29
Dec
2009
Dublin to Derry
Ah, finally a few minutes with an actual computer instead of just scratching off a few notes on my iPhone! That and a power point (outlet) by my bed so that I can charge tonight is pure heaven!
Wow, my standards for a fun time are declining!
This is my third day in Ireland (more or less – the past two have been in Northern Ireland). I flew out of Columbus, Georgia, for the first time in years. It was slightly more expensive than Atlanta but more than balanced by not having to leave my car there for a month. I left with tons of time and actually made an earlier flight out of Columbus to Atlanta. Didn’t get me to Ireland any faster, but I like having longer layovers so I don’ t have to ponder whether or not I or my bag will miss the flight.
I kept falling asleep in the airport while trying to read a Steinbeck book my uncle recommended some months ago. No offense to the book, I was just up late. It’s actually been an engaging read, just need some alone time to return to it. I figured I would be knocked out for the flight. Oh no, all the way until the plane lifted off, I was dozing off, but the moment we were in the air, wide awake!
I managed maybe three hours sleep on the way over, about average for me. Ah well. I arrived into Dublin a half hour ahead of time and immigration was a breeze. Having reclaimed my bag, I began hunting for the pick up spot for the hostel I was staying in (run by the same company who is doing the tour). I thought I had found it, but I either missed the bus or I was at the wrong spot. I finally gave up and found a regular city bus. Farewell $12 but as tired as I was, priceless.
Found the hostel well enough. On the fence whether or not I’ll return to it when getting back to Dublin. My room was fine, but it’s divided into a couple of buildings and some of them in the next building reported cold showers – my mortal enemy. Anyway, all was well with my room. I am getting ahead of myself though, when I got in, it was too early to check in, but I could store my bags and made a run for what I could see. It was a clear but beautiful day. I wandered down O’Connell street a ways and checked out some of the shopping malls along the way. Oh, and of course, I had breakfast at the most predictable place on earth. It has golden arches and it was right in front of me. I apologize!
I then wandered down and found the River Liffey and then Trinity College. I literally happened upon a walking tour that was about to start. I’m not sure of the exact connection with Trinity, but I know the tour guide was a Trinity grad. It was a historical tour and covered a good chunk of the south side of Dublin and the gamut of Irish History.
By the end of the tour, I had some small grasp of the geography of the city center. I wandered back to the hostel and checked in and put my bags away properly. I went back out and saw a little more of the city. There’s a Forbidden Planet (comic shop chain – I’ve been to one in London and Edinburgh). Tons of awesome toys and such and I got nothing! I was looking for a couple of CDs I’d planned on buying here. I found them finally at an HMV on Grafton Street and they cost so much in Euros that it’s cheaper for me to buy them import through Amazon, go figure!
By this point, I was drawing my last bit of energy. I was just exhausted from the lack of sleep on the plane and the time change. And did you notice what was missing from this picture, lunch and dinner. That golden arches meal was the only one of the day. I think I was running on adrenaline. But Dublin was a very cool city and I look forward to seeing more of it when I’m back.
The next morning began the tour. This is by far and away the largest tour I’ve ever been on. I think the largest Haggis tour I was on may have had 18 people. This sucker has 58! Wow, I would have probably taken it anyway, but had I known the size, I would have had a second thought or two, no doubt. There’s no way for a group this size to really get to know each other. There are a few more Americans, but I’ve yet to figure out which ones they were! I just know I wasn’t the only one to raise my hand when we were going through ye olde where is everyone from drill at the beginning. Probably 80 or 90 percent of the group are Aussie, followed by Kiwi and an assortment of others.
We made a couple of stops on the way out, including a large park where Pope John Paul II preached soon after he became Pope. There’s a massive cross there. It was quite picturesque on the frosty hill in subdued light. I hope for good results from those photos.
We moved on from there to the Guinness museum deal. I think the most fascinating part of it to me was the advertising floor. Watching the ads across the decades and checking out the different memorabilia was incredible. I felt brainwashed when I left the room. ”Guinness is good for you!”
After that, we left Dublin in the rear view mirror and headed for Drogheda. It was a cool little village. Our main stop there was a cathedral that holds the head of Saint Oliver Plunkett. For someone who was martyred in 1681 by being hung, drawn and quartered, and then decapitated, he was in reasonable condition… brrr… Afterwards lunch… in a little cafe I found. I wanted a wrap… it was chicken, mayo, and corn?!?! Interesting! It wasn’t half bad. I think I was just happy to finish with my little strawberry desert.
We finished up the evening in Belfast. We took the famous black Taxi tours… It was really depressing. They have “peace” walls that separate the Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods. From everything we heard from different people, it’s not just religion, it’s also politics – loyalists to the UK versus people who want to be part of free Ireland. It’s so complicated. I’m sure books have been written on the subject many times over, but it was so depressing. There are more peace walls since the troubles more or less ended several years ago. They are just becoming more and more divided by the sounds of it. I didn’t get a happy vibe from Belfast even walking down the streets there. It was a dour place.
This morning we drove up to Derry, another town in Northern Ireland. The countryside until we hit the coast was covered in snow and ice! It was very beautiful… more on my later feelings shortly… We took a stop to see the view of Scotland! The next stop was supposed to be this little rope bridge deal that goes to an island. Used to be for fisherman but has become a tourist stop. I was already iffy on walking out on the thing, the snow and ice sold me on not. Little did I know, the road down to it and the bridge are closed! Perfect!
So, next stop the Giant’s Causeway! Beautiful spot. A geological formation that has a pretty wild story about an Irish giant building a bridge to Scotland because he wanted to fight a battle with a giant there. The Scots giant turned out to be massive, but the Irish giant’s wife dressed her hubby as a baby and told the Scots Giant this was their kid. He was freaked and tore the bridge up escaping! At any rate, a beautiful sight! Windy as all get out and was happy to get a sandwich after before reboarding the bus.
Next stop, Derry! Derry is somewhat like Belfast, very divided, lots of fighting. Here the river mostly divides the Protestant loyalists from the Catholic Republicans. There’s a little hold out of Protestants on this side of the river where we’re staying. We walked by their part of town on the walking tour this afternoon, it’s quite a fortified little compound. So sad…
The walking tour… the ice.. oh my… There’s ice everywhere, the tops of the medieval walls, whole sidewalks… I have never slipped and slid so much in my life. At first it was fun, by the end, I think I may have had enough ice for the moment. I’d love to see some actual snow falling before this trip is over, but I’d rather not deal with the rest of it. My wishes are not looking good!
Tomorrow we head for Galway. I know we see some of the coast on the way. Galway is a place I’m interested in seeing more of, so we’ll see tomorrow whether I want to use my extra time here to go back. I like Derry (despite the troubles, it feels.. I don’t know, human), but I don’t see myself back in Northern Ireland soon.
13
Sep
2009
Savannah and the Coast
This probably won’t be an especially long post since on phone. The hotel has two pcs in the lobby and I’ve yet to see them free even on a fairly empty Sunday night.
This is my third night here and I consider it little more than a taste but I understand why people have so often spoken kindly of Savannah when they heard I was from Georgia. The irony always was I’d only seen Georgia’s coast once and Savannah only from I-95 at night.
My trip has shown me I must come back! The funny thing is it’s not the city I’ve enjoyed so much as the coast. There’s something in the sea air that has always agreed with me. I think my brain protects itself when I get away from the ocean and blots it out, but it’s the same reason I have always enjoyed storms that blow inland from the sea. There’s something markedly different about the air.
I’ve been out to Tybee Island every day I’ve been here and out to Skidaway Island as well and saw Moon River of Johnny Mercer fame. I took some panoramas of Moon River – fingers crossed that they turn out as planned!
Got here late afternoon on Friday and after dinner took my first turn out on Tybee after a wander through downtown in my car. I saw the sun set behind me as I made my way out and dusk on the tidal marshes, my first moment of really getting the beauty of this place. I ended the night with a few night shots of Tybee Lighthouse.
The next morning I tried my best to make it to Tybee fir sunrise but missed by a bit, but I managed to get to a few spots in the marshes as people started to head out in their boats. Then on to Tybee and got a few early photos if the lighthouse and wandered on the beach until the opened the light.
I climbed the 170ish steps to the top. Think I may have been the first of the morning, but at least there was no one up there to see me spazzing at the height! I have never like bridges and apparently the little metal walk projecting out at the top is close enough! I clung to the wall and inched around for the view! At this point I was glad they had a sign up allowing no big bags as pulling out my point and shoot was more than enough for me. By the time others showed up I had chilled out a little but I still didn’t want too many people on it and headed down Toured the rest of the restored buildings and headed back to Savannah to finally see the city!
And I didn’t see a lot! If you’re planning to do a trolley tour my suggestion is to start first thing! I only got off at two stops of the dozen or so offerred and before I knew it, it was time to get on the last trolley back to the visitor center. I considered riding back in and wandering now that I had my bearings a little but decided instead for the ride to Skidaway Island.
There’s not a lot to say about the island from what I saw of it. It’s entirely possible that there’s something great out there, but all I found to take photos if was the view from a fishing pier at Moon River, but it was a great way to end the day.
Sunday was an incredibly lazy day. I had planned to check in and see if I could get on a ghost tour and walk around the city. The alarm went off and I decided not an early morning day which was probably just as well because it was a very overcast day – sunrise was probably disapointing. I finally got out and had lunch.
Over lunch I decided I’d go see Bonaventure cemetery and then back downtown to wander the historic district. Found Bonaventure fairly easily. At first I was disappointed. It was pretty but nothing super special. For those who don’t know Bonaventure is where the cover for Midnigt in The Garden of Good and Evil was photographed. I had wandered fir a good while before looping around to the much older part of the cemetery and it is quite beautiful in the way a lot of basically Victorian cemeteries are, massive monuments to death and egos but hauntingly lovely especially cloaked I. The canopies of live oaks. I wish I had found that area first, but maybe it’s good I was walked out! I started back fir the parking lot and sudenly realized it was a few minutes after 5pm! Not only was my car on the other side of a six foot fence, the gate was locked! Before I could panic and call the “emergency” number on the gate, I saw someone drive up to a gate about 25 feet away and made a mad dash to get there before she locked it! LOL. The fun thing was as I sat in the car, I could see people still driving around inside… I guess they have to let a lot of people out (there was a caretaker’s house).
At this point, it seemed too late to go downtown again so I decided that will wait for another visit. Instead, yes, I drove out to Tybee once more. I spent over two hours wandering the beach with my camera and soaking in the sea air and ocassionally wishing I had a beach towel with me but walking with the camera and just breathing the air was incredibly relaxing anyway!
Thus ends my first journey to the coast, not my last I trust! Tomorrow, bound for the airport for the next leg of this trip! Stay tuned!
18
Aug
2009
Karnak Temple Prints
Columns of Karnak
Karnak Temple was the last of the ancient temple ruins we visited on our tour of Egypt. It was definitely the largest complex we visited, although I’d be torn to pick a best. We were told that the Nile had flooded these temples and knocked down most of the columns and walls. What we see today is the result of close to a 100 years of restoration (and correct me if I’m wrong, principally French assisted). But righting these columns and walls has also given a lot of insight into what the construction process on these ancient temples was like. This column, for instance is one of 134 eighty foot columns that once supported the roof of the Great Hypostyle Hall in the precinct of Amun-Re. If you look closely, you can see it’s not all one piece, but made up of many disks. It’s believed that the ancients laid a row of these disks, built up the earth around it, added another and repeated this process until the reached the top. After which, they cleared the earthen mound that had formed to reveal the completed columns. Of course, knowing the “secret” to the construction doesn’t diminish the grandeur of this old temple!
Obelisk of Hatshepsut
This photo was taken from within a small temple looking out the doorway at a lovely obelisk and the reconstructed rubble around it. There’s something about the dark shadows and the stark divisions between that and the golden light that really called to me. The Obelisk itself is historic, in honor of an ancient female pharaoh of Egypt. Hatshepsut represented something of a golden moment in the history but was also perhaps embarrassing to later male pharaohs. There’s evidence of an attempt to literally erase her from the physical record but it wasn’t a thorough attempt and there were objects that survived to tell us her story today.
Lost Guardians
These rams were the apparent victims of changing fashions. It’s believed the once lined an avenue, possibly between Karnak and Thebes. They were found buried away within the ruins of Karnak, socked away and disused. Goes to show that people have always been fashion conscious. As much work as apparently went into these statues, their time too came. This is why they are in such good shape today! It didn’t hurt that they and the wall behind them were being bathed in such pretty morning light when we saw them!
Hollow
One final detail shot from Karnak, this wonderful bit of statuary an an ancient Pharaoh. I’m fairly certain we were told this was likely Ramses II. I also know that we were told that many of the statues of the Pharaohs were re-used. In a generation or two, the cartouche of the previous pharaoh would be wiped away and replaced with a new one. Sometimes archaeologists are able to discover who it was originally carved for through examination. Other times the best we can tell is the last pharaoh to be honored with a given statue. This one has obviously been damaged. Even so, enough details survive to impress us with the work of the ancient Egyptian sculptor.
For more prints from Egypt, please check out my Egypt Gallery.
24
Jul
2009
Scottish Highlands Prints
Although it was my second trip to Scotland before I saw any of the Highlands, it was an absolute highlight of my second journey there. The Scottish Highlands are full of history and rugged beauty. Home of some of the largest national wilderness areas in Europe, the Highlands are sparsely populated since the Clearances of the 18th and 19th century where the bulk of the population was forcibly moved, either to the coast or the Lowlands, or the United States. The Highland clearances played a large part in the modern Scottish diaspora. There are roughly 5 million people of Scottish descent living in Scotland, compared with an estimate in excess of 20 million in North America alone. Interestingly, 2009 has been marked as the first Scottish Homecoming, celebrating Scotland and encouraging people near and far to come take part in the festivities planned this year. The reason 2009 was selected is it’s the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, Scotland’s national poet.
Wallace Monument
One of the most well known figures in Scottish history for those outside Scotland is Sir William Wallace, portrayed by Mel Gibson in the film, Braveheart. Unfortunately, the film is very loosely based on true events, but William Wallace was a national hero who fought bravely for Scotland’s independence – a battle fought over and over in the intervening years and in some ways desired unto today. Hence, the current Scottish parliament established in 1998, giving Scotland a say over some local matters previously decided at Westminster in London. The 19th tower above is in honor of the real William Wallace and stands on Abbey Craig. It’s said that Wallace watched from this location as King Edward’s troops gathered before the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297. Stirling is the gateway to the Highlands. Although there are other crossings now, historically Stirling Bridge was the crossing point from the Lowlands to the Highlands, thus a key location for centuries.
Lost Dreams
This image is of a monument built in 1815 to the memory of the Jacobites. In 1745, Bonnie Prince Charlie landed here in Glenfinnan on the edge of Loch Shiel and raised his standard to mark the beginning of what would be the last Jacobite rebellion. Although it came tantalizing close to succeeding, less than 8 months later, the would be King would pass near here again on his flight to escape the English. To me, this dark image captures that feeling of a lost cause which must have been felt by the Scots of that day when their last home for a free country was crushed at Culloden.
Stand Tall Brothers - from Culloden Battlefield
Although this print is far more about the natural beauty of the moors at Culloden today, these trees seem to have a defiant and resolute pose. This windswept place was the site of the last battle for Scotland’s independence, where the Scottish who did not normally fight in open places like this place took their last stand against the English.
Just so this is not entirely a history lesson, and to prove the point that there is some incredible natural beauty in the highlands, I feel obligated to share a few scenes from the Highlands, that although there is history and great stories to be told, I’ll largely let the scenes speak for themselves.
West Highland Way - Glen Coe
Glen Coe is a steep valley that runs from Glencoe, a village at Loch Leven (a sea loch) to Rannoch Moor. It’s apparently also known to some as the weeping valley, at least in part due to all the streams running off those mountains into the valley below. The little trail through the middle resembles a stream but is actually the West Highland Way, a long hike through the Scottish Highlands that around 50,000 people a year walk. I’m not sure I would get very far very fast with incredible vistas like this begging for a photograph every few feet!
Ancient Shores - Loch Ness
It’s hard to imagine venturing into the Highlands without stopping by the infamous Loch Ness! There have been sightings of the “Loch Ness Monster” affectionately called “Nessie” for centuries. The first written report was from an account of an Irish monk, Saint Columba. The account was written down in 565 AD, about a century after the sighting. The modern sightings began in 1933. Alas, no sightings of the rumored prehistoric beast who lives in this ancient body of water, but our dusk encounter with Loch Ness did generate this lovely image of a deep blue sky against the bones of this tree. Certainly anyone who visits cannot forget their time on these storied shores.
There are more photos from Scotland and the Highlands in my Britain Gallery – I hope you’ll take a look!
13
Jul
2009
Mérida – Yucatan Capital Prints
Mérida is the capital city of the Mexican state of the Yucatan. The Spanish founded it in 1542 on the foundations of an older Maya City, T’ho. Because it’s foundations were laid on an older city, Mérida is said to be one of the oldest continually occupied cities in the Americas and its centro historico (Historic district) is among the largest. Mérida has architecture stretching from it’s foundations to today gracing it’s easy to follow numbered streets. Because of the hot temperatures (at least in the summer), the city tends to close down in the afternoon and re-open as the sun goes down. I never did figure out when they close back down again! Even the local car rental place I used one day while I was there closed in the afternoon and re-opened in the evening.
Mérida Cathedral
The Cathedral in Mérida may not be the largest or grandest on the earth, but it is the oldest in the mainland of the Americas. It is also far older than one might think. The Cathedral was built between 1561 and 1598, using readily available stone. The Spanish pulled down the temples the native Maya had built and used it in this cathedral. This photo was taken in the late afternoon as the city was just waking up again. The warm glow is from the sun hanging in the west.
Iglesia de Santa Ana - Mérida
The city of Mérida is a collection of neighborhoods or barrios built around neighborhood churches. This is probably among the older ones and was likely built on the platform of a Maya temple. Originally built in the 1500s, the Iglesia de Santa Ana was built to serve indigenous Maya and mulattoes. The church was reconstructed in the 1700’s and in the 1800’s, the nearby Paseo de Montejo, a wide Parisian style boulevard was built and this barrio became the address to have. The people who lived in the area were eventually pushed into other parts of the city. Today, it’s a beautiful if eclectic church (observe the pyramids on the towers).
Wired
This photo is the epitome of Mexico (in my mind anyway). Gorgeous colors and textures that just call for photos. No matter how much you upkeep things in this partof the world, nature is constantly fighting you. Anywhere else, I would fight heaven and earth to eave out the power lines, but here, they are such a huge part of the landscape it’s hard to imagine a photo without them (despite the fact that they obviously weren’t there when these buildings were new). This photo is from the streets of Mérida, a simply beautiful and friendly city.
Neon Dreams
Mérida is very much a place that’s proud of it’s city. It’s an incredibly clean place where they have managed to preserve so many of the buildings that have been built there over the centuries. I don’t know any of the history of this theater, but it looks very art deco to me and there was a sign that I believed indicated it was owned by the government, but very much still an active part of the community. On my last night in town, I managed to catch this shot of it with the marquee and neon lights accenting the architecture. An enjoyable shot both for the place and for those of us who love these old movie palaces.
More photo prints from Mérida are available in my Mexico Prints.
