One Lucky Girl!

That would be me. This weekend I spent my birthday in Vienna and Bratislava. Mark had a gig on Saturday night so I tagged along for the ride and had the best time. Good food, new experiences, wonderful husband, good company and lots and lots of cake! Plus leaving my children in the hands of good friends meant I didn't have to worry a bit.

Mark suggested spending 1/2 a day in Bratislava since we were so close, only about 45 minutes from Vienna. Do you know where Bratislava is? I didn't! I had to look it up on the atlas. He had gigged here before and loved the downtown area. I fell in love with it too, tons of personality and the best ice cream I have ever had (that means it was better than the gelato in Italy, who knew??).

Bratislava's Old Town is unique because of 2 things that I noticed: fun statues hidden through out the village . . .
. . . and the hunt for cannons embedded into city walls, leftover from Napoleon.
Here is a very unique musician, we stood for several minutes trying to figure out how he was playing his "contraption". Harmonica, banjo, organ, and drums with the speaker on bottom! Notice the stuffed hand on his knee that is playing the organ.
Back to Vienna that evening, we went out with friends to a wonderful fancy Italian restaurant right beside the Stephansdom. We ate outside and enjoyed a wonderful meal, great conversation and dessert to boot! The weather was perfect.
The next day, Mark and I ventured out into the city. We saw the Hofburg Palace and gardens . . .

Crazy taxi's and city clocks . . . . . . and the Staatstoper which is Vienna's opera house. I was disappointed, guided tours were canceled for that day. I so wanted to see the grand staircase!
But when we got back to the hotel, I asked about any performances I could attend that evening while Mark was working. Thankfully I had a companion. Nina's husband played in Mark's group and she was smart and tagged along as well. I had a buddy! Oh yes, the stars were aligned in my behalf. There was a ballet at the opera house, it was Onegin. But we had a problem. I didn't have a dress! I had to go shopping! I found pretty red ballet flats, which could not have been more appropriate, and my friend Nina let me borrow a skirt.
Onegin was of course a tragic love story. You know the deal, passionate love, someone dies and a moral lesson is learned the hard way. It was spectacular. It continues to amaze me the power of music, the way it can communicate such emotion without a word. The dancers were amazing athletes. It is hard to imagine how they get their bodies to perform with such grace and beauty. Nothing moves me like music. Tchaikovsky was dead-on with communicating the power of the story. Thank heaven Tatianna chose well in the end. Stupid arrogant Onegin. Grand elaborate staircase!

Nina and I rounded out our evening by stopping at a cafe on the way back to the hotel. I had to have yet another piece of cake. Vienna is known for their fancy cakes, and one in particular is the Sacher Torte, which is chocolate cake with a chocolate fondant on top. Between the layers of cake is an apricot marmalade. I did have a piece of that earlier, then that night I had a different chocolate creme cake and I ordered hot chocolate on the side. Did you know that in Vienna, hot chocolate is the consistency of warm pudding?! It was so rich that I couldn't finish it, which doesn't happen to me very often, you know, finishing yummy things. They had to kick us out at midnight. It has been a very long time since I stayed up that late. Probably the last time was because I had a sick kid.

Thanks to Mark for being you, making me feel special and being so talented to get hired for a gig in Vienna . . . on my birthday! It is one I will never forget!