Does it get any better?

I am writing this morning on an absolutely spectacular fall day. It is our last weekend free before we have fourteen days in a row of classes. Yes, that includes Saturday and Sunday. But it has been a glorious weekend so far.
I am enjoying a big cup of coffee and a delicious piece of coffee cake courtesy of the Flohmarkt at St. Ana's church, just a block from here. Even without knowing German, I'm sure that you have figured out that it was a flea market. I thought I would stop by because I needed a few things for my apartment and I decided a flea market might be the best place to find them.
Wow! Did I hit pay dirt! I came home loaded down with an immersion blender, a food processor, an embroidered tablecloth, a coffee mug, a Mellita coffee maker and........ A PEARWOOD ALTO RECORDER!!!!!! The recorder cost more than the other stuff combined and I paid ten euros for it. I'm sure that you can do the math.....
It's a beautiful thing. It was tucked away behind a bunch of kitschy stuff. I'm sure the woman saw dollar signs when my face lit up and I pointed to it enthusiastically. She looked at me skeptically and said "Zehn" (ten). I opened my wallet and cheerfully forked it over. She wrapped it up very carefully for me which was nice. I think now that I must knit a case for it!! It only has one slight drawback: it uses German fingering. Who cares? It's beautiful!!
Now the other plus side of a flea market is that it is usually run by church ladies who bake. Oh baby!! Do they bake!! There was a whole entire room devoted to baked goods of every sort! It was without a doubt the best coffee house (and least expensive!) that I have been to so far. Huge slabs of homemade goodness for only 1 euro a piece. I ate a delicious peach and cream cheese cake there and brought the aforementioned coffee cake home to enjoy this morning. YUM!
Last night we went to a free concert put on by students of the Mozarteum. It's BachFest, so the theme of course is Bach's music. We managed to show up for contemporary night. All the pieces incorporated the B-A-C-H theme in one way or another and there was only one original piece by Bach in the first half. (The concert was four hours long) I have to say that I really enjoyed the ensemble pieces quite a bit. The solo things I didn't find as interesting. There was a duet for violas that sounded like a rhinoceros fight. And I play the viola!
This is just my personal opinion. You can disagree if you like. I am pretty open to most things, but I feel a lot of contemporary music is too cerebral. It's an exercise in sonic possibilities, yes, and I appreciate that, but it is so hard to play and to what end? If it takes a semi-professional group to play it, and a highly specialized ear to listen to it, and an even more specialized brain to write it, than it really is on the fringes and how often will it be performed? Perhaps the point is that it is cutting edge. I fall somewhere on the continuum. With pop music being a "1" and cerebral contemporary music being a "10", I would say my score is an "8." What's yours?
Today will be another adventure as well. Virginia (from Italy) and I are planning on going to IKEA (imagine that!) this afternoon, after which we will be meeting some friends and going to the BioFest in the Alt Stadt. Then I suppose we'll all have dinner, or cook dinner with things from the BioFest or something. We'll "play it by ear." This was an amusing expression for all of us. I am constantly reminded how fascinating English is and how frustrating at the same time. And that's a GOOD thing!