These last two days have been crazy!
The rain!!!!!!!!! completely wet from the morning
to the evening!
yesterday was terrible, couldn’t do anything. I wanted to visit a manor, it was closed… and this morning, went to a beautiful garden and farm in the middle of nowhere, got completely wet, and muddy… then my mobile broke down, the screen went completely white…couldn t find the way back, and ended up in a field in front of a big bull. I ran away until I found a road, and thumbed a lift. the man who gave me a lift was going to Maynooth (where i wanted to go), but he had something to do in Straffan first.
Once at straffan, I got out of the car, as I saw a man with a guinness umbrella looking at the river, and I wanted to take a picture of him. After a photo we started to talk, he was here for the european open in the K club, and gave me a free entry pass. I spent my afternoon watching the golfers (still under the rain).
It was the first time I attended a golf competition. To be completely honest, I hadn’t even heard about the Smurfit European Open before, and yet I still got a chance to get in to photograph the event. Then I saw a crowd around a man, I thought It might be somebody famous. I asked somebody in the crowd who told me it was the legendary Ian Woosnam, the winner of so many championships.
I decided to approach him. He very kindly obliged and honoured my request for an autograph. Still feeling a little brave, or cheeky, I asked him if it would be ok to take his picture with me for myguideIreland. He was really friendly with me, and showed as much interest in where I came from, and what I was doing here, as I had for him. A Hole in One, on an otherwise wet day.
July 9th, 2007
I’m glad to say that the gallery seems to be at last functioning as a gallery. and that our intrepid explorers are populating the albums with their work. I must also say that the standards being set for photography are going to make a real challenge for our summer of travellers next year.
I particularly like this from David Wilkinson’s talent, showing a priest in Doolin, Co. Clare. As well as being remeniscent of a scene from ‘Ryan’s Daughter’ this image also has a beautiful little punchline of humour when you zoom up close. What else could complete such a story in this image better than a half pint in the priest’s hand,…poetry….thank’s David.
Agnes Abou Assaf is doing remarkably well in what I would concider to be our most difficult regions, the Midlands East, containing eight counties, with it’s attractions mostly off the beaten track, especially if your hitch hiking. But she is still managing to fill her albums with quality images despite the weather, and with the possitive attiude that she always brings to her work.
Erin, at last, Waterford crystal,..our most famous product, I was starved for good images from the factory. Some realy nice work in your albums on the craftsmen, thank you.
Although Joy is up in the North west writing, she still manages to find time to photograph her experiences and share them with us in the gallery, who would have thought that you could find a Buddhist Retreat in Co. Cavan?
Keep up the good work and look forward to meeting up with you all later this month.
Philip Watkin
July 3rd, 2007
After some long tedious hours cursing, playing and changing our image gallery we finally have it working and ready for our eager photographers to start piling their images in so that we can all get a look at their work.
The sooner we get these the sooner we can start posting this great content to our website.
I hope to have a link up soon to our gallery so that we can get some feedback on whats in there.
June 28th, 2007
While we are still having problems with our gallery, the travel writers out there namely, Joe, Joy, Paul and Liz continue to submit articles of high quality day after day despite the problems they are encountering with broadband across our so called first world country!
I’m sure you will enjoy the articles of which I’m going to publish some examples tomorrow.
So check back soon and make up your mind.
June 27th, 2007
After a few hectic weeks and months and a lot of planning between myguideTravel, Tourism Ireland and all the 2007 participants, Summer of Travel has finally begun in earnest.
Last Wednesday myself (Robert Carpenter) and Philip Watkin made the long journey from our West Cork office to the Hotel Meyrick in Galway to meet all this years eager writers and photographers. After 6 hours in the car we got to meet and say hello to Joy (and her husband Paul), David, Liz, Erin, Joe and Agnes.
We all sat down for a nice dinner and used this opportunity to get to know each other a little better and provide answers to all their questions and ask some questions of our own. Everyone had questions on their assigned regions - methods of transport, internet accessibility, accommodation, camping facilities, car rental and car purchase to name but a few.
On the Thursday we ran a workshop in the Hotel which we used to tell everyone a little more about our company and the programs objectives as well as the priorities namely content submission (uploading images to our gallery and sending through of Travel articles) , using Spark our in-house communications tool, accommodation listings and some regional information.
The participants will be expected to submit content weekly which will then be reviewed by myguideTravel and Tourism Ireland and eventually published to our websites and made available for third party use.
After some internet problems in the hotel and some last minute car organising, we finally got through everything and then it was time to say goodbye and let all the guys and girls loose on Ireland to explore, experience and share their tales throughout their travels in Ireland.
Here’s looking forward to the content they produce and make sure to come back and sample some of their work of which i expect to have some at the end of this week.
June 12th, 2007
Joe is our travel writer from Washington. He is a student in George Mason University studying both International Policy and Communications. Having travelled extensively Joe has made friends in many places throughout the world, including Dublin, his region of interest. He is also a professional singer and dancer, which should stand him in good stead when it comes to the craic!
June 11th, 2007
Hailing from Muncie, Indiana, Erin has a Bachelors degree in Arts. Being no stranger to Ireland, having been here during the St. Patrick’s Day festivities last year, Erin hopes to explore our country in minute detail over her three month stay. She will be photographing the South East region.
June 11th, 2007
A prolific writer with a passion for travel, Elizabeth will join forces with her partner David Wilkinson writing in the Cork-Kerry, and Shannon regions. Elizabeth graduated in English Literature and History from Swarthmore College and has studied here in Trinity College. She has already created a Guide to Limerick.
June 11th, 2007
Having graduated from metropolitan state with a degree in philosophy David also has a deep passion for photography. Travelling with his partner Elizabeth O’Malley, he will be creating images of both Cork/Kerry and Shannon regions.
June 11th, 2007
One of our own, Agnes is currently undergoing an internship at myguideIreland, in the French market. Agnes has been involved for six years in the travel industry in both France and England. As well as being a skilled writer, she is a keen photographer and will be producing images of the Midlands East region.
June 11th, 2007
Previous Posts
