“Well come in then lad, get to know someone!” were the words from Shay to me at the doorway leading into Dublin’s Hacienda Bar. Little did I know about this place and little did I expect. Ten minutes earlier I had been walking around the dark streets around 11pm in Smithfield – just north, and across the river from Dublin’s tourist famed Temple Bar. I stumbled across this nondescript white Spanish building with windows up top that were high enough […]
Europe
Gladiators Square Off In the Ruins of Trier’s Old Roman Amphitheater
Founded by celts, and conquered by Romans, Trier is the oldest city in Germany. The town itself is nice, but the old ancient roman amphitheater ruins are nothing to write home about even though it is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The amphitheater was built around 200AD, and played host to many gladiator combats. If you are lucky, you might just catch some gladiators squaring off almost, but not quite, like they did in centuries past.
Put the Cell Phone Away to Really Capture the Moment
It’s a recurring theme we see all over the world. Something interesting occurs, and a hundred cell phones pop up in the hands of people who couldn’t bear the possibility of loosing out on it’s video recording. This could be anything from a street performer to a fancy car going by. What got me really thinking about it was during the Signal Festival in Prague when an amazing light show beamed upon this grande cathedral. Animated fast flash candy to […]
A few days in Brussels with my Camera
The City of Brussels is a largely french speaking city in Belgium and is Belgium’s capital. For travellers or street photographers, it makes an excellent gateway to other nearby cities, but Brussels itself is not to be missed. As the unofficial head of the European union, it is home to many diplomats, journalists, and frequently visited by heads of state. Continually asked for money from begging gypsies of which some may be considered “professional beggers”, I spent some time in […]
Berlin’s TV Tower (Fernsehturm) and Soviet Era Communist Construction
The contrast between buildings in the Soviet Era East Berlin is remarkable. Similar to other large, bland, and intimidating concrete structures erected by the Soviets in Eastern Europe, the former East Berlin has plenty of them. In typical communist fashion, one concrete structure looks strikingly similar (but not better) to the next. They are all concrete with lots of windows. Boring… dull… intimidating. The erection of Berlin’s TV Tower (Berliner Fernsehturm) in the late 60’s was to show East Berlin’s […]
We Are All People Even Though We Don’t Speak The Same Language
Wondering around Poznan in Poland, we walked into recommended restaraunt for cheaply priced Polish food. Unfortunately, as we just arrived in Poland, our ability to read Polish was pretty minimal. This was actually the first place we hit that we didn’t understand or recognize anything on the menu at all. We politely asked the old lady behind the counter if she had an English menu. After some heaitation, in Seinfeld, Soup Nazi, “No Soup For You!” fashion, she gave an […]
Saturday Night and a Sunday Morning in Poznań’s Old Town Square
Sitting directly between Warsaw and Berlin, Poznań has been an important European city for centuries. As typical with many European cities in the area, Poznan was destroyed in World War II. Careful reconstruction has brought back it’s old city charm, which is beautiful and apparent walking throughout the city and especially in and around Stary Rynek (Old Town Square). Here in the Old Town Square on Saturday nights, restaurant goers and party goers meet, mingle, eat or party all night, […]
