Filed under: Ireland, Lauren Selden, personal intrests, photography, travel | Tags: adventure, bloody sunday, Bogside, Clouds, day tour, Derry, Dublin, Giants Causeway, Ireland, Lauren Selden, memory, New Derry, Paddywagon Tours, tourist, travel
Going in back in time now, and beginning from the beginning of the traveling days. This post was written in my travel journal on April 7th, during my last week in Ireland.
The past few days have been amazing. Sunday (the 5th April) I went to the North- to see the Giant’s Causeway or Derry. The weather was fantastic! The sights were beautiful and I even befriended another girl who was travelling alone as well. The Giant’s Causeway is a strange basalt rock formation on the north-east point of Ireland. The rock was all formed into perfect hexagonal columns. Fantastic!
The rocks are just like little stepping stones, but still it was quite a climb to the top!
Then we travelled to Derry, which was pretty incredible. We met with a tour guide there who was from Derry and lived there through all the troubles. He took us on a walking tour of Derry and the ‘Bogside’ (which is where the English shoved all the Irish Catholics as they took over Ireland) Very heavy stuff. As we walked down along the road where Bloody Sunday occurred, I think we could all feel the weight of the history of Derry and the ‘Bogside’.
When we got on the bus, we were all totally silent. You could feel the impact the visit had had on us all, a far cry from a few hours earlier when we were all cracking jokes about giants.
I’m making the most of my last days in Ireland, trying to re-visit all my favorite Dublin institutions, as well as getting out and seeing more of the countryside. Plans are set for a trip to Blarney Castle and Country Limerick as well as a weekend in Galway. Hard to believe my time in Ireland is coming to a close, it has been an amazing 4 months.
And as always: Lots more photos are available on my Flickr. Click Here!
Filed under: Ireland, Lauren Selden, photography, travel | Tags: adventure, beaches, blue skies, Clouds, cottage, Donegal, Drive, Dublin, Euro, Ireland, Lauren Selden, memory, Road Trip, ruins, sand, sea, sheep, silver strand, stone, surfing, thatched roof, tourist, travel, Weather, wind, windy
First off, Apologies for the lack of blog posts these past weeks. School has ended and I’ve been trying to tie up a bunch on loose ends before I leave Ireland for London on Sunday. (tomorrow! yikes!) I made sure I had a full week after the end of the semester to travel around Ireland- but let me tell you I wish I had another 3 weeks to spend! Ireland may be a small island- but it’s packed full of beauty and adventures!
The last weekend of March I took a roadtrip with my good friend, Anaelle, to Donegal- an area of Ireland that is on the north-west coast. Everyone told me that Donegal was beautiful, except Anaelle who claims that there is nothing there but sheep! Really, Anaelle must have become immune to the scenery because Donegal is amazingly beautiful! Some of the beaches were really breathtaking, the one above actually had a group of surfers enjoying it! The water must have been cold- but you can’t beat the scenery.
This is a traditional styled thatched cottage, there are still a few left dotting the landscape of Donegal. The house where I stayed in Donegal was also an older property- the walls are made of trampled stone. Which means that the shells were put in place, and then villagers would trample lime and sand and stone down into the shell of the house to create a solid wall – one whole meter thick! It gets chilly inside a stone house like this, so I was grateful for the wood fire that kept us warm.
It was a four hour journey from Dublin to Donegal but well worth the drive. I’m glad we had a car, as most of the things to see in Donegal require a car to get to, or to enjoy. We took a drive through the blue-stack mountains, visited several beautiful beaches and enjoyed the amazing barren landscapes.
This is beach is known as Silver Strand- and boy it was WIND-Y! Looking out onto the water I could hardly breathe for the wind.
Up next: A fantastic tour to The Giants’ Causeway and the historic northern town of Derry.
Filed under: Ireland, Lauren Selden, anecdotes, art, colour, film and video, personal intrests, photography, travel | Tags: adventure, Chantal Akerman, Clouds, DIFF, Dublin, experimental film, Film, film festival, Franklyn, From the East, Gerald McMorrow, Ireland, Lauren Selden, memory, night life, travel
Well, its official. The Dublin International Film Festival has come to town. Last Thursday, actually. I’ve been to two films so far, both entirely and incredibly different. The first is a film called From the East, directed by Chantal Akerman. I found the film very interesting, although clearly the audience wasn’t as impressed- quite a few of them walked out. The film was mainly comprised of long, panning wide shots of parts of Eastern Europe. It was shot documentary style, and I found the most interesting part of the film was watching the subjects as they eventually realized the presence of the camera. There were also some lovely interior ’still lifes’ (for lack of a better word), my favorite was one where a young boy played with his toy car while a German Politician rambled on the evening news.
Tonight, I saw Franklyn. A more conventional type of film by Gerald McMorrow, starring among others Eva Green. The film was fantastic- and not just because of the wonderful talents of Eva Green- who I love. The film tracks the meshing of four stories through the eyes of one man, who lives his days out in a place called Meanwhile City. The graphics alone made me weak in the knees. Top 3
1. Eva speaking to a video of herself. She smears her red lipstick down her chin.
2.Photos of a boy having a picnic with his imaginary friend.
3. A giant buddah looms over a distopian London.
I will be seeing a few more films before the festival ends on Sunday, Les Enfants du Paradis tomorrow, Tokyo! on Wednesday- and likely a few more following that. It’s nice to feel like a part of the film scene here, and I love the way this festival feels in comparison to VIFF- it just feels so much more approachable.
Filed under: Ireland, Lauren Selden, anecdotes, art, aura, film and video, personal intrests, photography, travel | Tags: abandoned, adventure, architecture, Clouds, derelict, Dublin, experimental film, Ireland, Lauren Selden, ruins, rural, travel
I was discussing my desire to venture into the Irish Countryside with my tutor here, and she mentioned a website which charts all sorts of abandoned structures throughout Ireland. Immediately upon clicking the link I fell in love with all the locations, and myself and some fellow students are planning to venture out into the country side to see these amazing structures in person.
The website is called Abandoned Ireland, and it looks as though a group of brave adventurers have explored all these little nooks and crannies in order to share these fantastic locations with all of us. I’ve been told that Ireland has such a strict historical restoration policy that many of the buildings will always remain empty and abandoned. A precious few have been turned into luxury hotels, but really- I’d prefer they remain in their natural state. It’s much more poetic. Many of the buildings were set fire to, and burnt to the ground during Irelands’ rather complex and terrible history with England. What is left now, are some of the most beautiful, and creepy structures I have ever laid eyes on.
I’ll be the first to admit it, I’ve become obsessed with this website. I’ve even begun dreaming about these amazingly beautiful ruins. I know I would be able to get the most amazing footage, and I can’t stop thinking about how well these locations will lend themselves to super 8mm film.
Note: all photographs that appear in this post are co. Abandoned Ireland
Filed under: Ireland, Lauren Selden, Whimsy, art, aura, colour, personal intrests, photography, travel, writing | Tags: architecture, Book of Kells, Clouds, Dublin, Ireland, Lauren Selden, Mail, memory, NCAD, Post, Post Card, study abroad, travel, Trinity, Trinity University, Weather
One thing I’ve noticed about Ireland is; the clouds move faster here.
Lately the weather here has been gorgeous every morning, only to turn to rain and wind the second I set out the door. Today there has been a break in the cycle of bad weather and I’m sitting in the classroom keeping warm from the sunlight streaming through the windows.
On Sunday, however, I was not so lucky on the weather front. I was determined though, after two days of hiding inside fighting with my washing machine to venture out into Dublin. So I braved the howling winds and headed for Trinity University which- even in the drizzly rain and howling wind was beautiful. Everything here is so full of character, but especially the buildings in and around Trinity. I’ve fallen in love with the architectural details- the rope trim, the carved flowers, and oh, the doors. The doors! Dublin as a city is famous for it’s elaborate and beautiful doors, and whenever I mention them to my classmates they just roll their eyes and go ‘yeah . . they’re nice’. I hope I never get so accustomed to Dublin that the beauty of these doors is lost.
