Prague: Day 3

Well, this morning was earmarked for Prague Castle and St. Vitus' Cathedral, which would require a hop on the #22 tram to the top of the castle complex. It fills up early with tourists. We woke up close to noontime (again!). It's probably because of jetlag... and all the heavy dinners. Not to mention the beer.

The Czechs boast that they have the world's best beer. And with the exception of Guiness (which is actually an ale), I would tend to agree. After all, beer was invented here, in a little town called Pilsen. Each adult male Czech consumes 50 gallons of beer per year. That's not hard to believe, since I just had a liter with my lunch. Which, by the way, was excellent Budvar goulash at nearby "Three Bears." Which is where we decided to go since we were too late for the castle. This is quickly becoming a "gastronomic" trip.

We bought some white wine to bring home to CT, then off to Wenceslas Square. After dinner last night, Martin asked me to take photos at his band's (G8 Transglobal) concert tonight. I would be one of two photographers. There would be a third, taking video. I had an "all access" pass. I desperately need some fast film.

I had heard about his band in passing. Little did I know that this would be a "serious" concert. The band was apparently fairly well-known, with a couple of CD's under the Sony/BMG label and a song currently in the local top ten. This was a big concert for the group, with an expected crowd of about 1,000 people.

I have no equipment! All I had was a 28mm Ricoh point and shoot camera, one Leica M6 body, and two lenses - a 35/2 ASPH Summicron and a 50/1.4 Summilux. Thank God I decided to bring fast lenses. But all I had was slow film, and no shoemount flash.

After asking around at different photo stores, we finally found PhotoSkoda - Prague's version of B&H. I got my hands on some Ilford Delta 3200 film, a Cullman belt pouch for my lenses, and a Hama lead film bag for the trip home.

P.S. Dada does not read her email regularly. When we got back to CT, she found an unread email from Martin telling us about photographing the concert!

Grrr. Had I known beforehand, I probably would have ended up lugging a photo backpack full of camera equipment. On second thought, it was probably better this way. Sometimes less is more.