Today's entry was supposed to consist of the following: We did nothing, Austria tomorrow. For better or worse it didn't turn out that way. We slept in until about 2pm, and only got up because we felt like seeing the Budapest Opera House (walking all day every day is HARD!). The last guided tour was at 3pm so we didn't have much time to get ready, grab lunch, and jog the 2 kilometers. We picked up a pretzel and barely made it to the ticket office on time. It was HOT and running while eating steaming dough wasn't the best idea. Don't you just love the feeling of hot sweat running down your back in a crowded room??? The Opera House beat every one of our expectations, which were admittedly few. The guide was fantastic (he actually spoke English we could understand) and the building was beautiful in every respect. Doing the opera house here was kind of an afterthought because we all believed the one in Vienna would be the one worth seeing; we were very wrong. Apparently Austria and Hungary were in competition with each other when this was built, and, judging by the photos we've seen of the Austrian version, Budapest put Austria to shame. In fact at this point we don't even really see a reason for going inside the Viennese one because it will just be a disappointment. We learned that the secret to the world-class acoustics in the auditorium is all the wood used in its construction. While there seems to be a lot of gold, it's really just a paper thin layer over thick wood of various types. We stood in the completely original and unrestored parlor of the queen and walked on her hand-made 120+ year-old carpet. Noting the many mirrors in the space our guide pointed out that royalty was never allowed to look to the side or behind; they always had to look directly ahead. The mirrors were the only means they had to see the ornate decorations in their own Opera House! After the tour we listened to a five-minute long aria in the buffet room, which blew me away. I'm not a big fan of opera but you have to respect someone's ability to shatter a glass with their voice... We really had no plans for today so from there we walked back to he hostel for a little rest (it had been a very long day after all) and then walked across the Chain Bridge to the restaurant we had visited a day or two before. With hours to kill before bed we tried at least half the menu, and Chelsea experienced her very first wine tasting. The service was fantastic and we had a lot of fun interacting with people in the restaurant. We rolled out of there like balls of sausage and crossed the bridge for the last time. Each end is decorated with huge sculptures of lions. Everywhere we have been in Budapest (and Stockholm for that matter) lions have been a prominent theme. You see them everywhere: on ships, on buildings, at gates and on doors. On the bridge though, Chelsea was concerned with much smaller predators. There are bright lights every couple of feet, which attract a lot of bugs. Lots of bugs = lots of spiders. There was a spider parked in front of every single light, which means there were hundreds and hundreds of them. Fortunately Chelsea had learned how to tame them at the Aquarium in Stockholm, so we were never in any real danger :) Finally back at the hostel Brittany and I decided to quickly and covertly use the shower in the room next door before anybody checked in (we still have no hot water, remember?). That went great until I tried to unlock the shower door, and couldn't open it. I struggled for a LONG time, laughing with frustration as I banged on the door and turned the key every way imaginable. Nothing worked; we were locked into a 3'x3' shower stall! We got so desperate that I emailed Chelsea and the hostel staff that we were stuck. Eventually everybody got the message (that's probably the only time Chelsea will see an email like that...) and came to the rescue. It took about ten minutes and two guys with screwdrivers, but we finally got out! Ten years from now we'll be looking back on this trip and say, "Hey, remember that time we got stuck in that bathroom in Budapest?" I'm just glad we got out in only half an hour ; it wouldn't have been so funny if nobody had checked their email and we'd probably still be in there right now! We're getting up really early tomorrow to catch a train to Vienna, and we'll spend a night there to break up the long haul to Prague. We won't get to actually do very much, but we should be able to see some pretty cool stuff. Wiener schnitzel!