The crowd centered around the Vinohrady Theater was sighted at the locus of the nearest big-screen TV Friday night, where they were holding court at the Dog's Bollocks on Římská street, part of a Czech chain of bars that is increasingly popular among local bon vivants. Gathered there after the opening night of the play Shakespeare in Hollywood, the group featured stage star Viktor Preiss, who responsibly left the party after a couple of drinks — and performed impressively in the same play the following night.

Film actor Ivan Trojan, a favorite performer of director Petr Zelenka, on the other hand, didn't feel compelled to hold back. In the great spirit of sport he enjoyed a few more drinks while taking in the Friday night soccer game.

Crowds gathered for the big Czech game against Ghana on Old Town Square Saturday looked thoroughly pumped up, of course, with face paint, massive sound system and rivers of beer in plastic cups all in place. The energy was palpable — as was the collective grief just minutes after the game kicked off as Ghana scored the first of its two winning goals.

Never mind; such is the beautiful game.

Crowd spirits were right back on top hours later as Prague's newish Museum Night, in which scores of the city's great collections, palaces and galleries open to the public (135,000 of them this year) after-hours. At the Spanish Synagogue, part of the Jewish Museum, crowds awaiting the free entry snaked around the block. As one puzzled observer noted, "Must be the entry price." Indeed, at 300 Kč ($13.23) to get in, only the complete Prague Castle tour costs as much normally — a fact that drew freebie seekers in hordes.

Not far from the monster synagogue queue, Halina Pavlowská, the ebullient talk show host known to many as the Czech Oprah, was having dinner with two friends at Marco Polo, normally a quiet restaurant near the Old Jewish Cemetery. However, if a discrete dinner was her object, she probably miscalculated: What with Museum Night in full swing, hundreds of people were walking by on their way to the Rudolfinum.