HighCult

Being tired of following the 10 commandments at the Milongas, we decided to take a break, ah, not to wine and dine as you suspect we might do, but to indulge ourselves with the high culture Buenos Aires has to offer.

	We heard so much about this bookstore called Athena, Nicolette and myself decided to hunt for it before we leave Buenos Aires. It was converted from a theatre and supposingly is a gem of renovation. As it turns out, it does live to its reputation. The entry Lobby empowered by a multi-tierd atrium was certainly impressive when one entered into the bookstore.
	The Stage was converted into a confiteria; the boxes on the sides, into reading rooms. Athena, the Greek God, who was restored handsomely at the dome above, is now overlooking the main pit where the bookstacks are located.
The top 2 floors of the previous seating areas are now transformed into to art galleries.
	I inspected closely everywhere, the quality of the renovation is simply superb. Even the arrays of light switches located on each side of the stage were restored faithfully, but now they become the wall decoration for the confiteria.


One evening, Linda and I gave up an afternoon Milonga and decided at the last minute to attend an orchestral concert at the Teatro Cervante, which is also a historical gem.
Although it was too dark for us to appreciate the exteriors of the building, we nonetheless had our breath taken away by the rich red velvet interiors. The Symphony Orchestra of the Teatro Cervante was playing tango music with a famous guest conductor-pianist and two singers. Our brains were pretty much fried from Spanish overload at that point, so none of us could remember the performers' names. We were not able to find a playbill either. Bueno~!

	The interiors was decorated with a combinations of various styles, from the stuffy classical, to the opulent Rococo, then it switched over to some exotic Oriental collections with some provincial European flavoured.
Most surprisingly was that I even found some hand painted tiles that were identical to those I found at the Subte platforms. Mysterious, indeed!

There were plenty more impressive architectural marvels that I only got a glimpse of while travelling in taxis or collectivos (buses). They awaited for my return to Buenos Aires in the future. .