If you live in Minnesota or Wisconsin, the Border Battle is a big deal to football fans. Since I’m only a KU Jayhawks men’s basketball and NHL hockey fan, this match-up is just fun to watch. As a side note: photo was taken at a personal favorite place in Wisconsin with free wifi, and the Packers had just scored a touchdown.
As my high school theology professor used to pray before every game, “May the best talent win, and may no one suffer life changing pain.”
Day 4 of Photo 365: Winter Skate in downtown Saint Paul on a lovely night.
Every First Thursday in Northeast Minneapolis the art district throws open its studio doors. Husband and I went to the Solar Arts Building tonight to check out the art, and this door (and its breaking of the rules) made me giggle.
The Union Depot in the Lowertown district of downtown Saint Paul, Minn. was recently renovated, and it’s a beautiful display of light, both inside and out. This picture was taken outside the Depot on my evening stroll through the neighborhood.
My friend Mykl proposed a 2013 photo-a-day project on Facebook, which intrigued me. I did a photo-a-day project several years back for one month, and it was challenging and equally fun.
So I’ve joined the project and know that posting to my blog will inspire me to write more, shoot more, and share more, using predominately mobile devices. Those are my quasi-New Year’s resolutions.
And today is the mundane – part of my breakfast, actually. Husband and I spent the weekend in Duluth, Minnesota, and fell in love with the breakfasts at Duluth Grill (the same grill featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives). Adhering to a vegan lifestyle can make travel a challenge, but Duluth has a host of restaurants with vegan selections, and Duluth Grill is a rock star for organic or locally grown food with plenty of vegan options.
My first picture of Photo 365 is “Red Hash” as it’s listed on the menu at Duluth Grill. The melody of pan seared sweet potatoes, beets, caramelized onions and green peppers is divine.
I’ve been going through photographs from my last trip, trying to think about what I can share that isn’t mundane or trivial. I have a feeling a lot of small stories will pop into my head over the coming months. And what’s the small story that keeps popping into my head over and over again? Not the beauty of Prague’s architecture. Not shopping tips for the Great Market Hall in Budapest. No, it’s about how to take a train from České Budějovice in the Czech Republic to Vienna, Austria.
I feel like I should write about this because the stress of a non-English speaking conductor pointing out the window and yelling “AUTOBUS!” is more traumatic than you can image. Especially when you’re going clickity-clackity on a train through the Czech countryside at 80 MPH. What bus??
Fountain in city center
Budějovice or Budvar, as it’s commonly referred to, has one of the prettiest center squares I have seen on my travels. It’s massive in size and has an elaborate water fountain in the center. I’m guessing the reason(s) many people might stop at Budvar on the route from Prague to Vienna is for the same reasons we did: 1) someone in your party wants to see the beautiful square (me); and 2) someone in your party wants to go on a beer tour at the Budweiser Brewery (Husband).
We saw the square but never made it to the brewery (we tried, we really did). After 36 hours of snapping all the pictures our memory cards could handle and continually struggling with Pictionary-like sketching for communication, we hit the road once again on the train bound for Vienna.
There are sub-stories to this story, but I will stick to my point. Even though the Eurail map indicated there was a direct train from Budvar to Vienna, even though the nice young man at the ticket counter nodded his head and said, “Yah, Wein” when I confirmed which train to take – even then – I wouldn’t call the train from Budvar to Vienna a direct route.
If you decide to journey from České Budějovice to Vienna, be prepared.
Congratulations. You have crossed the border into Austria.
Today it is funny to think back about this experience, especially since we had wild stories made up in our heads about what people were actually saying to us in Czech. The basic fact is that the train tracks stop – as in, end completely – and the rail line carts you to the next station, which was extremely close to the border. This experience almost rivals the time when we hit the border of Slovakia, and men dressed in uniform carrying semi-automatic rifles stormed the train car yelled, “Passports! Passports!”
But that’s for another day …
Once I am overseas, I travel blindly when it comes to finances. I just don’t want to know how much the Euro is really costing me. But this trip took us to Central Europe, and I was always curious about how cheap dinner – or how expensive a hotel really was.
As we romped around, my trusty financial wizard was GlobeConvert, a handy free iPhone app that I found myself using repeatedly. Known as Convert once downloaded from the Apple App Store, the app converts over 190 different currencies, temperature, weight, distance and speed, just to name a few. I also liked the fact that I could preset favorites in advance and easily flip to new currencies whenever we crossed the border.
The only catch is that you need to be connected to Wifi or 3G to use the app, but found most cafes will give passwords to customers.
You can find more about more Globe products on its website.
Recently I’ve been exposed to a lot of street photography, and the best thing has happened because of it. I’ve been inspired.
As I’ve mentioned before in this blog, I get very hung up on taking the perfect picture. Even though I never shoot the perfect picture, I still strive for it.
That also means that I don’t shoot at will, nor do I shoot often enough. I wait.
With departure for the Great Central European Vacation just three days away, I have talked my inner perfect picture freak into shooting madly during this holiday. I’m going to take pictures of everything. And I’m going to take as many pictures of street scenes as I can. It’s my favorite thing to view in a gallery, so why shouldn’t I take pictures of something I love? They might be blurry, have sun spots, odd facial expressions – but I’m still going to do it. (Okay, perfect picture freak?)
Results to come.
In 2011 husband and I drove over 4,000 miles throughout the United States for our summer vacation. Road trips are our specialty. We both love to see the countryside through a car window, and eight hours of driving is considered a good day.
However, it was the first year I hadn’t been overseas since 2005, and the thought of taking a big plane over the ocean began to pull on me almost as soon as we got home from the Great American Road Trip.
So back to Europe we go, starting in Prague, then dropping to Vienna for a few days (one of our favorite cities that requires another visit), and finishing off with a week in Budapest. Hopefully there will be day trips and stops along the way as we country jump on Eurail. Historically we dump our plans once settled into our vacation, so we’ll see where we really end up.
I am looking forward to street markets and language barriers and the smell of a neighborhood bakery. I am looking forward to the comfort that Europe brings to me, the quieting of my somewhat-chaotic mind and the reminder to enjoy life with family, good food and a glass of wine.
The map is the route we have sketched out so far. Do you have favorite sights or experiences from any of these cities? Let me know. Any and all suggestions are welcome!
During a quick trip to Arizona, husband and I visited the south rim of the Grand Canyon, then swung north to Page, Ariz. to photograph Antelope Canyon. I coined the trip “Our Rock Vacation” because when I came home, that’s all I had pictures of – beautiful vistas, soaring mesas and curvaceous rock formations.
For those interested in photography, here are a few tips about Antelope Canyon.
1. We read that Upper Antelope Canyon was more touristy and required a guided tour. While some believe the Upper Canyon is more beautiful, we opted for Lower Antelope Canyon to stay away from the crowds.
2. In Lower Antelope Canyon, if you show your SLR camera on a tripod, you are given a photographer’s pass for two hours that allows you to tour the slot canyon on your own.
3. SAND. The winds were 20-30 MPH when we were at the canyon, and sand was swirling in every direction. Make sure your memory cards and batteries are installed before you get inside the canyon.
4. In the upper part of the canyon, we were told light is best between 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. For the lower part of the
canyon, light is better after 1:00 p.m. We were at the canyon between 12:30-2:30 p.m., and the light conditions weren’t bad at all.
The entrance into the canyon is very narrow. Photo bags need a shove to make it through the slot, and sucking in your stomach might be required for some! I was without a tripod and just had a small day bag. While my pictures might have been clearer if my camera was mounted on a tripod, I was glad I didn’t have too much equipment on me.
Happy shooting!
Antelope Canyon is part of the Navajo Nation’s Parks and Recreation Service. Lower Canyon is located on Highway 98 outside of Page, Ariz. Driving from Page, the turn-off to Lower Canyon is on your left, and is not well marked like the Upper Canyon entrance. If you pass the power plant, you’ve gone too far.
Travel Snapshots 