Starting today, May 22, Charleston, SC will celebrate its premiere arts festival for 17 days and 17 nights – Spoleto USA 2009. The festival offers more than 120 performances. In addition, the City of Charleston also produces the Piccolo Spoleto. The Charleston City Paper just published a very detailed guide to Spoleto that includes opera, theater, dance, music and parties and more. So much to do during Spoleto in Charleston…. I will only mention my favorites:
Piccolo Spoleto’s Sunset Serenade, May 22 at 8pm. Charleston Symphony performing on the steps of the Custom House. Free!
Don John- musical theater (sexy actor Gisli Orn Gardarsson from Iceland appeared on Lowcountry Live today). “The play is the contemporary update of the classic myth of Don Juan, the original ladykiller, the first international playboy, the proto-womanizer, the Ur-man of mystery (The City Paper).” Memminger Auditorium. May 22, 23, 25, 27-30; June 1-2, June 4-7. $25
Punch Brothers – concert. Five young talented folk and bluegrass musicians are the talk of town. May 28. The Cistern. $25
Noche Flamenca - dance. Hot and steamy night filled with flamenco; superb dancers, guitarists and singers. The Cistern. June 4-6. $30
Brahms/Tchaikovsky – classical music. World renowned violinist Sarah Chang joins the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra to perform Brahms’ brilliant and challenging Violin Concerto in D major and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6. Gaillard Auditorium. June 2. Starting at $10.
Festival Finale – concert. Bring your picnic and wine. The Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra will offer a concert under the stars featuring Bartók’s lively Dance Suite and Rimsky-Korsakov’s sumptuous Scheherazade + fireworks. Middleton Place Plantation. June 7. $15
For those who want to learn more about the Great Loop, the America’s Great Loop Cruisers Association offers a trial membership to participate in its annual Spring Rendezvous and Reunion in beautiful historic Charleston, South Carolina. The Rendezvous takes place on April 6-9, 2009. Space is limited and registration is required. Please visit http://greatloop.org to learn more and register.
So I just returned from my trip to Prague and Slovakia. This is the country where only a couple of decades ago, my mother would send me to a store to buy breakfast for four people with less than a dollar….times changed….According to the survey Worldwide Cost of Living made by Economic Intelligence Unit organization, Prague is the most expensive city in Central Europe. It is more expensive than Lisbon in Portugal or Boston and Detroit in the USA. Prague is also the second most expensive city (after Moscow) from all post-Communist countries. Falling exchange rates are not helping either, while a dollar used to cost almost 50 Slovak crowns some years ago, you only get about 20 crowns today. It is even worse in Czech Republic where for one dollar; you only get 16 crowns (CZK).
A week-long parking at Prague-Ruzyně costs CZK 2,000, that’s $125! My sister who lives in Prague hardly ever goes downtown. Locals will not pay $5 or more dollars for beer, and so tourists who visit Prague do not really even get to see the traditional culture or meet locals who live on the outskirts of the city. You see visitors enjoying very expensive cafes and restaurants that they would never frequent at home. Hotels are also expensive as well as shopping. It is hard to believe that my money goes much further in the US than in a post-Communist country. If you are planning a trip to Central Europe – because it is beautiful and totally worth it- start saving, or go where the locals go.
