Day 23 - Ballet at State Theatre

It was another late morning for us. I guess we never really did fully acclimate to the new time zone. We just hung around for a bit in the morning, caught up on some blogging (sorry for the delayed posts!) and tried to make a plan for our final week. I really wanted to go to a glass factory and we had also talked about seeing some sort of performance as well. Karl dug through the many brochures that we have collected while being here and found a couple that offered various tour bundles. He called a tour company and they told him that he had to book it through a hotel. So while he headed out into the snow (yes, again!) I stayed in the apartment and continued to process photos. He was gone for a while but when he finally came back he told me that we were booked for a tour of a glass factory and of the Pilsner Urquel beer factory for Thursday. We also talked about the different performances that were happening in the next couple days and I chose to see Sleeping Beauty - tonight. By this time we were both starving to death so we headed out to the Cafe Lounge, this time for lunch. We both had quiche (apparently real men DO eat quiche) and then a chicken breast with grilled tomatoes and zucchini with a yogurt sauce. Healthy and delicious. Karl then had a piece of chocolate cake while I resisted (again).

After lunch we headed back to the apartment, where he left me to go back to the hotel and book the tickets for the ballet. The performance started at 7pm, so we decided to just hang out and get ready for the rest of the afternoon and plan to be out the door by 5. The State Theatre is just beyond Wenceslas Square - about a 25-minute walk. For once we were actually on time! The wind had picked up and it was snowing lightly to boot. (So much for curling my hair!) We got to Wenceslas Square and headed up the hill towards the theatre, looking for someplace to eat as we went. We ended up at Como again. The whole restaurant is non-smoking, one of the reasons we chose it the first time we ate there. Part way through our meal a man at the next table lit up a cig. We complained to the waiter and he said, "Yes it is non-smoking, but you see, he is the owner." Oops. Oh well. It was a good meal anyway!

Out into the wind and cold again and on to the theatre. The building is very beautiful inside. Very gaudy, but that is traditional for theatre halls. We were sitting on the floor 9 rows back. I have no complaints about the seats, and fortunately the man sitting in front of me happened to be very short.

This version of Sleeping Beauty is not the fairy tale Disney version (although one of the songs from the movie is worked in during one of the dance pieces). It is the story of Anna Anderson/Anastasia - The last daughter of the Imperial Russian family. I was very excited when I discovered this because I have an interest in European royal families and this is one of the most famous stories. (If you want to true story go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Anderson . I know it is a wiki page but it has a very good explanation!) Unfortunately, I could not take any photos of the performance so this is another photo-less post. Sorry!