I feel like I've spent 80% of today on the computer looking at options for various flights for working trips and upcoming backpacking trips. I'm pleased to announce that,
having consulted with my diary and the weather fairies, I have set aside
*9th-16th May 2012*
for my first ever trip to Scotland.
On the itinerary will be EDINBURGH for sure, plus a few other places, e.g. DUNDEE, FIFE, KILLIN, GLASGOW... Please get in touch to let me know where you need me to be!
I will also be travelling to INVERNESS and generally gallavanting NORTH WESTWARDS to the HIGHLANDS, which I've heard so much about and can't wait to see.
Looking forward to hearing from you if you're interested in this!
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I'm also planning to visit Ireland, focussing on DUBLIN and the surrounding area. Preliminary dates for this are 19th-23rd May. As above, get in touch if you'd like me to model for you! :)
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I was lucky enough to go to Vancouver, Seattle and San Francisco recently. This was my first ever trip to Canada/USA, so it was really exciting! I stayed with a friend from uni who has emigrated to Vancouver, then we travelled south together for fun and adventures. Here are some holiday snapshots (probably poor quality as I've just experimented with a 'batch re-size' thingamajig) and my camera's just a (now covered in Yosemite Park tree sap) cybershot compact, but I love these!
One of many ridiculously picturesque ferry rides around the BC area (during which an australian thought I had an australian accent. Bizarre).This one was to Sechelt.
The shot below was taken by a man who happened to be heading the same way as me in Vancouver after the ferry, so offered to give me a lift, and ended up touristing me around Stanley Park and Granville Island along the way as he had some time to spare! I like canadians.
A dog I saw and demanded a photo of. Mutual drool.
Back on the ferry again. This time to Vancouver Island.
And back to Vancouver. I can see why my friend landed here and decided to stay!
'Have a balanced day.' Love it. This man was incredible, making people out of rocks, spending hours (or sometimes minutes, as we saw when I took this photo) balancing the tiniest points of rocks on top of others, feeling them in his hands with his eyes closed first to glean their exact point of gravity. Mesmerising.
This ice cream is the biggest ice cream I've ever eaten. This shot documents it AFTER I've eaten about two thirds already. I actually had to throw it away in the end. My friend and I couldn't finish it between us. Mango and Peach dollops. Delicious. (Ice cream delirium accounts for the closed eyes, perhaps?)
Some chocolates given to me by Michael Cordiez. We enjoyed the free-floating flower shaped ones which sat on top of all the others. :)
Museum of Anthropology.
(I can only imagine the philosophical depths the person coming up with the above plaque had to go to in order to surmise this bold fact)
Near the Columbia Sky Tower in Seattle:
The market in Seattle sells the most tongue swizzling array of dried, flavour-infused pasta. Yum!
San Francisco:
I made friends with the cable car driver in exchange for a few snaps of me and my friend:
Ghiradelli square... The most DECADENT hot chocolate was had here:
Motion shot! Quick reflexes needed to grab this one..:
'The Crookedest Street'. For someone who is used to streets as snake-like as these here in the UK, with the GRID SYSTEM being the exotic entity to me, I found it funny that this curvaceous route has become a tourist attraction in itself:
My friend had heard that a world-renowned gospel choir sings at Glide Church in San Francisco every Sunday morning, so we decided to go along to one of their services to listen. It was half sermon, half performance - a heady mix of extreme joy and inclusive, liberal love. The perfect way to start a Sunday morning!! A sneaky, very blurry, happy clappy shot:
Yosemite National Park. A deer!
Could it be more perfect?!?!
A MASSIVE highlight of the trip for me - real live rainbows caught in the mist of these waterfalls. 100% worth the steep hike. Really incredible; I don't think my shots do it justice at all. Everyone should go there.
Some useful bag-carrying Germans we found...
A bona fide
good man. This fella, Derrick, found my friend and I hitch hiking after we missed our connection (by being seven minutes EARLY, I kid you not) and drove us an hour and a half in the opposite direction when he'd just gone out for gas. Apparently he'd nearly died that morning (a propane accident) and wanted to re-pay some good karma for living! I wish I'd recorded his hour-long speech about morality and ethics and being the best you can be for those around you. Quite an honour to get a ride from him. 'My mama always said, be nice to women. You never know when you might need 'em!'
Alcatraz Island:
Depressing isn't it? I bought a book written by one of the prisoners above (Darwin Coon) and read it cover to cover during my 4-hour flight delay on the way home. The Alcatraz audio tour, btw, which everyone has to do if they want to visit the place, is brilliant. Definitely recommend it. It's even won awards, apparently.
The recreation yard:
Alcatraz gardens. This was so moving; the prisoners took real joy in helping out on these when they were allowed, being productive and creating something. The gardens still exist; Alcatraz Island is known for its wildlife and birds.
Just your average sign on an American bus:
First ever Ben & Jerrys to the left:
Our street, where a man was shot the day before we arrived:
Coolest bookshop in the world, famous for its support of the more radical/banned authors. I wandered around inside taking millions of photos of their free-thinking ways... then found a VERY cool and inspiring book to read that afternoon...
...Yeah!!!!
...and then revelled in this literary glory by paying a visit to the BRILLIANT Beat Museum:
'Oh God, how my toe itches!' - the Beat gang loved a bit of immediacy in their art:
