dnovotny.net

When I turned 30, I grew a beard. I hadn't ever really grown one before, and it was something I wanted to do. It was my way of marking my adult life. I had been a child, and I had been a boy, but it was time to become a man. That's not to say that I wasn't an adult previously, but, it was an opportune time for a marker, and it was an opportune goal. Unfortunately, Evan had recently given me a set of really thoughtful shaving supplies. She had given me a safety razor, and a badger hair brush to whip up some sandalwood shaving cream with.

Evan and I have come out to Kickapoo Cavern State Park to take a cave tour in their unimproved cavern. I traded my Labor Day holiday from Monday to Friday, so that we would be able to come out on Friday. And, I won't say it was a mistake, but, at one point the car thermometer said it was 116. We got here, setup camp, and went for a short hike, but were soon defeated by the heat. Afterwards, we made a good if simple dinner and went to watch the bats exit their cave.

Today was a great day. We started off waiting for Frank the driver, so Evan could pay rent for her apartment. Next it was off for street pastries and to pick up my negatives. After one pass through Heathrow, I am developing all my film before I travel, they wouldn't hand check anything. (The terrorists won.) Anyway, after that it was off to the Michael museum, which was short, but was worth the trip on its own. Seeing those 7 or 8 foot lithographs on cheap paper in person was amazing. I think if I ever was a billionaire, those are the originals I would try to collect.

Today started out with sleeping in. I think it was around 10:30 before I rolled out of bed, which was awesome, though its not normal for me. Our first task this morning was to drop off the film I have already shot, and get our transit passes. Luckily around 3 corners, at a distance of about 3 city blocks, there is a photolab that will do 1 hour e-6 or c-41 processing. And they apparently do enough medium format that they asked if I was shooting 6x6 when I asked them to cut it on 3 frames per strip. I wonder if they see more 6x7 or 6x9.

Today we got up and caught the train toward Brno. It was about an hour's ride through the country when we got to Kutna Hora. The goal of the day was a trip out to see the Sedlec Ossuary (Bone Church), and a couple of cathedrals. It was an interesting trip, and we ended up doing a lot of walking. We got the train tickets to the city center in Kutna Hora, however, we got off the arriving train one stop early at the main Kutna Hora station as it is closer to the Sedlec.

Evan is studying in Prague for the summer semester, and as a result, I have taken some vacation time to travel to Prague with her. I intended to learn a bit of czech before getting here, but that intent didn't quite catch up to the activity. I know enough to say excuse me, do you speak english, thank you and good bye. And so far, that actually has been enough. Not everyone speaks english, but the people who do are becoming more common.

CRW_1596

Originally uploaded by dnovotny

I posted some of my photos. Enjoy.