The Ballet and Carmen

So I got one picture up of the iceskating, but there's a gate in front of it. I wanted to get it with the cool colored lights that were lighting the trees, but exactly as I clicked it to take the picture the lights turned off, so sadly I didn't get it. It was immense fun and I might go back this week if I can work it in somewhere...this week is spring break for me and I happen to be the only one in Vienna for the whole time.

I went to the Karlskirche or Karls church with my class and I have a few pictures up of it. There was scaffolding up, because after they cleaned it like a year ago they just left it up so they could make money off of people who went up to see inside the dome. It was REALLY high and you took an elevator up to this platform and then you walked up a ton of stairs to get even higher and the stairs were all shaky and it was pretty scary. The ceiling was covered in cool frescos that you could see really close and there was one with Martin Luther that I got a picture of and also you could see in one how they morphed the frescos, because they wanted to make it look more curved from down below or when you look down below it looks more correct, because it is curved.

In one you can see St.Stephans cathedral on the left. There's also a picture that I got up the courage to take of the floor below.

On Tuesday it was faschings day I think it's called, but it was before lent and kids dressed up and you apparently have krapfen on this day so my orchestra gave out some and also our host family gave us some too. It was also Ash Wednesday on Wednesday which was the day we had dinner with our host's cousin who is also hosting BYU students. unfortunately Ash Wednesday you are supposed to eat poor peoples food so we just had fish and salad as an appetizer and then some vegetable soup that didn't really have taste to it. I just got a ton of free krapfen the day before though so it's all good.

We also went on a tour to the Wien museum and there was a legit upright piano and also a really cool stand for a quartet and another girl pointed out the middle should be for the snacks for rehearsal...best stand ever!

Also crazy enough it actually was sunny for the most part last week!! I was able to walk outside without a scarf which would have been my worst nightmare the week before. I also went to the Albertina museum with a giant horse statue in front of it. They had a Magritte exhibit which is where the first two paintings I have here are from and I also got a picture of anther painting that I liked.

Finally, on Thursday I went to the Ballet where they did three sections of ballets that were made in the 20th century. They were really good and the last one was with this one guy that was just amazing and the last scene had a window and jump thing in front of it and I was waiting the whole time for him to run up and threw it and finally he did and it was so awesome. Afterwards we got some gelato which did not reach my high expectations, so I think I'm going to have to try some in Italy when I'm there. On Friday, I also went and saw Carmen that was also at the staats opera and it was really good. The sets were really cool and the music was recognizeable and good. The actor for Carmen was pretty and was an amazing actor/singer. It had three intermissions though, which was kind of annoying, I just wanted to get through it, but it was nice to rest your feet after having waited in line for three hours, because it was a premier on a Friday and the opera itself was three hours.