Oud Traveller

We have safely arrived in Vienna, and luckily enough, pretty much the only available room in town tonight happens to be a very reasonably priced hotel room roughly the size of a football field. I am only partially kidding. James and I each get two comfy single beds to ourselves (as opposed to one single bed with springs poking out and a sack of cotton balls for a pillow, to which we have been growing accustomed), with enough room left for two desks, a giant closet at least twice the size of the one in my room back home, and a HUGE open floor area big enough to fit at least 4 more beds. It's a little ridiculous, actually. I'm thinking about running laps there tomorrow. I'm quite happy to have the extra space right now, however, since I've been travelling with a new companion for the last week or so.

I bought an Oud.

I've got a bit of a musical instrument collection started in my room (which is not news to my housemates, or anyone who has ever had to put up with my attempts at banjo playing), and I really dig middle eastern string instruments, so there was no way I could leave Turkey without some crazy instrument. The Oud (pronounced Oood) fits the bill pretty nicely. It's got a huge egg-shaped body, a short neck, and a headstock that's bent almost 90 degrees away from the neck, which makes it really cool looking, and a huge pain to carry around. It's got 11 strings (one bass string and 5 sets of doubled up metal/nylon strings) and no frets. Fretless string instruments are pretty challenging, and it's really easy to produce the sounds of a dying cat as opposed to, say, music. Right now I'd estimate my level of Oud mastery at somewhere in the neighborhood of "novice" and "absolutely terrible", but we've still got a few long train rides ahead of us. Hopefully I'll have it somewhat figured out by the time I get home, for the sake of my housemates.