party.

Our 9 days in Paris were wonderful!  Greg spent six weeks during the summer in 2001 studying in Paris and I had traveled through Paris twice – once in high school and once in college, but this was our first time to experience the city together.  The tourist scene was very quiet as there were not many Americans around.  We took in 3 concerts: Jazz pianist Brad Mehldau and saxophonist Joshua Redman, an interdisciplinary dance/music concert at IRCAM, and an evening of chamber orchestra with Ensemble Intercontemporain.  The last concert left me feeling so inspired to perform!   Of course, delicious food, great museums, and long walks through the city rounded out the trip.