On The Road Again

Left the country three times this year…THREE WHOLE TIMES.

Weekend break (France), 6-day work trip (Italy) and 10-day holiday (Spain). It felt like lifestyles of the rich and famous being able to get back to overseas travel again for the first time in 2.5yrs. Dublin Airport, my old flame, hasn’t changed a bit. Terminal 2, the presentable facade of Irish airports, leading tourists to believe we are fancier than we are, then Terminal 1 bringing you down a peg or two with its slow security queues, afterthought of a duty free and shabby departure gates that require you to plod through a warren of dusty corridors to get to.

The very heavy camera accompanied me on all three trips and many crappy, and passable, shots were taken. I realised a few things on these trips, a) I could probably buy an expensive phone that has as good quality pictures and almost as much functionality, but my camera makes me feel way cooler and more interesting b) I’m not very good at this photography lark but I still love it c) I missed feeling enthusiastic about it.

Paris was a dream as always and, even in March, the sun shone for the 4 days we were there. The catacombs presented an excellent opportunity for some interesting shots. Should we feel guilty about taking pictures of the graves of those long dead? I’m never sure so, instead of erring on the side of caution, I took many photos, some of which I quite liked and will eventually appear on the website. Inappropriate? Maybe. Worth flogging? Surely.

Trieste is a very pretty place and I managed to find two hours to myself on the last day of a work trip to explore its meandering streets, hilly hills and old churches. For an atheist I do love an aul religious building. They did know how to build impressive places of worship those zealots. I will definitely add some photos from this trip to the site if only to make you want to go there (see below sunset taster)!

Some of the Basque Country, in spite of its dislike of vegetarians, sure is nice to look at. We visited Bilbao, San Sebastián and Hondarribia. Bilbao wasn’t my favourite place to photograph, though the Guggenheim is a remarkable piece of architecture, but San Sebastián is like a fancy, upmarket version of a seaside town, i.e. no big wheels, amusement rides or the smell of fish ‘n’ chips wafting through the air. It feels like this might be where the monied holiday on their contest yachts, or maybe they just cleared out the usual riffraff for the week of the San Sebastián Film Festival. Either way it’s a really beautiful place with lots to see and do, but us vegetarians can get stuffed (and not in a good way)! Decent options are thin on the ground. Finally, Hondarribia, while very much an OAP kinda town, afforded me some stunning Baroque architecture, cobble-stoned streets, and gorgeous sea views to photograph.

In case you didn’t glean this from my ramble above, I missed travel a lot and, even when the locals won’t feed me, I still love to spend my holidays taking pictures and exploring new places. Can’t wait to plan some new and exciting adventures for next year before the next plague sweeps the planet.