Chili peppers and Tchaikovsky

Don't buy your husband a Valentine’s card written in Czech with a heart made of chili peppers on the front and then ask a high school student to translate it for you. She will go bright red, start belly-laughing and tell you it says something like, “I burn hotter for you than 1,000 chili peppers, lover.” Oops.

I should have bought something like this: "I love you."

Overall, V-Day is just not a big deal here; at the pub after work on Friday, BW and I were the only people out of the table of 14 that had a date planned. An Australian colleague said, "No offense, but we see it as a silly, commercialized thing Americans do." 

Touché.

Nonetheless, we took our silly selves to the Czech National Symphony Orchestra and it was absolutely splendid! BW got tickets for a special "Romeo and Juliet on Valentine's Day" concert, featuring works by Tchaikovsky, Rota, Gounod and Proklofiev. 

The view from our seats...

...and close up.

The concert was held in Prague's dazzlingly beautiful Obecni Dum (Municipal House), an Art Nouveau treasure. I kept having to remember to breathe during the performance because the way the music and light levitated above the orchestra was so captivating that I didn't want to move an iota or make a peep.

Even the entrance to the coat check was smashing

And the windows! Oh, the windows!

So we're two happy symphony customers. Thanks, BW! I'm so thankful to have you today and every day.

<3