I would not have gotten these shots without him:
All of my pictures are slightly overexposed, because i'm so used to being the photographer at the kind events that i go to that i didnt have time to fix the white balance before the Prague trip. In Zakopane it wasn't an issue, because all the landscapes i show were perfectly fine in 'landscape' mode, so i didn't worry too much about not having my camera on manual.
I fixed it now though, and i think most of those pictures would be massively improved with just a tiny bit of batch-edit darkening. I mean the sky might just be white, but the architecture will come out more.
One of the ways in which i am lucky here, is that i consistently get my own room/place to sleep. People who are assign roommates generally bunk together, and idk what about me sets me slightly apart from the rest of the group, but there i am, slightly on the outside. Which is actually how things have been since i was 10, so instead of hanging around with the group, i either do my own thing or i hang around Piotrek and we talk and joke.
He is very tolerant of me. I constantly give him shit and he's very very nice about just laughing me off and making fun of me, back. I wanted to ask his wife for shopping advice (i met her at the fancy paté dinner) and intead he gave me the advice. He was even very nice about how he was sure whatever i had was fine, but "ALL I HAVE IS BOOTS AND TENNIS SHOES, PIOTREK." And when i got ready and was waiting, we were chatting and i told him he looked tired and asked him if he was tired. "No. But thank you." "Hey, you know. that's what i'm here for." And then he said "You look lovely."
^_^ I looked lovely! PUTTING FORTH EFFORT FOR THE OPERA WAS WORTH IT.
He really is great sport.
The opera was SO WEIRD. I mean the performances were amazing, but it was a modern interpretation of it, so there was really weird costuming choices and they had projected .gifs that made no sense (like a running bison with its bull-parts flapping in the breeze and a lady jumping over a chair), and there was a tiny don giovanni (which represented his innocence?) and at one point there was an audience scene with half the crowd wearing dongiovanni masks?
Parts of it were pretty funny though. and the music/performances, again, were amazing.
After the opera, the group when off to dinner or a bar or something, and i hung out in the lounge/bar of the hotel. I had the previous night, too, and spent almost the entire night chatting with Miroslav, of the tall and skinny cheekbones. He was kind of a troll, but he also laughed at a lot of what i said, and so i tried to flirt with him. Which i'm honestly not very good at, it mainly consists of jokes and eye contact, but whatever.
That night, I stayed longer because i got caught up with a funny group of brits, but at one point one of the things that Miroslav told me was that i was funny enough that i should be a stand-up comedian. I told him that that was nice of him to say and he just looked at me and said "I'm serious." But i mean we also talked about politics and about how Americans are the only ones who ever talk to him, as a bartender. And then when the brits asked me why i was in prague, i just told them i was there for Miroslav.
Actually, though, they turned out to honestly be great fun to talk to, too. They were there for a stag party and i spent hours talking to them as well. ^_^
They also called me (and the dude who was from budapest with me) lovely.
Lovely is my new favorite word.
Wow! I'm so envious of your trip to the opera and everything, I can't even tell you. Thanks for all the photos, they're beautiful. And you look stunning.
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