I had a moment of realisation today that was so annoying and disappointing.

The team at Innis & Gunn – my sponsors for this crazy epic hitchhiking trip I’m doing right now – have been saying to me “we want more pictures”.

I’ve been working really hard to get good photos from the places I’ve been in the last two weeks.
I have been sending in blog stories by email every couple of days, hunching over tables in fast food restaurants and squatting in service stations, at one in the morning, using dodgy wi-fi connections to email my stories and photos to the team in Scotland who are publishing Innis & Gunn’s blog about this trip.

After I sent in my story from Paris, Julian at I & G sent me an email saying, like, “why didn’t you get pictures of Paris landmarks?”
When I got that email I had had about two hours sleep in 24, and I tried to explain that I had felt so rushed in Paris, but I would try and do better next time.
Because I was exhausted, and the service station wi-fi I was on was shit, I didn’t work out that some of the better pictures I had sent in from Paris never got out of my ‘outbox’.

I naively thought when you attach photos to an email, and the email sends, all the photos go with it. After all these years using the WWW, I should have known better.

“Slow internet connection? Big files? That’s OK” thinks my Gmail, “I’ll just leave a couple of these pictures out. He’ll never notice…”
…and I didn’t.
Until now.

Today I woke up, foggy and under-slept as usual, and something had clicked in my head while I slept.
With a ‘oh I think I know what happened’ grimace on my sleep-creased face I fumbled for my phone.
I took another look at my ‘sent mail’ folder and discovered what my cheating, no good, deceitful robot had been doing behind my back.
That photo of me drinking a cold IPA in front of the Louvre in Paris, the one I was so happy about getting at the last minute as I was leaving the city, the one that I thought I sent to my sponsors a week ago… never got out of the outbox.

So.
I’ve figured out what happened now.
‘Shit happens’, I console myself.
Creating and publishing on the road, working out of a backpack and using service stations as work spaces and sleeping in the weeds beside motorway ramps, things can slip through the cracks sometimes; emails, photos… loose change… personal hygiene.

It’s not the best start to my day to figure this out, but… onward and upward.

 
I’ve had the benefit of a roof over my head and a hot shower here in Prague, thanks to my gracious Couch Surfing host, Manuel. Also a good wi-fi connection and the opportunity to figure out this photo-fuck-up.
My personal hygiene is much improved too, after my first shower in six days.

I had a blast here in Prague, and got some good photos, and I triple checked to make sure they got sent this time.

Innis & Gunn have been great sports about this.
Thanks again guys, for being fantastic team players and supporting this hectic, messy project I call Raw Safari.
I guess craft brewers understand something bloggers also know: the creative process can be messy.

Q. What’s the take away from this?
A. Never trust robots, no matter how reassuring and sleek they look.
And don’t do your emails in service station toilets if you can help it. X-)

Anywho. Prague has been amazing. I got a bunch of good photos too.

 

 

Saturday:

Climbing the Metro steps.
Out into the bright autumn sunshine.
Down the cobbled streets in the early morning stillness.
Trolley cars. Dog walkers.

Prague Castle appears out of the morning glare.

From the castle gates, across the Charles Bridge and down the east bank of the river to the old city, my jaw is on my chest.
Prague really is breathtaking.

Manuel, the Couch Surfer I’m staying with, told me this morning I’m super lucky with the weather. This autumn Prague seems to be having a heat wave.
The temperature today is in the high twenties. The sky is bright blue and the river is sparkling – the swans and the tourists gleaming and glowing.

It took a ridiculous amount of time to hitch here from Cesky Krumlov, but it was worth every frustrating hour.

 

 

I went down to the river bank to photograph the Charles Bridge and there was a really cute couple doing their wedding photos there.
I congratulated them and like a typical Aussie, slapped beers in their hands. They were a bit bemused, but quite happy about it. I think they thought I was some sort of nut but I managed to explain I am Australian, and that seemed to resolve the matter for them.
Anyway, that’s something Czech people and Aussies have in common; we never say no to a brew!

 

 

I’ve taken about a million photos today but here are some of my favorites.