Susan Solo – Photographer | Traveler | Adventurer

Tag: Europe

Dublin Part I: A Handful of Highlights

When I put the itinerary together for a week in Ireland, I decided that a couple of days in the country’s capital at the beginning of the trip would allow us to adjust to the time zone before getting behind the wheel of a car. You’re welcome, citizens of Ireland. (I would especially recommend this approach to anyone who isn’t used to driving on the other side of the road – please don’t try to drive when you’re jet-lagged if you can avoid doing so!) Besides, Dublin looked like somewhere we’d enjoy exploring, so we parked ourselves there for two full days.

After landing in Dublin and getting settled at our hotel (we stayed at the Radisson Blu Royal; a fantastic hotel in a perfect city-center-but-quiet location), Chris and I had two things on our minds: exploring the city, and eating lunch.

Being food-driven and hungry from travel, lunch won as the priority. Our fun cab driver from the airport highly recommended a popular chipper just blocks away from our hotel as the best place for fish and chips in the city. We were sold and headed to Leo Burdock to join the likes of Ray Charles, Lisa Kudrow, and “Justin Timberlake’s Parents” as patrons. I mean, if it’s good enough for the Timberlakes, it’s good enough for us, right? Note: The food is excellent, but portions are huge! We could have easily split one meal.

With full bellies and a goal to stay up late enough to conquer our jet lag (we made it to exactly 7:45pm), we set off to wander the city and cover a few planned highlights, starting with Trinity College. As an avid reader and book lover, I enjoyed getting a peek at the Book of Kells, but the highlight for me was visually perusing the treasures of the gorgeous Long Room library. We booked advance tickets online which allowed us to skip the queue at the door. They also let us in hours ahead of our scheduled time when we arrived earlier than we planned. And on a Friday afternoon in late August, the crowds were totally manageable.

After getting our bibliophile fill at the library, we continued to wander and eventually found ourselves on a tour at the Irish Whisky Museum. More on that in the next post, along with our time at the Jameson Distillery and the Guinness Storehouse (there’s a clear theme here)

I have to come clean though: when it comes to big cities, I harbor some pretty polarizing love-hate feelings. Now, hate is a strong word and it’s not quite the right word, but I tend to get a little overwhelmed in crowds so I often feel a bit awkward and out of place in larger cities. I’m also (apologies to any smokers) really really not a fan of breathing second-hand smoke, which is difficult to avoid in the city. I’m pretty sensitive to it and I get headaches.

As for the love side though, I savor the ample people-watching opportunities. And I have such a great time photographing city details: architecture (oh, the architecture in Dublin!), people, signage, doors…I could spend the rest of my life in Dublin and not capture all of the wonderful interesting details.

Hopping onto one of the hop-on-hop-off tour buses gave our feet a wee break on the second day when we had more of the city to explore. We had amazing weather for about 75 percent of our two days in Dublin; the other 25 percent caught me without my rain jacket and wearing shoes that I didn’t want to get wet, so the bus helped with that aspect as well. Apologies for my grumpiness that afternoon, Dublin. Lesson learned: be prepared for quick shifts in the weather in Ireland. (Duh, right?)

Up next, we drink our way through Dublin via Irish coffees and pouring the perfect pint of Guinness!

September 16, 2015
Photo Friday – The Path to Gullfoss

The photo below shows the meandering footpath to the iconic Gullfoss in Iceland. The waterfall, translated to mean “golden falls,” is on the Hvítá river, fed by Iceland’s second biggest glacier, Langjökull. On the day we visited, the weather wasn’t particularly cooperative and it rained most of the time we were there, but we still followed the slippery path down to the waterfall and took in the sheer power of it. If you look down the path in this image, you can see the top of the spray coming off of the falls.

April 3, 2015
Photo Friday – Vik

I’ve been in a training class all week for work (preparing for two certification exams), so I’ve barely had time to think of anything outside of software quality assurance, but every once in a while when I let my mind drift it returns to travel daydreams. I love my job, but I’d certainly love to be back in Iceland exploring! The photo below shows the coastline on a beach near Vik. I love the little slivers of blue sky – it was the first sign of clear weather during our Iceland tour.

December 5, 2014
Photo Friday – Reynisfjara

Happy Friday! Short and sweet: just a photo that I love of Chris in Iceland on Reynisfjara beach.

November 14, 2014
Iceland Snapshot

Not too long ago, I started a new tradition of creating a “snapshot” post from our travels with a list of superlatives to sum up our bigger trips. It’s a fun way to me to reflect back on specific moments, so to continue that tradition here is my Iceland snapshot!

Best Moment

Ah, right off the bat this is the toughest choice to make, but I think I was the most elated when we received the phone call from the hotel front desk at 1:30am to see the Northern Lights in Borgarnes. It’s just not something I expected to get to see and it was a wonderful surprise.

Worst Moment

The trip started off on the wrong foot when our original flight was canceled and we lost an entire day of our itinerary. We sat at the gate for hours past our departure time before Icelandair announced that they needed to cancel due to mechanical issues. This might also be a candidate for the “Best Moment” category though because not getting on a broken plane is a very very good thing indeed. I’m grateful.

Funniest Moment

This might get filed under “you had to be there,” but one of the funniest moments of the week was a cocktail sauce incident on our third night. We stopped into a random restaurant on the way to Höfn where we decided to order a couple of burgers. The server/owner didn’t speak much English, and we had a bit of a funny miscommunication. I asked if the burger came with mayonnaise on it and his answer was no, to which I replied, “great! That is perfect since I don’t want any mayonnaise.” (Mayo is the One Thing that I just can’t eat, not even if you paid me. I get goosebumps just thinking about it.) After he dropped off our food and left us to enjoy the meal, we discovered that the burgers were completely covered on both sides with a copious amount of pink sauce oozing from the edges. Upon his return to the table, I asked what was on the burger and he explained that it was a house cocktail sauce made from…ketchup mixed with mayonnaise. He left, and Chris and I just dissolved into quiet hysterics. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings so I didn’t return the burger, but I couldn’t stop giggling for the rest of the meal (that I didn’t eat).

Best Meal

Chris and I both agree that our best meal was, oddly, a pizza that we split at Hotel Höfn. We popped into the hotel restaurant right after we checked in. We had just finished a long, active day and it was 9:30pm so it may just be that we were starving, but man it was delicious and so satisfying. And interestingly enough, it didn’t make me feel terrible like pizza does here at home. I wonder if they use different (better?) ingredients in Iceland. I didn’t get to take a picture of the pie on account of how fast we inhaled it, but I do have pictures of my second and third runner-up favorite meals. Oh, and on the left? That’s fish and chips…served with “cocktail sauce!” When I didn’t touch it, our server asked if I didn’t like cocktail sauce. I politely explained that the rest of the meal was so wonderful but that cocktail sauce isn’t my favorite, and then spent the rest of the afternoon giggling some more.

Something We Learned

Our Iceland trip taught us a bevy of new facts! (But not the word bevy – I already knew that one.) I’m most proud of learning how to correctly pronounce Eyjafjallajökull, but we also learned a lot about Icelandic history and about geology including volcanoes, geysers, and fumaroles.

We’re Thankful We Packed

The first several days would have been miserable without our waterproof layers. I wore my waterproof jacket and shoes every single day actually. For more details, see my post on packing for Iceland in the summer.

We Didn’t Need To Bring

I didn’t end up needing a heavier coat – I was worried about whether or not a waterproof jacket was going to be enough even in August, but it was perfect. Any other time of year I think you’d do well to bring a warmer coat.

Trip Regrets

I’m writing this post over a month later and I honestly can’t remember anything I regret about our trip. We loved every minute of it. Of course, I would have liked to spend more time in Iceland – I think another week would have been perfect to take our time on the Ring Road and to include some sights along the western coast.

Reasons To Go Back

Puffins! We didn’t get to see a puffin and I’d love to see/photograph those cute little guys.

Favorite Photos

Chris’s favorite photo from the trip is one that I took (the waterfall photo below), and my favorite photo other than the Northern Lights is one of his (the chunk of ice from Jökulsárlón).

And with that, my Iceland trip series is complete! Until we go back someday, of course. 🙂 I hope the information has been interesting, entertaining, and/or helpful to anyone planning a future trip to the land of fire and ice! (Definitely let me know if you have any questions – I’m happy to help!)

October 27, 2014