Industrial remains - Ostrava, Czech Republic

I guess I'm in post-pictures-of-empty-places mode. This is a former industrial complex that has been converted to a large concert venue. I attended the Colours of Ostrava two summers ago. Rufus Wainwright, who was performing, talked during his set about how he imagined many people died in this place. I'm sure he was right - it probably manufactured all sorts of nasty chemicals and I can't imagine that there was a strong emphasis on worker safety during the Communist era.

Don't lick the walls.

Some photos from Colours of Ostrava

As promised, here are some of the photos I took at Colours of Ostrava festival in July. I didn't take pictures of all the bands we saw. Rufus Wainwright and The Flaming Lips got the most attention from me (mainly because I had the best vantage points for shooting during those shows). Not too bad for the little Canon G9, eh? Enjoy!

Rufus Wainwright

Wayne Coyne from the Flaming Lips

A confetti extravaganza!

Hotel challenge

Our original hotel in Ostrava was, unfortunately less than ideal. It was on the main drag, which wouldn't have been bad except that we had no AC in our room (contrary to what we were told) so we had to open the windows. However, the noise was so bad it made sleeping pretty near impossible. At 9:30 we packed up and went on a quest for a new hotel. Surprise surprise the entire town was booked solid. We drove all over the place checking hotels (because, trust me, you usually want to cast an eye on the place before you book). Finally, we gave up and headed to the next town, Frýdek-Místek to look. First place we found was lovely, quiet and had windows we could open! What a joy.

After settling in, we drove back to Ostrava to the music festival. What an amazing place...it's an old industrial complex that has enormous rusty old structures and is just beautiful in its decay. Lots of photo ops. Tonight we saw Rufus Wainwright who played a great show...what a beautiful voice he has. After that we went over to the Kronos performance but we were still reeling with the tremendous R.W. show, the efforts of the day and perhaps a little woozy from all the herb that was being smoked around us that we decided to call it a night.

After getting back to the hotel, I was checking my emails and was sadly surprised to see an email from one of the hotels I had emailed this morning about a room. It was the one hotel that we tried to locate but gave up on when couldn't find it driving around Ostrava. The email said, "Yes, we have a free room for you." Sigh. Oh well, it's just the way things go sometimes when you travel.

Here is a view from our current hotel: