Anna Karenina

9:00 a.m. Snooze the alarm.

9:30 a.m. Get up!

10:00 a.m. Kim and I meet up with Colin at the front office. We are headed back to the Nachstmarkt!

10:30 a.m. We point out some good spots for gifts for his girlfriend back in the states, then we stop in a get breakfast! I am the only one who actually got food but it was delicious, and cheaper than just getting a coffee, a least value-wise. It was very relaxing, and the sun came up and the tables started to fill up around us. My breakfast came, it was a block of cheese (feta?), olives, cucumbers in oil, little tomatoes, a sunny-side-up egg with a slice of sweet red pepper in it, a glass of orange juice and a melange.

More exploration! We did not realize it but during the weekend, the Nachstmarkt gets so much bigger! It is like a giant yard sale where you can get almost anything! Huge piles of clothes line the street, where you can get an armful of clothes for 15 Euros. Kim and I both get tops for 3 Euros!

12:30 p.m. We head back, Kim gets some salad fixings at the food stands before we head back home.

1:00 p.m. I shower.

2:30 p.m. We fall back asleep.

4:15 p.m. We wake back up! We make pasta for dinner, and a sandwich. Then we get ready to go to the ballet!

Skype with Nora! :D

5:45 p.m. Already on the bus to the opera, I realize that I forgot our cell phone at home! :( Not only does that, in general, make me nervous, but that means that our plans with friends later on in the night would have to be cancelled because we could not get in contact with them until we were already back at the dorms.

7:00 p.m. We meet Celia in front of the Stadtsoper, and head inside to get our standing room tickets. Luckily we saw each other right away. I was worried that without the cell phone, we would have trouble running into each other. It is more packed than we have ever seen it! We got worried that they would run out of tickets, but we managed to get half-decent spots on the Balcony section.

Anna Karenina was beautiful! After standing for four hours through operas, a ballet seems so short! :) The lead dancer was amazing. I have not seen a ballet in many years, but they can bend in ways that just seem unnatural. It is amazing just how easy it is to follow the story, even though there are no words. In fact the plot was much more obvious that most operas.

10:00 p.m. Since we are still allowed to eat outside, we get a seat outside at Cafe Europe. Celia, Kim, and I enjoy a latte, and sit and talk for a while.

10:30 p.m. Seeing the golden arches nearby, I make Kim and Celia take me to McDonalds for a McChicken meal. So much better than in the US, but still made me feel closer to home. :)

11:30 p.m. We get back home, time to catch up on blogging. Skype with Matt (who won the concerto competition! hey!) and time for bed. We missed Isabella and Anar on our cell phone, hopefully they will forgive us! :(

Another great day! Never a dull moment! :)

E