Happy Thanksgiving and Such

I just wanted to wish everyone back home in the United States a good Thanksgiving holiday. I know it has been a really tough year and these continue to be uncertain times. But, hopefully today can be peaceful and differences can be set aside. The important thing is to remember that we are bound by our ties as Americans. It is when we come together that we are at our greatest- no matter our beliefs, our education, our salaries, the way we dress, or how we live. Today is an opportunity to begin healing as everyone meets over a meal with family and friends. It is an opportunity to discuss, not to argue. It is an opportunity to listen, not to chastise. It is an opportunity to begin building bridges with those across the table that can be extended across divides. This is not the day to avoid our differences and pretend everything is just fine while harboring resentment, today is the day to right this ship. So talk it out, hug each other, then go have a second piece of pie for me.

The holiday season gets its official kickoff today. If after the holiday (or during) you're feeling like you need a little retail therapy, I have many new items available in my Zazzle Shop. There are eight new tote bags with landscape photographs, a bunch of new puzzles, greeting cards, a whole new collection of Eiger products, some new waterfall items, and a whole bunch of stuff for the holidays!

Of course, I also have new wall calendars available for 2017. They were my most popular item last year and I want to say thank you to all who purchased one! We were able to send on a nice donation to Americas Fund with the proceeds.

This year there are once again two calendars available. There is the 11"x14.25" full color calendar for $28.00 featuring photographs from Austria, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, and Portugal. A portion of my proceeds from this calendar will be donated to PetsMart Charities this year. This charity is the most successful in facilitating animal adoptions and spay & neuter programs in the United States.

Scenic Europe 2017 Calendar

 The second calendar is 5.5"x7" and features black and white photographs. I will be donating 80% of my proceeds from this calendar to the International Refugee Assistance Project. Because of everything that has been going on both in Europe and the United States, I've become very concerned about this issue. Refugees need our support more than ever and the IRAP is the leading organization in fighting for refugee rights and providing services for them. This calendar is $25.00 and features photographs from Germany, France, Iceland, Norway, Belgium, Ireland, Portugal, Italy, Luxembourg, Ohio (yup!), Slovakia, and Switzerland.

2017 Monochrome Calendar

Both calendars can be customized by language and country holidays. They also, like all my other Zazzle products, ship internationally. So, if you are in need of a new calendar or a gift for the upcoming season, here you go! ALSO, today only both calendars are 40% off! Use the code BLACKFRILOVE at check out. Many other items in the Shop are also on sale with the same code.

Ok, get outside this weekend, relax, eat a little too much, and enjoy your holiday! We wish we were there!

A Backyard Park

Blue Hen Falls

Northeast Ohio is blessed to have a magnificent National Park.  Sure, it doesn't have geysers, mountains, grizzlies, and canyons, but it's unlike any other National Park in the country.  Why? Because it's accessible and lived in.  People are just as important to this park as its spaces.  Bald eagles fly over farms and people who live in the cities like Akron and Cleveland can hop onto a trail near their neighborhood and walk or ride into forests.  This is a park for people.

Virginia Kendall Overlook

I was blessed to grown up on its border in the Cuyahoga Valley.  I grew up cycling and hiking there and considered the CVNP and the MetroParks to be an extension of my backyard.  While most young people in the suburbs spend their time in the gridded world of housing developments, I had Hampton Hills, the Towpath trail, Virginia Kendall, and Brandywine.

A lot has changed since I was growing up.  Back then, there wasn't a scenic railroad, Szalay's Farm barely sold more than corn, the Towpath only ran from the old Indian Mound Trailhead to Hillside road, and Hale Farm was barely hanging on.  Peninsula wasn't particularly popular except for those doing the World Tour of Beers at the Lizard.

Today, of course, the Park is the place to be.  The railroad is so popular on the weekends that you need to book in advance, you can ride your bike from Harvard road all the way down to Route 172 without ever leaving the towpath trail, Hale Farm has been revived, Szalay's is has become a popular attraction, and little Peninsula is absolutely packed on Saturdays and Sundays.  It's something to see.

The Beaver Marsh

Of course, this phenomenon of National Park popularity isn't unique to the Cuyahoga Valley.  All the National Parks have seen a massive spike in visitation since the Great Recession.  All of a sudden people realized that the simple natural spaces of their own country were worth seeing more than (and were cheaper than) theme parks and cruise ships.  The National Parks are cool now. A little too cool when you look at the implications.  Unlike the more famous parks, the Cuyahoga Valley is unique in that most of its visitors are local.  It's a park that is a part of the local lifestyle.  It's not just a place to spend a weekend.  In many ways it doesn't feel like a National Park, it still feels like a backyard (with a whole lot more people in it).

It was another one of the special things about home that I was reminded of in September.  First thing in the morning, when only deer and those training for the Akron Marathon were out, I could drive 5 minutes down the road and in be in a magnificent landscape.  That isn't normal, folks.  Shots like this one aren't within 5 minutes of most people's homes.  But, they are for people who live in Northeast Ohio.  And, it's another reason why home shouldn't take it for granted.

The Turnpike viaduct.

More photographs from the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and the MetroParks Serving Summit County can be seen and purchased on the website in the Ohio Countryside gallery.

To the People of Akron

Downtown Akron at dawn. There's more to this place than you think.

There are a bunch of things I want to write about from our trip to Akron.  I'm definitely going to milk that trip for a few posts.  But, I wanted to use this first one not to talk about photography really, but to talk to all of you in the Akron area.  We got to see lots of friends and family while we were home, and I think we talked about the following with almost all of them.  Only a few had a clue what we were talking about. Folks are missing it and I think that's a shame. I don't want you to miss it.  So, Akron, I gotta tell you...something's different.

I don't know. Maybe it's a five year thing.  Yeah, we've been abroad for almost 5 years, so there's a good chance that this amount of time has something to do with it.  More than likely when you've been away from your country, your people, your hometown, for about 5 years you start to see all of that with rose tinted glasses.  Sure, I'll allow that.  But.

Two years ago when we came back for our visit, things didn't seem right.  People were gloomy, like more than is normal for folks in Northeast Ohio in October.  There were several times I felt downright unsafe, in places I'd never felt threatened before.  The roads were a mess, like worse than Belgium.  It was disconcerting and depressing.  We were more than ready to come back to Germany at the end of the trip.  Look, I'm not naive about Akron's crime and drug problem.  I'm from Akron, ok?  There have been a few close calls in the past, like "Am I going to get shot?" close calls .  I have a healthy respect for Akron's issues, and in no way do I want to gloss those over.  Akron isn't a shining city.  No city is, folks.  But, I think, I honestly think that Akron is improving.  We were out late and I photographed around downtown by myself at some odd hours a couple of times.  Memory, experience, and common sense told me that this could be risky and to be careful.  But, nothing happened.  Not even when it should have.  At one moment, I thought for sure I was going to have some trouble.  It was really early, still dark, no one was around, I was by myself, and set up on Main St. (it will always be Main Street to me) with quite a bit of gear.  A sketchy looking guy started approaching me.  I was prepared for this sort of thing.  There's no delusion in me that everyone is basically good, that dialogue can get you out of bad situations every time.  Sometimes you have to make tracks, quick.  Sometimes you have to throw a punch.  My gear was in my bag on my back, and I had enough time to take my camera off Brian the Tripod.  I figured Brian would do rather well as a self defense tool since he's kinda beefy when collapsed down.  I didn't run off though.  To be honest, I didn't want to lose the light.  You know what happened?  This guy walked right up to me, and (as I gripped Brian a little tighter) he rather eccentrically said, "Good morning!" He smiled, I returned the greeting, and then he continued on his way.  That nasty, unsafe feeling we had two years ago never showed up.  Ok, yes, the weather was beautiful and that definitely affects peoples' moods.  But, it wasn't just a bit more cheerfulness, it was a lot more cheerfulness.  People we didn't even know, by the way, were downright jovial and welcoming. If it weren't for the accent, at times I would have thought we were back in Ireland.

The Bike Share bikes at Northside in front of the new shiny
Marriott Hotel.

There are new businesses in downtown Akron and they're locally owned and one of a kind.  There were new restaurants and bars, and the ones we tried were all good, like really good.  Sure, a couple more old buildings had been knocked down and there are still plenty of empty storefronts.  But, there are less.  And that's something.  I swear there were more flowers.  There were definitely more bikes.  Heck, did you know that Akron has a bike share now?  The organization is a little clunky, but it's something.  Also, there's even a short section of protected lane on Main St. So, if you work downtown you can rent a bike at one of the many locations, and ride right down Main to Diamond Deli (which thankfully hasn't changed a bit) where the lane ends.

Ok, let me go back to the bar and restaurant topic.  For the past three years going out to dinner has lost its luster.   We go out rarely and usually only because we don't have time to cook.  The biggest decision we have to make is whether we want to order the schnitzel or the wurst.  Drink choices are soda, pilsner, or water.  We get really excited when we travel because there's a good chance we'll get to have something more exciting than pork and yellow beer.  The trips home to Akron are even more thrilling because we get to enjoy all our old favorites that we can't get at all in Europe.  Hello, tacos!  Hello, pizza with pepperoni, Italian sausage, peppers, and onions!  Hello, SWENSON'S, baby!  Hello, you crazy wonderful American craft beer (and unsweetened iced tea and bourbon)!  Really, home leave trips are mostly for the food.  Ok, not totally, but it's right up there with seeing the people we love.  So, as you might imagine, we plan our eating very carefully.  The goal is to hit as many places as possible, balancing new with old.  Must eats every single year are Mr. G's Pizza, Swenson's, the Diamond Deli, and Crave.

Main Street

This year we had few new places on the list- Dante Boccuzzi Akron, Nuevo Modern Mexican & Tequila Bar, and Chop & Swizzle.  DBA and Nuevo have been around for a few years, but we hadn't had chances to try them out yet on past trips.  Chop & Swizzle is brand new.  I can't tell you which one was my favorite.  They're too different to compete and the food at all three was fantastic.  DBA, in my humble meat eater opinion, is a better long term fit for the city and the Northside District than Chrissie Hynde's old place (no offense to the Akron rocker).  They certainly make a much better steak ;-) Nuevo definitely has a way with Mexican flavors and tequila, and we were talking about our meal for days afterwards.  The most unique place, however, was Chop & Swizzle.

Look at these lovely concoctions from Chop & Swizzle!

I used to work just down the road from the old firehouse on Maple and drove by it several times a week.  It's a great building and when it was bought and cleaned up like 6 or 7 years ago I had hopes that something would come to live there.  The neighborhood is a little sketchy though, and nothing ever came in, until earlier this year when the craft cocktail bar opened it's doors.  I heard about it on Facebook and immediately put it on the must list.  We have a thing for cocktails.  We've been mixing long before it was a hipster thing and after years of nothing but German beer and schnapps as alcohol options, we've amped up our mixing game.  Now, I'd much rather enjoy a crafted cocktail or neat Scotch when a little something besides water is the order of the day. We love discovering and mixing out new recipes from modern mixologists and bars like Death & Co.  and The Dead Rabbit Grocery and Grog or mixing the classics from the Prohibition Era.

Where the magic happens.

When we heard Akron had a cocktail bar that made the sort of drinks we loved, we got really excited.  I'm happy to report that it lived up to our dreams.  First off, the service is fantastic.  If you don't like something, they'll mix you something different.  They'll help you find something that may become your new favorite thing.   Oh, and the food is pretty amazing.  I didn't really expect that.  We were going to go someplace else afterwards, but we stayed there.  It was that good.  And it's not just the drinks, food or the service that won our hearts.  They are approaching Akron in a new and exciting way and it's an example of why I think the city is moving in the right direction.  The folks of Chop & Swizzle seemed to say, "Yeah, okay, the neighborhood isn't great.  But, it isn't going to get better if no one ever tries to make it better.  Let's be those people."  They weren't afraid.

There's a ton of people who don't seem to be afraid to make things better in Akron now.  They're taking risks.  They're opening cocktail bars (there's actually another- Northside Speakeasy. We didn't have a chance to make it there this time), galleries, independent movie theaters, boutiques, ice cream shops, children's museums, restaurants, and jazz clubs.  They're organizing neighborhood festivals, making music, writing books, taking photos, making art, and publishing free newspapers (shout out to The Devil Strip).  They're getting their hands dirty.  To my eyes, the eyes of someone who hasn't been around much, these people already accomplished a lot.  My theory is that this is going to snowball.  Positivity breeds positive things.

Lock Bottom Jazz is still happening at Lock 4, one of my favorite nooks of the city.

Norka is back! How cool is that! Please buy those sodas,
they're delicious.

So, my lovely Akron people.  Keep it up!  You're there every day so maybe you haven't noticed these changes.   They may not be as dramatic for you. But, you know what?  Things are better than they were.  I know that the road construction is a huge pain in the neck right now.  But, the really cool thing about it is that it means they are finally fixing the roads!  I mean, they're actually trying to improve the interchange!  They're getting rid of that hated innerbelt.  The City is finally dealing with those glaring problems.  Finally.  You get what a big deal that is?

Please do me a couple of favors while we're still gone.  First, don't listen to candidates that come to town and make Akron sound like a crime ridden cesspool.  It isn't.  Akron isn't out of the woods, I know.  But, if you only focus on its problems in a negative way, you're going to blow your chance to join in the good stuff and improve your town.  Akron has so much potential and for the first time in a long time a lot of folks are seeing it and pursuing it.  So, secondly, focus on that.  Participate.  Support all these homegrown businesses.  Please go out downtown.  Start your evenings at Chop & Swizzle, Northside Speakeasy, Thirsty Dog Brewing, or Hoppin' Frog.  Get your dinners at the one of  a kind places you can only find locally- Crave, Bricco, Nuevo Mexican, DBA, etc.  Get your sandwiches at Diamond Deli, your fast food at Swenson's.  Get your coffees at Angel Falls and Nervous Dog. Go hear stuff at Musica, Blu Jazz+, and Jilly's Music Room.  Go see a flick at the Nightlight. See a show at the Goodyear Theater and The Civic. Invest in your city.  I'm not gonna lie, I really want all this cool stuff to still be around when we get to come home.  I'm depending on you to make that happen for me.

I can tell you one thing.  Right now, for the first time ever in these almost 5 years, we are dying to get back to Akron.  Seriously.  Maybe it's just because it's been five years, or because it was sunny for two weeks, or we are really tired of schnitzel, or everyone is still riding that National Championship high.  But, I'm pretty darn certain this change is deeper than that. We're two people itching to join in.  Two more years feels like a long time, but I cannot wait to see what this new movement is going to pull off in that time.  What we saw, what we experienced, what is to come has us believing that Akron can become the city we always hoped it could.  I read somewhere recently that Akron is more than a few great bands and a basketball player.  Whoever said that is right.  A place is its people, and Akron has some seriously good people in it.  Keep moving forward.  It's a long road, but come on.  You're Akron.  You can do this.  We can't wait to join you.

To print and download most of these photos and others I shot in Akron check out the Ohio Cities gallery on the website!

Project: #GlimpsesofHome

Tomorrow morning my husband and I are boarding a flight to the USA and will be back home in Northeast Ohio for about two weeks.  We usually do this once a year to see family, visit the dentist, see our GP, touch base with our banker, and catch up with friends.  It's a hectic time, no matter how we try to make it as un-hectic as possible.  As the years pass, and this December will mark 5 years in Europe, our home leave trip grows in importance.  Even though we often travel to a new and exciting location once a month, that visit to humble Northeast Ohio is our favorite journey of the year.  For us, the day before the trip has the excitement of Christmas Eve.  Touching down at CLE airport, getting in the rental car, and swinging onto Rt. 480 E is like descending the stairs on Christmas Day.  We can barely contain our excitement.

For those that have never lived abroad for a long period of time, this probably doesn't make much sense.  Isn't living in Europe a dream come true? How can your grungy hometown with its abandoned factories, strip malls, high crime rates, and blighted neighborhoods compare?  Sure, on paper Akron falls short when stacked next to the picturesque village on the Main where we've been living for almost three years.  But, you know what?  It's Home.  Home, no matter where that is, will always have an edge over the most beautiful places on earth.

Usually during these trips I take a lot of pictures.  I generally don't do much with them except to document another magical home leave trip.  Last year, I did manage to get out a couple of days for some more traditional shooting which you can see here and here.

This year, I've decided to do a photo project during the trip.  It's part personal project, part documentary.  Every day, like always, I'll be taking photographs, but this year I'll be sharing many more with you!  As long as WiFi permits, I'll post two photographs to Instagram a day- one of my usual images that are posted daily, and one under the tag #GlimpsesofHome. Images under that tag will be of something or somewhere that is unique about Akron (or a location nearby) and it will probably have a little story with it too.  The goal of the project is to highlight what makes Akron and its environs so special to us, and why that area is worth visiting just as much as the other locations I've photographed in Europe.  Obviously, the biggest draw personally is the relationships we have there.  But, there are countless things about Northeast Ohio that make it special and worthy.  I'd like to show you some of them.  They won't all be scenic, so I ask you to bear with the variety of images I'll be posting.  Home is where our culture comes from.  It's people, food, music, common ground, language, art, and environment.  Our home is a typical small American city.  It's had its struggles, heck, it still has struggles.  But, it also has a lot of magic.  Slowly but surely, that magic is growing and things are changing.  We see it every year.  The place has soul.  Through this project, I'd like you to get a glimpse of that.

So, tune into Instagram to follow my #GlimpsesofHome project for the next two weeks!  Too often we focus on where we've been or where we're headed to next.  Sometimes it's best to turn our attention to where we're from.

Halftime

I love August.  Well, I mean I love August in Germany.  I don't remember it being particularly pleasant in Ohio due to insane heat, the usual drought, and the sense of melancholy that comes with the approach of Labor Day and the end of summer all together.  However, here, even if you have to go to work, it feels like a month of vacation.  Germans, by law, have to have 30 days vacation.  Some can even manage to eke out a little more depending on other variables.  Some choose to spread those 30 days out through the year.  Others take a big lump all at once, usually in the summer, and head off to the Alps or the beach for a couple of weeks.  Oh, and they have to take these days according to the law.  The worker certainly has a pretty sweet deal here, in my opinion.  This, of course, doesn't apply to people like us who are expats with contracts from a non-German company.  Personally, I think companies should give their expats the same vacation days as their native co-workers during their assignment because being the only person working most of the year is pretty taxing.

On the plus side, during the month of August a lot of people are out of town on vacation so being at home actually feels like a holiday too.  The shops are less crowded, no one is is around to dig up the roads (or, unfortunately, fill in the holes they made in July), and the people who are around are just a bit more chilled out.  It's really nice.  The weather is pretty great too.  While we've been here the heat always hits in July and then tapers off come August.  This year it's been downright chilly, almost Autumn-like.  So, here I am sitting on our balcony with a view of the river as I punch out this update.  The only sounds are church bells and birds.  It's a pretty sweet deal for us too.

We've always treated the month of August as a holiday too, just in a different way.  We don't go out of town at all.  With everyone coming and going from the office, this month is a perfect chance for my husband to get a lot done at work.  It's also a chance to get some things sorted out and planned for the rest of the year.  We use the weekends to get things done around the house that we've been putting off, doing some cycling, and exploring the local area a bit more.  I too have been taking August off from a lot of photography, preventing a burn out that would no doubt hit if I ran around at breakneck pace all year.  I might do a little on the weekends or within a quick bike ride of the house, but for the most part I just focus on catching up on some reading, doing a little digging through whatever backlog I have, updating the Zazzle shop, or organizing my files.  It's nice to put down the camera for a bit and see the world with my eyes for awhile.  Keeps me sane.

I decided to kick off this break a little early this year with our trip to Lake Como last month.  Well, circumstances decided a little bit for me, but I'll get to that in a bit.  My husband and I decided to stay at our favorite hotel to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary in July.  We stayed there in 2013 on the way back from a trip to the Riviera.  We were only there for two nights on that trip, but we fell head over heels in love with the place and promised ourselves and the proprietors that we would return.

View from hotel at dinner.  We decided to climb it later that week. 

So, for this trip we decided to spend 8 days there.  Our plan was to do a little photography, a lot of hiking, and even more relaxing.  For once, this was going to be a proper vacation.  Strolls, naps, and afternoon ice cream cones were going to be regular occurrences.  We never take trips like this (the last one was in 2013 to the Riviera, actually), and we definitely needed one.  It's been a long year.

I did want to get out a couple of times for some early morning shooting because, obviously, we were in a prime landscape location.  However, we discovered upon our first attempt that the hotel locks the doors until 6:00am, thus trapping us well after the July sunrise.  At first I was really upset and contemplated asking if we could make special arrangements.  But, I realized that it was actually a good thing.  We both wanted to make this trip more about spending time together and relaxing than getting up at 4:00am and rushing to a location every morning.  I was going to be ok.  It turned out to be exactly what we needed.  We both felt 10x better after the trip, relaxed and ready to face the rest of the year.  I imagine the dinners at the hotel restaurant every night had something to do with that.  The owner totally spoiled us with perfect homemade pastas and local specialities every night.  It was pure heaven, even on the days it rained.

View from the top of the mountain.  Blessed with a clear day
after quite the climb up there.

I really think breaks are important.  Athletes have off seasons, kids get summer vacations, why shouldn't creatives step back for a bit once a year too?  Sometimes I get so wrapped up in photography, I can't even contemplate something else.  Laundry can pile up, I don't get enough sleep, and the cats come in my office periodically to make sure I'm not dead (ok, they may just be there to remind me it's their dinner time).  I admit, I get obsessive.  So, stepping back for a short time is definitely something I need to do.  While we were in Italy, not being able to worry about getting the next shot or chasing the light everyday forced me to focus on the trip and have a really great time.   We did do a lot of hiking and walking, plus we climbed a 8,560ft mountain on a whim.  We weren't exactly sitting with an ice cream all day every day.  But, not having the next shot goal permeating all my thoughts made it possible to have a really relaxing time.  It wasn't work, it was vacation.  You know what?  I was totally ok.  It was ok not to get shots every day, or only have a couple of the two of us (and The Dog) on the card for a change.  It was like coming up for air.

So, I do have a couple mini projects for the rest of the month, but we don't have another photo trip scheduled until October.  In the meantime, check back at my Zazzle shop regularly because I am using this time to add some new products.  If you're already in the market for a 2017 calendar, they are now available!  Next month, is the hallowed home leave trip back to Akron, so you can expect some more cat photos and misc hometown whatnot in my feed pretty soon.  But for now, I'm going to sit back and enjoy this lovely view we've been blessed with, read a little more of Susan Sontag's On Photography, and maybe think about working in the garden.  Maybe.

Oh, I almost forgot!  The name of our favorite hotel is Hotel Europa.  Remember, it's the one in Sorico at the northern tip of Lake Como.  If you are passing that way, there isn't a better place to stay.  At least make sure that you stop for dinner!

5 Do's & 5 Don'ts for Traveling in Ireland

Ok, I'm really sorry this has taken me so long to get up on the blog.  I'm not exactly sure where this summer is going, but it is going fast and I could almost swear there are less hours in a day than there used to be.  Anyway, finally, and without further ado, here are my tips for traveling in Ireland!

1.  DO: Rent a Car
For those of us who have spent our entire lives driving on the right side of the road, getting behind the wheel of a right hand drive car and beginning a journey of opposites can be a little daunting.  Ok, it's really daunting.  However, the best way to see the country of Ireland is with a car.  There are plenty of tour buses to take, but you're going to be at their mercy.  Trust me, this is a country you will want to explore on back roads.

It's a little nerve wracking at times, and those backroads are narrow and have about 0% visibility, but you will not regret renting the car.  Other options? Besides tour buses, you're mostly left with taxis in the countryside and they aren't always available. There are some local transport buses, but they may not go where you want depending on where that is.  Bicycles?  We saw plenty of people going that route, but honestly you couldn't pay me to do that.  Like I said, the roads are really narrow and you'll be lucky if you can see what's coming ahead.  Locals know the roads well and drive pretty quickly, tourists don't and drive pretty erratically.  Your odds of being run off into a hedge or run over seem to be a bit high during the summer in the Irish countryside.  But, it's totally up to you!

One of the AirBnBs we booked. Absolutely lovely.

2.  DONT: Book Hotels
Ok, you can.  As far as I know there isn't anything wrong with Irish hotels.  But, if you want a more personal experience book B&B's or, even better, AirBnB's.  I know I've talked about AirBnB before, but I'd like to reiterate how fantastic that system is.  For the price of a hotel room, and usually less, you can get an entire apartment or house.  We love them.  On most of our trips we need a break from restaurant food, so it's nice having a kitchen at our disposal.  As tasty as pub food is, a little bit goes a long way.  You too may welcome the chance to whip up your own dinner a few times during the trip.  The best part of AirBnB, however, is that usually you get to meet and chat with the owner.  This is invaluable.  These folks have already opened their property to you, so more than likely they want to pass on of lots of insider information.  The Irish, of course, are known for their hospitality and gift for gab, so more than likely you'll have plenty of recommendations to keep you busy during your trip and local stories to file away into your notebook.  If you're lucky you may even get invited to family events! You never know!

3.  DO: Order Some Seafood
When most people think of Irish food, images of soda bread, shepherd's pie, and boxtys might come to mind.  But, you know, Ireland is an island and you're never too far from the coast.  That means fantastic fresh seafood is always available somewhere.  If you happen to come across a fisherman's pub near the coast, do pop in for some fish and chips.  More than likely, that fish came in off the boat that morning.

4.  DON'T: Stay Too Long in Dublin
Dublin is a great city.  Definitely.  But, sacrifice time in the capital for more time in the countryside.  The countryside of Ireland is jaw dropping.  This is no exaggeration.  It truly is jaw dropping, especially on the western coast.  County Kerry is probably one of the more popular tourist regions in the country, but if you stay outside the main tourist towns like Killarney, you'll leave the buses and crowds behind in no time.  Explore the back roads, get a little lost.  You'll never know when an amazing view, castle ruin, or herd of livestock on the road will be around the corner.

5.  DO: Go to the Pubs
Finding a good pub is getting trickier and trickier these days as tourism continues to rise, but they're out there.  There are two kinds of pubs, the ones with food menus and the one's without.  If you're where there are a lot of tourists, the ones without food are your best bet for catching the local scene.  Go up to the bar, order a pint, and before you know it you'll either be talking to the barman about the history of the town or the guy next to you about anything from his cousin who lives in Indianapolis to, well, anything.  The Irish love to chat, and they are a pleasure to chat with.  Trust me, a week or more in Ireland does wonders for the soul that usually resides stoic Germany.

Another pub tip:  Look for ones that have a lot of hardware store goods in the windows.  Back in the day, the pub was a place to buy your animal feed, motor oil, and grab a pint with your mates (sometimes leading one to forget the feed and oil).  They don't work that way anymore, but the ones that still honor that heritage generally are pubs that have been there a good long while and they have the better local scene.  It's kinda like being in a episode of Cheers or something.  If you're lucky, someone will start playing a little music in the corner, and they'll be joined by someone else, and before you know it you are immersed in an experience about as Irish as it can get.

6.  DON'T: Count on the Weather
Irish weather is pretty notorious for its fickleness.  If you're a landscape photographer it can be pretty frustrating if you're counting on clear days.  You shouldn't count on getting a lot of them.  But, bring along a good weather sealed camera, pack a set of waterproof clothes, and roll with it.  Misty scenes are pretty evocative of Ireland.  You may be surprised with what you get, if you're willing to work with the weather.

If you're not worried so much about photographs, then throw on that rain coat and accept the weather!  It is a part of the Irish experience!

7.  DO: Order A Pint of Guinness.  Then, Order Something Else.
Not having a Guinness in Ireland is like going to France and not having wine, or Germany and not having a pilsner.  Guinness is about as symbolic of Ireland as the harp and the shamrock.  Of course, there is a proper way to have a Guinness, and it's all about patience.  Order it at the bar, but then head to your seat.  Pouring a Guinness takes a bit of time.  When it is delivered, let it rest for a bit until it's all settled out.  Then enjoy!

But, there are plenty of other Irish beers to try, and you should.  The selection changes depending on where you are, but you're usually guaranteed to have another stout to choose from, red ales, brown ales, and maybe even an IPA.  Like the most of the world, the Craft Beer movement is going strong in Ireland!

8.  DON'T:  Visit the Guinness Storehouse
Ok, this may ruffle some feathers.  But, the Guinness Storehouse is, um, kinda awful.  It could be us, or the day, but going down that rabbit hole is my only regret from the trip.  It's a Guinness themed funhouse, packed to the gills with people who haven't a clue why they are there except the guidebook told them it is a must-see.  You know what?  It isn't.  It's just a big honking tourist trap.  It's crowded, gaudy, loud, crazy sticky, and overpriced.  I've never been a theme park person, but I imagine this is exactly what they are like, except the theme is Guinness instead of a cartoon mouse. You want a pint of Guinness?  Then go to a pub around the corner and order one.  You want novelty Guinness souvenirs?  You can pick that stuff up in any shop, or even the airport!  You want to learn about the brewing process, then take another brewery tour anywhere else.

9.  DO:  Visit a Whiskey Distillery
Irish whiskey is just as culturally significant as Guinness, but chances are you haven't been on a distillery tour before.  I recommend skipping Jameson.  It's a flashy place, but you need to book ahead and it's pretty crowded.  Also, their bar was a bit harried.  I recommend driving out to Tullamore D.E.W.  It's a new facility, but a far more relaxed and intimate tour than you'll get anywhere else.  Our guide knew the distillation process backwards and forwards, happily answered questions, and was a real pleasure to spend an hour with.  No booking ahead required, and you get a tasting at the end of the tour.  It's definitely worth the drive!

10.  DON'T: Get Hoodwinked by the Tourist Boards
Ireland is a bit odd in how they handle tourist sights.  Some things are free and open 24/7, other things, like the Cliffs of Moher, have set hours and high fees.  Do a little research before your trip so you don't end up shelling out money you shouldn't have to.  If you're into prehistoric ruins and castle ruins, there are plenty all over the landscape that you don't need a ticket for.  Most of the time, the free things are crowd free and in more beautiful locations.  One of the weirdest things to us was having to pay money to look at cliffs.  When it comes to the Cliffs of Moher, make sure you go on a clear day with low winds and then walk in along the trail route.  Don't fall for having to pay to park at the visitor center.  We made that mistake and only learned after the fact that the park doesn't actually close at 7:00pm.  Our car would be locked in at the lot, but if we had walked in we could stay as long as we liked to get good light for a photograph.  Also, on a good weather day, you can climb over the slate roof shingle barrier if you're careful.  Still stay well back from the edge (and for crying out loud don't sit on it!) because it is eroding.  But, there is plenty of clearly defined stable ground and it's worth standing on so you can actually see the cliffs.  I'm very short and really wouldn't have been able see much of anything without climbing over.  Sometimes you have to take a risk to see the view, especially if you just payed a bunch of money!

Do risk an hindered peek at the Cliffs of Moher, just don't be an idiot and sit on
the edge like those people!

Better yet, though, skip the Cliffs of Moher and visit any number of other cliff locations on the west coast instead.  They're just as spectacular and much cheaper!

There ya go! Ireland is definitely one of our favorite locations (I know I've been saying that a lot this year).  The Irish are a fantastic people and the countryside is absolutely stunning.  You won't regret making it your next travel destination!

Seeing the Spirals: The Power of a Photograph

The photos from our ten day visit to Ireland are currently being uploaded to my website.  I'll be writing about this trip in more detail next week.  I'll be talking about the locations more specifically and also will give some travel recommendations for those who have Ireland on their bucket list.  This week, however, I want to touch on a more personal aspect of this particular trip.

Ballycarbery Castle

Ireland has fascinated me since I was a child.  Unlike most children, it wasn't Ancient Egypt that piqued my interest in archaeology, it was the more obscure culture of the Celts.  The Celtic peoples of mainland Europe and the islands of Britain and Ireland are rarely touched on in American schools, if at all.  The main reason for this is that they weren't conquerors in the traditional sense nor were they literate.  All they left behind were ritual sites and material culture.  I'm not really certain how I discovered them in my youth.  But, I have a distinct memory of coming across references in several modern retellings of the Arthur legend.  It didn't take long to discover that the culture mentioned in these stories was real, and I turned away from fiction to legitimate research to learn as much as I could about these people who seemed relegated to the mists of history.  My investigations, conducted through library books, began with the Urnfield peoples, then jumped over to the salt mining community of Hallstatt, then the shores of a lake in Switzerland, then it quickly spread all across Europe including pre-Roman France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Northern Italy, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary along with bits of ancient Romania, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, and even Turkey.  I learned that when the Apostle Paul wrote his letter to the Galatians, he was writing to Celts.  Of course, as my research progressed I encountered the Romans, who quickly chased out or absorbed the continental Celtic peoples.  I followed the roads of Rome in my readings meeting the Celts in Britain, and hints of their existence in the never Romanized lands of Scotland and Ireland.  When Rome finally fell, eventually becoming a deadened husk propped up in Constantinople (Istanbul), most of the Celtic speaking peoples of Europe were no more, now considered just plain Romans who overrun and absorbed by the Germanic peoples of the east.  Their story ended on the continent, but it was far from over on the hinter lands, the areas known today as the Celtic Fringe- Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Cornwall, and the pointed tip of France, Brittany.  Following the trail of the Celts led to a lifelong fascination with the Celtic Fringe nations, especially that completely Celtic island of Ireland.  I poured over photographs of its Neolithic and Celtic sites.  The iconic imagery of standing stones, mounds, ring forts, and tombs pulled me in.  They told a story, one which fascinated me to no end.  Here, in Ireland, the Celts were still very much above the surface.  They never left, they just progressed, and the ruins of their ancestors were the most visually compelling I had ever seen.  They weren't the cold, orderly structures of the Greeks and Romans, the overwhelming and bombastic remains of Egypt.  They were rings and structures of raw stones.  They were fit together like pieces of a puzzle, not straightened and squared.  What was scrawled on their surfaces were evocative spirals and shapes. These people were different.  They loved their landscape and what they left behind melded with the landscape.  The ruins of Ireland were sites that captured the imagination.  The pictures I found in books compelled me to learn more and that led me to archaeology.

Newgrange UNESCO World Heritage Site

Unlike the Egyptians, Assyrians, Greeks, and Romans, the popular choices for archaeological study, the Celts prior to Roman rule are entirely reliant on the archaeology to tell us who they were.  They never wrote anything down.  There are no great pre-Roman Celtic texts.  Even after they encountered the literate Romans, very little is mentioned about them. Except for a few writings of Caesar and others like Tacitus, historians can't really flesh out their tale.  The Romans, as conquerors, were certainly rather one sided in their documentation. So, in discovering the Celts, I discovered archaeology.  Initially, as I entered university I wanted to pursue an archaeological career that focused on Celtic studies.  Other things eventually took my interest, and even though I did go on to earn my degree in archaeology, it was in the studies of a more accessible time and place- the 19th and early 20th centuries in Ohio.  Eventually, my road went in a completely different direction.  Or did it?

For there I was, right back where I began.  Instead of looking at a photograph of a neolithic site in Ireland, however, there I was crafting my own.

It was just after 5:00am.  It was a little windy and quite chilly.  The sky was just getting that look, the one it gets on mornings when there are passing showers- purple, blue, and pink.  Before me, on a bizarre plain of exposed limestone was a prehistoric monument.  There wasn't a soul around except for a few cows.  And, then it hit me.  If my 13 year old self could see me now, she would go crazy.  She would have gone crazy multiple times over the last week.  We had spent several hours at places like this one- Cahergall Ring Fort, an obscure wedge tomb tomb high above the landscape of the Dingle Peninsula, and multiple castle and church ruins from the Middle Ages.  This spot, the Poulnabrone Dolmen, was the last location, and for me the most stirring.

The Poulnabrone Dolmen wasn't built by the Celts, but they probably used it.  It was, in fact, built by a different people, the original inhabitants of Ireland, sometime around 3600BC.  They were the same people of Ireland who built the massive sites of Newgrange and the other complexes at Brú na Bóinne.  It served as a tomb.  Excavations revealed the remains of about 30 people underneath.  Except for the collapse of one of the support stones in 1985 (which was replaced) the dolmen's simple structure of four standing stones supporting a large capstone has stood the test of time for over 5,600 years, longer than Stonehenge and the Pyramids of Giza.  It stands in a dramatic landscape of grooved and channeled exposed limestone of The Burren in County Clare.  It's an incredible place.

There I was, standing before one of the most visually arresting neolithic sites of Ireland.  It was dawn, and we had the place to ourselves. We were able to stay there for over an hour as the light grew and changed and the sun rose over the stones.  The place was ours.  It was an incredible morning.

Photographs are powerful things, and perhaps I didn't realize their true power until that morning.  It was photographs of places like the Poulnabrone Dolmen that created a love in me of prehistoric places and spaces, and the narratives of peoples otherwise gone from the landscape.  The photographs led to a interest and eventual study of archaeology which led to a whole host of other choices and relationships in my life, which eventually brought me to that dolmen at dawn, holding my own camera.  At one time, I had hoped to partake in study and excavations of such a place, but I realized that it wasn't the study of data provided by bits of bone, ceramics, and stone that I loved, it wasn't even the archaeology.  I no longer wanted to strip away the layers to see the thing in charts and graphs, I wanted to appreciate the place as it is now and create images of it.  The point was the imagery itself.  For it showed me who these people were, gave me a glimpse into their souls, more than an archaeological report ever could.  It was with a camera that I was intended to explore these locations, not with a trowel.

Cahergall Ring Fort

Life isn't necessarily a straight line, leading from one event to the next.  Instead it often resembles the emotive spirals found in the art of the neolithic and Celtic people of Europe.  One moment or idea branches into many journeys and ripples.  Each journey is unique, but centered in the same place.  A photograph studied as a child captured my imagination, which rippled for a time into the study of archaeology, which spiraled into a completely new phase, a journey that brought me in an unexpected way to the place of original inspiration.  The photograph I stood there to create was in turn inspired by that original image, but also by a life long study of the ancient peoples who shaped the land I was standing in.  Everything up to that moment had been the work of a photograph.  And, now I was creating my own.

That is pretty incredible.