it all went well except the part about standing in the line for domestic tickets for a looooong time, but finally we found the international ticket counter with three clerks and three one-person lines. of course the usual energy flow dictated that we found ourselves behind a french guy with such a complicated request that the clerk disappeared ... for a loooooong time ... so we split up and another clerk became free. but she sat at her desk scribbling furiously without looking up or answering ahems et al. ... for a loooooong time. finally somone behind me spoke to her in hungarian. what's up? closed. oh. back to the french guy ... now guys. eventually the clerk came back ... and the heavy discussions began ... in broken english. sigh. a lot more waiting ... like thirty minutes total ... and finally it was our turn. i discovered a second clerk hidden in the cage, instructing the first on his every move. oh. a trainee. (jeff tells me that is a pun. hahahahahaha. ahem.) i look around ... the only modern equipment i see is a credit card swiper. not a computer to be seen, anywhere. i start to notice that this is a very dingy old building.

through the cage i see lockers that look to be 100 years old, but still in use. the clerk takes my order and c a r e f u l l y writes out a ticket, with zloty cstavo kczistaly blah blah blah from the schoolmarm to his left on every line. then he pulls out a book of tickets and a piece of carbon paper. carbon paper! jeff's eyes bug out. again with the scribble scribble scribble ... and finally he announces the price ... i watch him double the amount in his head ... no calculator. i handed over an amex card, initiating a very complex procedure involving multiple signatures, painstaking document inspection, elaborate stamps, and more signatures. then he reaches for a metal stapler once lacquered now exposed steel rubbed shiny, metal screws bulging from unlikely places ... click ... click click ... out of staples. i plotz.

when i rebooted, i found the clerk fumbling with the open jaws of the stapler, teasing a half inch of new staples into one side.

and then! documents handed back! cheery smiles! hail and on our way!

gotterdammerung at the budapest opera house

In medias res -- we've missed a lot, as this is the fourth book of the cycle. In the previous episode (Jeff informs me), Siegried kisses Brunhilde, awakening her from her sleep spell. This breaks the web of fate.

Act 1, Scene 1. The fates are spinning the strands of destiny ... and are horrified when the web is severed.

Act 1, Scene 2, Brunhilde's mountaintop lair. Siegfried and Brunhilde enter a hovel, apparently Brunhilde's digs, accompanied by a horse. Brunhilde is dressed rather dowdily. Her pad is down in the dumps. It may be a long way up from the kingdoms of men, but even further down from Valhalla. Brunhilde & Siegfried are in love. She gives him her Valkyrie armor, he gives her DAS RING!, dooming her, and ultimately Valhalla itself. Siegfried splits.

Act 1, Scene 3, Gunther's palace. Gunther and loislane, his daughter or sister, are hanging out with the evil madman lexluthor (Hagen?). A plot develops: lex wants the ring, Gunther wants Brunhilde, lois wants Siegfried. Siegfried arrives. He drinks the kool aid laced with love-tonic, and warms up to lois. Siegfried & Gunther depart, but not before they slice their wrists to drain blood into a macabre chalice, which they then share ... ew. lex dons a spear.

Act 1, Scene 4, Brunhilde's lair. Brunhilde's sister arrives. Jeff observed a "fiery light" about her -- she is a Valkyrie. Sister is upset, so she sings a lot and tries to wrest the ring from Brunhilde, fails, splits. Siegfried arrives, wearing a shroud. Suspending disbelief, Brunhilde thinks it's Gunther. Gunther, I mean Siegfried, wrests the ring from Brunhilde and leaves. In the comic book version, this is a rape scene.

Act 2, Scene 1. gollum berates lexluthor. gollum splits. lex stews, but gets a great idea and sings a lot, throwing off some awesome bottom. (lex is a baritone.) Then the chorus, 60 peasant soldiers and 30 ladies-in-waiting, fills the stage. This is the first time more than four actors have appeared together. lex, inspires all with some more awesome bottom. Everybody sings.

Act 2, Scene 2. Gunther's palace. Siegfried and loislane are to be married! Gunther drags a miserable Brunhilde onto the stage. She sings beautifully. I cry. Gunther makes a pass at Brunhilde, she resigns herself to marrying him. Brunhilde plots with lexluthor to murder Siegfried, and places a spell on the spear, which she has been stroking in admiration. Jeff points out that from this scene on, lex places himself at Siegfried's back at all times.

Act 3, Scene 1. The mermaids are gamboling in a smoky redoubt. Siegfried arrives, a-hunting he will go. The mermaids flirt with him, roll around in smoke, and sing a lot. They want the ring. Gunther flips them the bird. Mermaids wailing, "Rheingold!" (not the biere).

Gunther, loislane, lexluthor and his band of merry pranksters arrive. Drinks all around. Drama. Lex drives his spear through Siegfried's back -- ow.

The music is fabulous. Siegfried isn't quite ready to die, and sings of his love for Brunhilde, the (now we find out) antidoted cordial having apparently dropped the scales from his lois lust soaked eyes.

Act 3, Scene 2. lexluthor and his band carry Siegfried's body back to Gunther's castle. Brunhilde shows up. Gunther is upset. lex slits Gunther's throat with his own sword; such cruel irony. loislane is upset. Brunhilde is upset. lex tries to pilfer the ring from cadaver's hand but bolts back in fear as the zombie raises its hand high so that Brunhilde might have the ring promised to her in Act 1, Scene 1

Siegfried is carried off to a funeral pyre. Brunhilde, in an unfortunate impulse, throws herself onto the pyre. The music rises. Valhalla falls. lexluthor belts out DAS RING!, rushes to the (offstage) funeral pyre, where, Jeff tells me, he snatches the ring and is murdered by gollum who is murdered by the mermaids, who, at last, have their "precious."

THE END

January 16, 2005

pest train station. we're off to vienna!

vienna

the view from our hotel window

museum of art

ick

January 17, 2005

the view from our hotel window. jeff was here

the museums were all closed to celebrate "monday" so we took a tram out to the main cemetary. lots of dead guys there

i dared jeff to knock on the door of this crypt. then i double-dared him. then i did it.

tram back to central vienna

belvedere

vienna thanks the glorious soviet army of liberation

opera house where we saw don giovanni

oh my god, it's seiji ozawa! (leftmost)

January 18, 2005

belvedere

metro to tram to shuttle bus to bratislava airport

welcome to slovakia

aloft

orly

orlyval

January 19, 2005

french pun

ile saint louis

hotel de ville

pompidou centre

January 20, 2005

RER to CDG

aloft

sky captain