Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute)

One of Mozart's most famous operas, "The Magic Flute," was pretty amazing to see in Vienna. We were at the Volksoper and had some awesome seats. The entire thing was in German so of course I had some trouble fully understanding what was going on, bBut I looked up the synopsis online ahead of time, like my mom suggested, and it was a little easier to follow along. The singing was incredible and the costumes were really cool! Although it was a little long and sitting through another opera will be a stretch, I'll probably find myself at another one sometime soon. "Ein Sommernachtstraum" or "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is also playing here and that would be pretty cool to see. Also "Die Fledermaus" is a famous Johann Strauss Operetta now showing and "Die lustigen Nibelungen" is supposed to be interesting, too. They get kind of expensive so we'll see how my budget is doing later in the semester.

Anyhow, Will and I had a great time despite some ticketing discrepancies. (Apparently he bought tickets at a different venue then where he thought we were going? Either way, we made it there and enjoyed it thoroughly!) Afterward we met up with the rest of our AHA gang at 1516 Brewery (we're basically regulars now, the Irish bartender upstairs loves us!) for some Saturday night fun. I'm sitting next to Amy, from Michigan, enjoying my favorite brew from 1516, the Stout. This beer has hops from Oregon! (As long as I know, "Ein dunkles Bier, bitte!" meaning, "A dark beer, please!" I will be fine here in Austria!)

I've decided that if I'm feeling up to it this weekend, I'll be headed to Innsbruck for a few days. I'd like to spend a day in Salzburg on the way back and possibly an afternoon in Linz to check out the situation there. Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be skiing since I'll be walking around a lot. This is a tough decision for me because after last Friday at Semmering... I'm dying!! I have nothing going on next weekend so maybe I'll zip down there again for a 100% skiing-only trip. I don't think St. Moritz is going to happen because there is no place to stay that is relatively inexpensive! St. Moritz is such a ritzy place - maybe I'll save that trip for when I'm a millionaire. :p