January 30, 2011: Another lucky day

January 30, 2011: A couple of weeks ago when I was talking with some friends in the US using Skype, one of them told me how excited she was to be going to hear Mahler's 9th Symphony being conducted by Los Angeles Philharmonic's young maestro Gustavo Dudamel. I admit it -- at the time I felt a bit of homesickness in not being able to experience sitting in Disney Hall listening to one of my favorite symphonies by one of the world's greatest conductors! Flash forward to yesterday when I was reading the LA Times on-line and read the headline of the Calendar section reporting on England's review of Dudamel and the LA Phil's performance in London. Unfortunately I could not download that page of the newspaper (technical problems), so I asked Ruth to read it to me when we talked on Skype that evening. She read that the London concert was in the middle of a European tour that the LA Phil was making and then she read the incredible news -- that the LA Phil and Dudamel will be performing in Budapest this coming Thursday!!! -- and Mahler's 9th on top of that!!! So, after reading where I could buy tickets for the concert, I went downtown today to see if I could get one for that concert. "Yes," the saleslady said, "There are a few seats in the top row facing the side of the orchestra." I asked if there were any seats in the rear balcony facing the orchestra head on, and she responded "Yes, in the very last row -- Oh, wait a minute! It appears that there's one seat available on the 2nd balcony. Would you like that one?" I quickly gave her my credit card and the seat was mine. Imagine that! In LA, tickets for Mahler's 9th with Dudamel conducting were sold out months in advance and in Budapest I got a ticket four days before the concert. Also, I might add that next week I will be going to hear Mahler's 3rd Symphony. My colleague will be in the women's choir that is in that performance.

I was so pleased with my luck I felt like flying home, but decided to take a long walk instead since I was downtown and the weather was nice. First was another picture of the Opera House during a sunny winter day.

Budapest Opera House

Then I walked down Vaci utca and saw that the door to Szent Mihalyi's Church was open so I went inside to see what it's like.

Szent Mihalyi's Church

Szent Mihalyi's Church

On the bus home, I couldn't resist taking this picture of a woman whose fur hat had two dangling fox legs flapping behind her head. I'm not sure the picture is particularly clear but I wasn't about to raise any suspicions by the lady and retake the picture.

And so ends another successful day.