St. Bartholomew's Tower, Plzen, and Concerts...

How does one even begin to describe the quality of playing I heard at the concert Friday night? To say it was perfect is too simple. It was...everything music should be and more. Neither of those phrases captures the absolute captivating quality of the music, the total state of shock I was in as these incredible musicians played. I was mesmerized by the musicality and the sheer technical perfection and ease. My concept of playing the violin as compared to these people is so primitive...it's like comparing a stick scratching in the dirt with an elegant calligraphy pen and parchment. A pianist working toward her doctorate played an incredible Beethoven sonata, and then Josef Spacek, another student here, played the Bach Chaconne and Ysaye Third Sonata. He just graduated from Curtis and won an international violin competition. Oh. My. God. I don't have words. If I could play the violin that well my life might be pretty close to being fulfilled.

Okay, let's talk more about Plzen. Ben and I had lunch at the Cross Cafe, which we speculate is some sort of European chain - sort of like their version of Starbucks, but in Czech, much cheaper, and with alcohol. It was raining while we ate lunch but it stopped just in time for our trip to the top of St. Bartholomew Cathedral. As I've mentioned already, this is the church in Plzen and the tower is the best place to get a view of the city. Climbing the tower is accomplished by climbing a series of rather intimidating and scary-looking stairs.

A winding spiral staircase takes you from the street level to a tiny gift shop where you buy your ticket - 20 Kc or $1. A series of straight but increasingly narrow and steep stairs takes you up to the next level where the bells are housed. Even narrower, smaller, and steeper stairs take you past the mechanism for the tower clock and up to the top. You emerge into the upper square room gasping for breath and thanking St. Bartholomew you are alive, with burning leg muscles..and then you step onto the screened in balcony and forget all of this at the site of Plzen spread before you. "Welcome to Europe," as Ben said. In the distance we could see our dormitory and the surrounding buildings - modern, unassuming, bland buildings - but downtown Plzen was directly below and around us in a glory of old world Europe. The view was simply breathtaking. The roofs are mainly tiled and terra cottacolored and the baroque/gothic architecture are gorgeous.

As beautiful as Plzen is, though, it doesn't hold a candle to Praha (what the Czechs call their capital), where we went yesterday...