Filed under: Lauren Selden, anecdotes, personal intrests, photography, travel | Tags: adventure, avignon, castle, england, france, Ireland, Lauren Selden, london, lyon, paris, ruins, tourist, travel
Our travels have been going swimmingly! We’ve spent a fantastic week in London, journeyed through Provence, and now we are ending our stay in Lyon and catching the train to Paris!
Apologies are in order for the lack of updates! I’ve been so busy having fun its hard to find a spare moment to write a blog post, and when I do post I like to create something interesting and worthwhile. I’ve been keeping sketchbooks packed with observations and drawings and the like, and I look forward to going through them all when I arrive home May 5th. I plan to post all my adventures chronologically (if after-the-fact) so that you can enjoy the trip in the same order that I did.
For now I must say au-revoir as we have a train to catch! Paris, look out!!
Bisous
L
An amazing ruin of a castle in Northern Ireland.
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, 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
