A slideshow of Tarynne’s photos from the first year of our trip around the world.
Jan. 17, 2013 to Jan. 17, 2014.
Seattle, USA to Goa, India.
It took 365 days to create this video.
Over 2,730 photos attempt to illustrate what travel means to me. To forget familiarity, reassurance and dive into adventure. To be thrown into a million or more scenarios that remind you how small you are in this universe, but somehow with tough love remind you its okay to do big things, to dream big. That you are capable of exactly all that your mind is capable of.
Travel is the voyage of discovery. Discover what?
Whatever it is you are looking for. To realize what makes you you, and equally as interesting, what makes others other. To be in someone else’s home and resist the urge to rearrange the furniture and just to let their home be exactly that, theirs.
To learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable. To entertain yourself watching how you grow, adapt, change. To watch your own opinions change, preferences shift, tendencies, values, goals and ambitions more appropriately align with what it is you genuinely want from your life. You’ve removed anything and everything that has ever made you you. Your home, social support, career, clothes, things, car, and any residue and reputation of yesterday. You have no history. Tomorrow is a blank slate. All of these ‘permanent’ qualities that make you you are all changing.
Incredible. It’s an opportunity for anything and everything. To look at every place, person and situation for the very first time.
To travel is to play with your imagination. You dream of what a place and people should be, may be. Travel accurately throws it back at you and tells you straight up how it is. Travel gives you the opportunity to see it how it really is.
I am grateful for my camera as it has helped me to capture what my own eyes see as what is. The moments of humility, gratitude, frustration, abundance, joy, expansion, resistance and growth have been frozen for a fraction of a second and I am so excited to share it with you!
We slept terribly on Monday night due to the deafening snoring of one of our dorm mates. He was an absolutely awesome dude, but he took snoring to a whole new level.
I’m talking louder than a drunk Tito and Jaren combined.
Anyway, for this very reason Tuesday got off to a relatively slow start, but we quickly got our day back on track by scheduling a black cab tour of Belfast.
These black cab tours are the most popular way tourists tour the infamous Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods that took center stage during the Troubles.
While we knew the basic history of the Troubles, the cab tour was a fantastic way for us to learn more about Northern Ireland’s dark history.
On our way to the troubled neighborhoods we drove through the “neutral zone” of downtown Belfast.
As we passed through, our driver pointed out some critical conflict-related landmarks including the Europa Hotel, which is the most blown up hotel in the world after having suffered 28 bomb attacks during the Troubles.
In the 1970s and 1980s the IRA (Catholics) targeted the hotel on a frequent basis due to the international attention the bombing drew because of all the media staying there.
While the downtown area is now widely considered a neutral zone where both Protestants and Catholics mingle and work together, the neighborhoods are still an entirely different story.
For example, the every shop or business in a Protestant neighborhood will still ONLY hire and serve Protestants. The same is the case for Catholics in their neighborhoods.
Anyway, our first stop on the tour was a protestant neighborhood. Since Protestants are generally unionists or loyalists, the sidewalks are painted red, white and blue and the houses are covered with Union Jack flags and patterns.
There were also enormous murals depicting the protestant “heroes” of the troubles.
The murals were pretty intimidating to say the least.
After our walking tour of the protestant neighborhood we hopped back in the cab and drove one block to see one of the massive walls that were built to help separate the protestants and catholics.
The first wall was constructed in 1969. They were originally built as temporary structures meant to last six months, but due to their effectiveness they are still standing today.
After writing our own sentiments on the wall, we headed through one of the gates and into the Catholic neighborhood. Most of the gates are only open during the day time and each of them have slightly different closing times throughout the evening. One gate stays open 24/7 to allow fire trucks and other emergency personnel free access.
The Catholic neighborhoods are very different than the Protestant neighborhoods in that they are colorless. For obviously reasons there is no red, white and blue and streets appear bland and grey.
On the Catholic side we visited a road that had a row of houses backed right up against the wall. The backyards of these houses are completely enclosed in metal cages designed to fend off any petrol bombs or other projectiles that could be thrown over the wall from the other side.
We also visited a Catholic memorial garden that honers some of the IRA heroes that were killed during the Troubles.
Our last stop on the tour was to see a mural painted of Bobby Sands, an Irish volunteer of the IRA who led the 1981 hunger strike. The hunger strike was in retaliation to the British government withdrawing Special Category Status for convicted paramilitary prisoners.
When the British withdrew Special Category Status for convicted paramilitary prisoners it meant they were treated as criminals in prison rather than as political prisoners or prisoners of war.
Overall the tour was extremely informative and we would recommend it to anyone visiting Belfast. Not only did we learn a great deal about the history of the Troubles, but we also learned how prevalent the separation and violence still is today.
We rolled into Dublin at about 4:30 p.m. and picked up Emmy outside the bus station. After a few wrong turns we eventually found our way onto the M6 via the M4 whipping our way toward Galway and the west of Ireland.
We cruised right through Galway and headed north up the coast toward the town of Clifden, which is located a few miles from the gate of Connemara National Park.
It took about two hours for us to reach Clifden, and of course Tarynne insist that I stop the car so she could take some pics of the scenic drive.
When we arrived in Clifden we made an immediate stop at the first gas station we came across for gas, booze and a few snacks for the night.
Of course it wouldn’t be a successful first day of a road trip without me making a wrong turn in the complete opposite direction of our destination. Shortly after leaving the gas station I turned left instead of right and we bombed down the road for about 20 minutes before realizing I had gone the wrong way.
Tarynne and Emmy can’t be mad though, because my wrong turn resulted in some of the best photographs of the entire trip…
After back-tracking 20 minutes I finally got us on the right road and about half an hour later we arrived at our campsite, Acton’s Beachside Camping.
It only took a few minutes for us to set up the tent, build a campfire and crack a few brews.
Oh, and cook a tin of beans and a slice of sandwich meat for dinner. No expense spared.
Monday, August 12, 2013
Well, it didn’t take long for our trip to take a massive turn for the worst.
I woke up at 6:30 a.m. on Monday morning in excruciating pain, unable to open my eyes. It felt as if someone was taking about ten needles and stabbing them right through my eyeballs.
Obviously an ideal situation when you are camping in the middle of nowhere.
Given the fact we had just spent the night sleeping amongst a bunch of tall grass, I chalked it up to me being extremely allergic to the foreign Irish grass surrounding our tent.
While I stumbled around the campsite with my eyes clenched closed basically screaming in pain, Tarynne did what Tarynne does best and took pictures of the beautiful campsite I couldn’t see.
With me blinded by what I though was the alien Irish grass, our trio faced a horrifying, but unavoidable situation. Tarynne was going to have to commandeer the right-hand drive, left-hand shift, manual VW Golf.
It was one of the most terrifying 30 minutes of my life, especially because I had my eyes closed and had absolutely no idea what was going on.
Thankfully we made it safely to Clifden. Upon arrival I went immediately to a pharmacy to get allergy medicine and eye drops. While I tended to my dire medical situation, Tarynne and Emmy picked us up coffees and some breakfast supplies.
With drugs and breakfast supplies in hand, we climbed back into the Golf and cruised out of Clifden toward Connemara National Park. Well, if you can call it cruising. I think we might have left the clutch in the middle of the road somewhere between Clifden and the park gate.
By the time we arrived at Connemara National Park I had managed to get my eyes half open, but only with the assistance of Tarynne’s pink sunglasses and both my hands as sun visors.
Despite some initial reservations I decided to accompany Tarynne and Emmy on the hike into Connemara National Park and up to the summit of Diamond Hill. Although I didn’t see much from the top, it now looks like the view was pretty spectacular.
By the time we got back to the car my eyes weren’t any better. In fact, they seemed to have gotten worse.
Once again Tarynne got behind the wheel of the rental car and drove us safely 80 kilometers back to Galway where we planned to stay the night.
By the time we arrived in Galway I was in absolute agony and we had to spilt up. Emmy went to find us a place to stay, while I, guided by Tarynne’s hand stumbled through the streets of Galway looking for an Optometrist.
We finally found one inside the Eyre Square Shopping Centre. There was a line to see the optometrist, but I quickly made it clear to the lady behind the counter that I would not be waiting in a line and that the eye doc would be seeing me immediately.
Fortunately, the lady behind the counter abided and I was ushered into the back room to have my eyes inspected.
It took the doctor all of 15 seconds to tell me I had ulcers in both eyes and that I needed to go to the emergency room immediately. He quickly wrote a note for me to hand to the emergency room doctor that said what was wrong and he sent me on my way to University Hospital Galway.
Just our luck. For the first time in six weeks we try to take a trip to see the sights of Ireland and I end up in the goddamn emergency room. Classic.
Anyway, after Tarynne bull-dosed everyone in sight at the hospital and got me to the front of the three-hour line, I saw the doc and got what I needed: a local anesthetic and some antibiotics.
The local anesthetic worked immediately and I spent the rest of our trip pouring it into my eyes so I could somewhat see and enjoy the sights around us.
The good news was that while Tarynne and I dealt with my medical perils, Emmy was able to secure us a nice fancy 35 Euro room for the night.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
On Tuesday we woke up and headed straight to the bus station to catch a ride to the ferry terminal so we could spend the day on Inishmore, the largest of the Aran Islands.
When we arrived at the island we immediately hit up the Spar grocery store for lunch and then rented bikes to explore the rest of the island.
Oh, and of course before leaving on the bike ride we went shopping for wool hats…
Just in case you were wondering, riding a bike with your eyes closed in a place you have never been before is not exactly the greatest idea.
Although I once again missed most of it, the bike ride around the island was beautiful.
It was a very wobbly ride, but we all made it to the main attraction of the island, Dún Aonghasa, a prehistoric fort on the edge of a 100 meter high cliff.
After spending about half an hour at the fort we walked back to our bikes and began the ride back to the ferry dock.
On the way back we stopped at a beach and relaxed for a few minutes in the surprisingly hot Irish sun.
When we got back to the ferry dock we had time for a quick pint before catching the boat and bus back to Galway where we once again spent the night.
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
On Wednesday morning we grabbed a coffee at Butlers Chocolates and then a quick breakfast sandwich before setting out in the car due south toward the Cliffs of Moher.
Google drive time says the trip only takes 1 hour and 23 minutes. There’s clearly not a line in Google’s code that accommodates for the difficulty of navigating the tiny Irish roads in the deathtrap on wheels.
This paint job is probably the only thing that could have made the situation any better.
Anyway, about three hours after leaving Galway we arrived at the Cliffs of Moher. The cliffs are well worth the trek and without a doubt the best “tourist attraction” we have seen in Ireland to date.
With the low clouds and mist coming off the sea we might as well have been on the set of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.
We spent a good three hours at the Cliffs before starting the drive back home.
On the return journey we drove back via Limerick where we dropped Emmy off so she could catch the bus to Dublin.
We finally arrived back home by 10 p.m.
If we learned anything from the trip it’s that Galway is cool, the Cliffs of Moher are dramatic, eye infections suck and despite the shaky start, Tarynne is actually a better driver than me.
AWAY2TRAVEL 