Praha - (Prague) ROCKS!!!

Wednesday, the 26th of April, was a day we were eager to get started. I finished my book, "The Rule of Four", which was really good, we showered, I blogged, Vee made our itinerary, and entered our expenses in the spreadsheet.
(Vee reporting) 4/26/06 - Our beds not only looked comfy but really were. I slept so well!
First decision we made this morning is that we were going to extend our stay in Prague for at least another day. With our itinerary completed for the day we talked with the reception who arranged to have our exisiting mini-apartment available for another day. The day was beautiful, sunshine, no clouds and feeling warm like summertime. Our goal for today was to see "Stare Mesto" (old town) and "Nove Mesto" (new town) on our side of the river. We headed inmediately towards the most important landmark in the old part of town; "Old town square" where the 14th century Tyn Church, St Nicolas Church and the "Orloj" (clock tower) are located. Our first stop is the "Obecni dum" (the municipal house) an impressive theather that reminded us of the main church in Piazza San Marco (Venece, Italy). Not only was the beauty what made us stop by also some signs advertising the show of the day: "Bohemian String Orchestra" playing Handel, Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Rachmaninoff, Dvorak and Tchaikovski, with a full orchestra and two solists on the cello and violin known as the best of Prague. It sounded too good and affordable!!. One of the obvious reason why we are loving our time here, is because the exchange rate to the EURO and dollar is extremely favorable for us, therefore everything is pretty much cut in half price-wise. Totally excited with our tickets for tonights concert we headed towards the square, not without stopping first for 2 tasty capuccinos and pastries. We also had to stop at this very cool shop that featured beautiful Prague-beer mugs. Prague is apparently known in Europe as one of the countries with the best breweries in the continent, good enough reason to buy an authentic Prague-mug to take home! We finally arrived to the main square and once again we let the beauty and energy of the place invade our senses. After briefly visiting St Nicolas church (a georgeous church in one of the corners), we walked by a strip of street vendor booths where we inmediatelly fell in love with some Prague-themed artwork painted in watercolors by several russian artists who have been living in the country for many years. It was hard not to buy more (since these were original art-pieces, beautiful but very afforable in dollars!), but we ended up choosing 2 small-medium paintings. We were so thrilled! With brand new beer-mugs and 2 new paintings in hand we continued our walk through town. It is hard to put into words the feeling that this city gives us everywhere we go. By now, we have been in several of the most important cities in Europe, and the energy that Prague radiates is completely contagious. Prague is one of the few lucky cities that didn't suffer too much devastation during WWII, and it shows in the incredible beauty of its recently restored buildings. The arts (jazz concerts, classical music, theater, gallery exhibitions) are also overwhelming in quality and quantity. One doesn't need to work hard finding a place any night of the week to watch a good show. As soon as the sun goes down the music starts to flow through the streets coming from all the different clubs, bars, restaurants and coffee shops. Despite its underlying roughness (which is only visible through some of the homeless poeple, the dust and sometimes pieces of trash on the ground), there is definitely a sense of elegance in the streets. The "Jozefov" area (jewish neighborhood) for instance, is filled with gorgeous high quality cafes, restaurants, bars and shops (Valentino, Hermes, Hugo Boss, Louis Vuton, etc, etc) are one after the other; and even the side streets are charming with condo buildings full of character.
By now it is 4:30pm or so, and we have seen most of old town, and some of the main bridges that separate this area from "Mala Strana" (Area of castles and palaces). We were heading south, passing by the "National Theather" (another impressive building), when all of the sudden the clowds covered the sky and a few drops of rain started to come down. It seemed that it would be raining hard pretty soon, so we decided to continue our path south tomorrow. Instead we would go back to our home, drop our stuff off, find a cool place to have dinner and finish up the day with the concert we had bought tickets for. It felt good to be home for a few minutes to take our shoes off, but soon we were on the streets again in search of a place to eat. After failing to find a brewery-restaurant that the information center recommended to us, we settled for a cute restaurant located in New Town. As pretty much every restaurant, it had its own character and personality with a cave-like feeling. Food was awesome, and we finish right on time to get to the municipal building for our concert.
Once seated in the concert hall, we realized that it was going to be crowded. Cliff and I were squeezed by the people sitting next to each of us. It was all worth it. Once Vivaldi's "Four seasons" began, I felt my arm hairs stand up right away. The power of the music was overwhelming. The second solist of the night "Krystof Lecian", known as one of the best cello players in the country was FANTASTIC, he played his instrument with closed eyes, rocking his head like a rock star and making every note heard clearly and beautifully, the rest of the orchestra became a background, and we almost felt like in a heavy-metal concert but with Bach and Tchaikowskys hits rather than Metallicas.
By the end of the concert the crowed was on its feet and with reason. Four additional themes were played to please us, but the concert came to an end anyway 30 minutes later.
Cliff and I were still too excited to be able to sleep. The realization of being in the Czech Republic, in one of the oldest Theaters of Europe, listening to one of the best classical orchestras was too much to grasp tonight.
To end the night on an even higher note, we stopped at this ultra-cool bar-restaurant on our way to the hotel that we spotted yeterday, that happened to have a live jazz-band performing as well. Three beers and two desserts later, we were still hanging at the bar listening to the band of a saxofonist, stand-up basist and pianist. Too good of a day, but it had to end. Yup, Prague rocks!