Romanian Holiday

More like a Romanian excursion. Bucharest. An old world Eastern European city. Really old world. Where architectural gems are scattered amongst abandoned buildings and vacant lots. Where Communist era buildings dominate the sky and offer a reminder of the not too distant past.

Sometimes, it's enough to make you lie down, close your eyes, and reflect on it all. Until you informed by a stern-looking policeman to move along. Note: The images below link to my Picasa photo album with all trip photos.


Former Eastern Bloc country. Check. May 1st. Check. May Day Celebration. Of course. Well actually, we weren't quite so certain that any events were planned. But after wandering around the massive Palatul Parlamentului, we came across some festivities in a park. This was the mici si bere (grill and beer) party. The Social Democratic Party sponsored the party and provided music, beer, and traditional grilled meat to the assembled crowd; the beer and meat were free). Entertainment was a Romanian rap singer with four young female dancers dressed in short shorts and hoodies. Good for a giggle or two.


In one of the pocket guides we read, it stated that for a genuine local experience you could feed a few stray dogs. Um, no. I had never been to a large city with so many strays wandering around; they were everywhere. And seemed to know how to cross the streets and navigate traffic quite well. They seemed wary of people. Probably for the best. We were told that a few years ago, the city rounded up and killed up to 75% of the stray dog population. I cannot even imagine what it was like before they culled the population.


Just some harmless graffiti folks. Nothing to see. Move along.


There was a large police presence in the city. Quite noticeable. On our way to the airport, our taxi driver remarked that the number of policeman was unusual even for Bucharest. He guessed that the President was probably heading into town. Sure enough, a heavily guarded motorcade passed by a few minutes later.

To see more images from our trip to Bucharest, click here.

Finally, a little video. On our first night in Bucharest, we ate at a fun beerhall/restaurant called Caru' cu Bere. I had it on my recommended list. And, when we walked by it in the afternoon, TJ put in on our "must go" list. We were seated right next to the bar and staircase. Which, at first, we thought was not a good place. Then, the floorshow started. Dancers came out and started moving around the open space. High-kicking and twirling in and around waiters and customers. Awesome! We met up with some guys (Mike and Francesco) from London the next day. And decided to meet them at Caru' cu Bere (again) for a late dinner. And another floorshow.

Parting Shots [Valencia]

Old world traditions. Modern attitude. Valencia has embraced both. I wouldn't hesitate for a moment to come back to this thriving metropolis on the Mediterranean. The distractingly beautiful architecture alone is enough for a return visit. That and the food.

For more fine art images from the Valencia trip, visit my Flickr photostream.

Like some strange future predator rearing its head, the Hemisfèric is a mass of lines and curves.

The Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía looks like it is coming in for a nibble on the overpass.

The Hemisfèric and Museu de les Ciències seem to be locked in a game of next-generation Pac-Man.

All signs point due East.

Parting Shots [Dublin]

Things that caught my eye while exploring this great city. The history, mood, and color of Dublin in images.

Peeling Back Layers of History

Red-eye Structural Support

A Guinness Moment

Walking on Broken Glass

Parting Shots [Canary Islands]

Bright. Colorful. Exotic. Faded. Textured. Decay. My perspective on the Canary Islands. For more fine art images from this trip, visit my Flickr photostream here.

Colors on the side of a fishing boat in Puerto de la Cruz on Tenerife.



A rusting fence along the boardwalk in Playa de las Américas.


Home of the most delicious calamari. A colorful cafe on the beach at Playa de Santiago.


The sunny side of the street. Doorways in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.


Hidden on a side street in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, this doorway begged to be photographed.

Scene: Photo Vignettes III

Lördagsbarn Stopp!
Surbrunnsgatan and Stora Badhusgatan, Göteborg, Sweden
September 20, 2008 2:24pm


Lördagsbarn Gå!
Surbrunnsgatan and Stora Badhusgatan, Göteborg, Sweden
September 20, 2008 2:25pm

Scene: Photo Vignettes II

Leo Pacifier

Højbro Bron, Copenhagen, Denmark
September 6, 2008 4:14pm

Zoey Pacifier
Norra Allégatan, Göteborg, Sweden
September 5, 2008 1:48pm

Scene: Photo Vignettes I

Street Corner Buddha
Skeppsbron, Göteborg
August 29, 2008 9:25am

Parting Shots [Iceland]

The postmortem on Iceland as a photographic subject. In a place with unending panorama landscapes, I ended up taking a a good number of [classical] abstract images. Go figure. Not surprisingly, these abstracts are some of my favorite images from the trip.

Close up of boat docked on land. Red port hole. Orange rust. Flaking white paint. A hint of green through the port hole.

Some type of industrial propeller. Taken as a black and white. Heavy contrast.

Rusted part of shipwreck sitting in a sea of rounded black stones.

Piece of ice with great reflective/refractive light sitting on a black sand beach.

These images were taken with my Canon 5D digital SLR. Photos (and full captions) of the Iceland trip taken with my point and shoot camera can be found here.

Iceland: Fire and Ice Adventure

Iceland is vast. An amalgamation of varied worlds. It's the size of the state of Kentucky (TJ read that somewhere) but seems a million miles from the bluegrass state of mind. Except for the horses. There are a lot of horses in Iceland. They're hardy, like the people. They've survived fire and ice. And live in the great wide open. A visitor sees seemingly endless vistas like this one in the Westfjordlands. Icelanders live it. [click on images to see a larger view]

Getting around this island country was an adventure in itself. We had a Volkswagen Polo as our trusty steed. Manual. Which means TJ drove. And, brilliantly maneuvered across the variety of road surfaces that exist in Iceland. The Ring Road encircles the entire island. And it is paved. At least the sections we were on. But, straying away from the Ring Road is where road adventures begin. Most interior roads are called F-Roads. Rental cars are not allowed on F-Roads. We did not travel on F-Roads. But, we did drive on a lot of roads that were unpaved to varying degrees. Narrow. Occasionally steep. Usually with no guardrails. Like the road shown below. The posted speed limit was always much higher than what we felt could be driven given the conditions. But, not for the locals.

In Iceland, there were two things that stood out in the pockets of civilization. Restored churches and land-dwelling ships. There were churches everywhere...and anywhere. Many were situated adjacent to a homestead in the middle of pasture land. Sometimes with no means of access except to drive up to the adjacent house and park in the their driveway. We did not do this. Instead, we looked for the signposts indicating a church and access. As such, we did not visit a lot of churches. Most churches look like they were just built. Wood, stone and cement. Painted white with colorful roof and trim accents (usually red); though some churches were black. It turns out that many have been restored by the descendants of those who built or maintained the church (back in the day). Picturesque. Maybe that is the point.

As for the ships. Was this how [coastal] communities displayed their connection to the sea? Were the ships simply out of commission after years of sailing service? Had they all been blown ashore in big storms? Probably the truth resides in equal parts. Regardless, it was still kind of unique to see a ship moored on dry land. Smaller boats had been placed in playgrounds. A connection to the sea for young and old alike.

Water surrounds Iceland. And water flows out of Iceland. Water, water, everywhere. Falling. Thundering down to the sea. A land of waterfalls. Some were grand, like Gullfoss waterfalls.

Others were smaller (relatively speaking - note person in photo for scale). You could walk right up to them. And, in the case of Seljalandsfoss waterfalls (below), you could walk behind them.

Iceland is a land between two continents. It sits atop the Mid-Atlantic Ridge where the North American and Eurasian plates are spreading apart. As such, it was born of volcanoes. Everywhere there is evidence of current and past geo-dynamic activity. Some violent, some beautiful, some both. TJ and I ventured to a couple of geothermal areas, mainly in South/Southwest Iceland. In one town, you could walk right up to the boiling mud. This was as close as I wanted to get. Still, it made me a bit nervous.

At another, we walked past warning barriers and into an unstable steam field. After a strong earthquake in late May, the activity shifted across an access road. We walked in and surveyed the spread of escaping steam. TJ walked out onto a lookout and boardwalk that had been closed for obvious reasons. Luckily, he only came away with dirty hands.

Other terrain in Iceland is a bit more benign. Lots of old and new lava flows. During the cooling of thick lava flows, fracturing can lead to the formation of hexagonal columns. Known as columnar basalt, these formation are found throughout Iceland. Sometimes, just the tops of the formation are exposed.

In a guidebook, we found some interesting statistics. Iceland comprises a land surface of about 100,000 square kilometers. Of this, glaciers represent 12 percent and pasture land another 24 percent. But, according to this source, the majority of Iceland (65%) is referred to as wasteland. At first, we thought that was a bit of a misnomer. But as we drove high above the fjords or across the moss-covered lava fields, we realized that wasteland was an apt description for this alien landscape.

In South Iceland, the Ring Road cuts through kilometers of coarse black grit surrounded by nothing but an occasional [large] boulder. This is glacial debris deposited by catastrophic floods when Katla, the volcano underneath Myrdalsjokull Glacier, erupted and melted the glacier. Katla has erupted 16 times in historical times; the last time in 1918. Driving on this flat black plane our thoughts turned to disaster scenarios. What would happen if Katla erupted while we were driving? Where would we go? Would/could we survive? We identified a high promontory on the coast that might offer safety. We were only here for a vacation, the farms and houses around us live with this doomsday scenario every day.

This mixture of fire and ice is what makes Iceland unique. But, with the fire, you likely want it small and contained. A hot springs or geyser will do. A violent, erupting volcano. No thank you, please. Yes, ice. Flowing ice. Melting ice. Sometimes, just eating ice. Here I am enjoying some ice that is likely over 1000 years old. Yes, in a sense, I am contributing to global warming. But, it was oh-so-enjoyable.

The highlight of the trip was seeing icebergs lying on a beach. Now, technically, I am not sure if they are still considered icebergs if not floating in water? But that's beside the point. Look at the colors. Look at the size. There was clear ice and coarse granular ice and snow cone ice. There was white ice, blue ice and black ice.

There were small icebergs and large, bigger than TJ, icebergs. It was a landscape like no other I had ever seen. And that is a lasting memory I wish to share with you.

I have posted more photos from our trip on Picasa here. Enjoy!

All photos shown on this post and on the Picasa link were taken with my new digital point and shoot camera. It is a Canon Powershot SD1100 IS in Bohemian Brown and I really like it.

A-ah-ahh-ah, ah-ah-ahh-ah

we've come from the land of the ice and snow

from the midnight sun

where the hot springs flow

Back from Iceland. Amazing holiday. Amazing land. Our luck with the weather continued from the Italy trip. Only on the last two days was it overcast. But, even the clouds proved to be beneficial. We never would have noticed the partial solar eclipse had it been sunny. As far as midnight sun, we missed it by about a month. The sun actually set around 11:30pm and rose at 4:15am.

Our holiday is officially over. So, I will be posting about the Iceland trip as soon as I finish some posts on the Italy trip. August will be catch up month in that respect. Cheers.

Solen Skiner

The sun was shining for nearly the entire trip down to Italy. Could not have asked for any better weather. The weather gods were smiling indeed. And so, there are two sunsets that rate as the best of the trip. Both are from Italy. No surprise there. The Mediterranean skies are the most vibrant.

The first was on the walk back from the cliff-side towns of Manarola to Riomaggiore in Cinque Terre National Park.

The other was on the Ponte Vecchio in Florence. As always a large crowd had gathered. We enjoyed the moment with them.

Giving Props to Pisa

Italy, land of my forebearers. And pasta. But, honestly, only one word adequately and accurately defines Italy:

G - E - L - A - T - O

I could have eaten gelato morning, noon and night. But, since breakfast was included at all the hotels, I missed out on that gastronomic trifecta. Pity.

In Pisa, a rite of passage for [nearly every] tourist is posing for the I Propped Up the Leaning Tower of Pisa picture. We were not ones to shirk our supportive duties. But, the question I have for you is: Who worked it better?

Hotel Recommendation: Hotel Globus in Florence. Very nice. Modern. In the heart of the city. Close to everything.

If We Took a Holiday...

A road trip. From Sweden to Italy. See the sights (and everything in between) in 10 days. This was going to be the best! holiday! ever! How could it not be? And who would choose to go on this daring venture? Seasoned travelers. Of sound mind and spirit. Of course. [click on a pic for a larger view]

Parting Shots [Göteborg]

Having lived in Göteborg for a good 5 months, I guess it was finally time for me to point the camera at my surroundings. To explore the visual treats that this city has to offer. Yes, there are visual treats to be found. If you like abstract, colorful, sober images. Which I happen to like. It's kind of like godis for the eyes. Since we will be living here at least another 18 months, I will have the opportunity to revisit certain locations through the seasons. You know, the two seasons we have here: Winter and cool Summer. Should be able to provide a complete spectrum of "my Göteborg." This is just the beginning.

So, the first stop on the tour is on the docks alongside Maritiman, the floating ship museum, which is located at Packhuskajen. There are 19 ships and vessels, including a submarine. Several are brightly colored. Naturally, I gravitate towards those ships. Shadow, anyone?

There is a floating platform between two of the ships. I assume it to be a painting platform. Most of the ship colors seen are present as splattered paint on the floating platform. How's that for deductive reasoning? The ships are painted anew often. Though sometimes, the colors don't quite match. The orange ship pictured above has at least 5 different shades of orange on its side.

Bold colors energize me. Red. Anchor. Away.