Europe Trip - Part 3 - Amsterdam

Paris was my favorite, but Amsterdam was probably the most fun city we visited. We took the train from Paris to Amsterdam. It was just over 4 hours and we got to see the country side of France and Belgium. An interesting fact: we did not have to go through customs at the train station.

We stayed at a really nice hostel near Vondel Park. Amsterdam is a relatively small city so we were in a good position to see all the sights. Though we could have probably walked everywhere, we picked up a 72 hour tram pass, which helped out dramatically.

The sights in Amsterdam:

• Van Gogh Museum - This was really amazing, my mom would be so jealous!
• Canal Cruise - Though this was super-touristy, it was really cool and an amazing opportunity for photos. The photo above was taken off the stern of our canal boat.
• Heineken Experience - One of the most elaborate brewery tours I have ever been to. This is a must see if you are a beer drinker in Amsterdam!
• Rijksmuseum - Absolutely stunning. They have swords, guns, and a gigantic model of a 72-gun Dutch man of war ship. Though the real amazement came from the plethora of Rembrandt paintings, as well as many of his students, such as Vermeer.
• Red Light District - I was expecting the prostitute zone to be ferreted away on some back alley, but it is in the very center of the city. Though no one in our party was keen on soliciting the services of the local business ladies, it was really interesting to check out. We also checked out the Casa Rosso theater for some local uh... flair!

We spend our leisure times checking out local pubs and eateries. Mike tried a local delight: raw ox meat sausage. Though it sounds revolting, it was actually really good.

We spent two and a half days in Amsterdam before we had to head back to the States. I had an amazing time on the trip, I highly recommend that everyone take at least one trip through Europe, you will not regret it!

Europe Trip - Part 2 - Paris

We hopped a plane from London to Paris. This took a big chunk of the day and we ended up getting to our hostel in the Montmarte area of Paris later on in the day. After checking in we found a local pizza place and relaxed a bit for dinner. Somehow I kept getting anchovies on each of my meals throughout Paris, and come to find out that I hate anchovies. My pizza had anchovies, but it was still good. Later on that night I went for a walk and grabbed the photo shown here.

We spent the next two full days walking around Paris, seeing the sights and taking many photos. The metro in Paris is amazing and we were able to see a lot of sights:

• Notre Dame - Yes it is cliché, but it is amazing, also they allow photos inside, as the St. Paul Cathedral in London did not. I tried out getting some bracketed photos for HDR, here is what I ended up with.
• Musée d'Orsay - This was one of my favorite museums of the trip. Since the Louvre was closed that day, the Orsay was free! My favorite pieces were the Rodin sculptures and a couple of Van Goghs.
• Pompidou - Though it was closed, it the outside of the museum is a big part of the attraction. All of the technical fixtures (pipes, vents, etc) for the building are on the outside.
• Louvre - Another cliché, but it really is a must-see. The building itself is an amazingly gigantic palace. There is great art, but there is a lot of filler art as well to fill such a large space. I did see the Mona Lisa, even I am not immune to being a total tourist.
• Montparnasse - The tallest skyscraper in Paris is here, though on the day we visited the top was shrouded in fog, so we did not bother going to the top. We did, however, check out the cemetery here, which was really cool.
• Eiffel Tower - Again my touristy impulses drove me to this popular spot. We were not disappointed though, the sun had just gone down and the lights had come on. I nabbed this shot.

We had my favorite meal on the trip in Paris. It was a local shop near Notre Dame. I had onion soup, and it was incredible. I guess they don't call it "French" onion soup for no good reason! We also met some great German, Canadian, British, and Australian people at our hostel and spent a night sharing drinks and stories with them.

Paris was my favorite city on the trip, I plan on learning to speak French and going back to France to investigate the country outside of the city. Much of the appeal of Paris to me was just walking around the city. It is absolutely stunning.

Europe Trip - Part 1 - London

From December 4th through December 13th 2009 I was traveling Europe with my two friends; Dave and Mike. Mike and I had some paid time off to cash in and Dave is on sabbatical from work until January, so the three of us decided to take a whirlwind trip through Europe. Our first stop was London, England.

London was the easiest and probably the most boring city to travel in. Everyone there speaks English, which is helpful, especially with it being our first stop in Europe. Our first day saw us hopping out of the metro at Piccadilly Circus. We hiked south to check out Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey. These attractions are all near each other, making it a convenient first attraction for us to check out. Afterwards we hit up what ended up being a tourist trap Italian restaurant. While my pesto spinach lasagna was rather tasty, Dave's sheppard's pie and Mike's fish and chips were less than satisfactory. Also, it cost us an arm and a leg, not to mention that the only beer they had was lame.

After lunch we headed north and checked out the National Gallery and British Museum. In London most of the museums were free of charge and they allow photography, which was amazing! These two museums were what you would expect from a traditional museum. The National Gallery was full to the brim with paintings from throughout all of artistic history. The British Museum was similar to what you would find in a Hollywood history museum; Egypt sculptures, Greek statues, and old stuff from cultures around the world. Both museums were a bit generic, but still really cool.

After scouring London all day we checked into our hostel; Palmer's Lodge. We were in a 30-bed room, but the place had free wifi and a bar in the basement! We settled in then checked a nearby pizza chain called Pizza Express. It was actually one of our best and cheapest meals of the trip, I highly recommend it.

Day two saw us at St. Paul's Cathedral. This is one of the most massive and beautiful buildings in London, I was completely blown away. We walked around it and then checked out the inside, which was equally stunning. Though the do not allow photography inside, I was able to sneak a quick video. Shhhh its a secret!

We then took the Millennium Bridge across the River Thames to the Tate Museum. Above is a photo I took of the bridge as I passed under it. The Tate was full of a lot of modern art, which is not my favorite, but was fun nonetheless. Did I mention it was also free? I like free things! After the Tate we wandered east a bit and grabbed some food from a street vendor. To finish the night we crossed London Bridge and got a stunning view of Tower Bridge as the sun fled the sky.

By this time it was late afternoon on a Sunday in London, which apparently means that most every shop in town closes up. Fortunately for us our hostel had a bar! We spend the rest of the night drinking hard cider and enjoying free wifi internet.

The next morning we hit up a local joint for some English Breakfast and ciders before boarding the bus to the airport; for Paris awaited us!

I am processing photos from the trip as I type this, they will show up on my flickr photostream.

September and the Portland Pirate Festival

September has been a crazy busy month. Work has been a madhouse, we have all been pulling some long hours, hence, no blog post in a couple weeks. This past weekend, however, was the Portland Pirate Festival. Each year around this time our gang puts on our best pirate garb and heads down to PDX for merriment and fun... dressed as pirates!

This is an extremely memorable event as last year I took the opportunity to propose to my now-fiance Brittany.

We also went to the Chinese Gardens in Portland, of course I took a bunch of photos. You can see a couple of them on my flickr photo stream.

Hurricane Hill Hike

Me, Britt, Mike, and Erin spent the weekend camping and hiking in the wilds south of Port Angeles, WA near Lake Mills. The hike up Hurricane Hill was a real challenge, but Mike and Erin pushed us to get to the top. I am extremely glad that we made it to the top, we were rewarded witha breathtaking view of the lake and valley far below us. Along with some photos, I shot made a time-lapse by putting together 120 photos that were shot every 5 seconds.

Flickr photostream

High atop Hurricane Hill from William Doran on Vimeo.

Camping/Hiking on Mount Rainier

This past weekend our gang of pals headed down to Mount Rainier National Park to camp and hike for the weekend. I was eager to try out my new Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 lens. You can see the lens in action in this photo taken by Nate Zimmer. There is me taking a shot with the friendly chipmunk roughly 6" from the lens and the corresponding photo! That shot was taken at the Fremont Lookout, at over 7,100 feet!

Britt has been getting into photography, which is awesome! I gave her my Nikon D60 and she went nuts! She even started her own Flickr page! It is truely exciting to have your fiance get into your hobbies with you.

I put a few of my shots from the journey up my flickr.

4th of July Weekend!

This past weekend, 4th of July weekend, my mom flew in from NY and we had a blast! On our first day's adventure we took a trip up to Deception Pass. Day two took us through the Seattle Arboretum and downtown Seattle. That night we shot off fireworks at Nate's parent's house to celebrate the birth of our country. Day three found our cheeky adventurers in Mount Rainier State park.

The weather held up for us beautifully all weekend long and we were able to take a lot of amazing photographs! I have posted a bunch of those photos on my flickr photostream.

Upstate New York Trip

This past weekend I took a couple days off work and flew to New York to hang out with friends and family from back home.  It was a crazy busy time, but it was also a BLAST!  It was a really great time had by everyone, and I took over 1100 photos, including this one of old Katy Whiteface, the family dog.  Activities included but were not limited to:

• Shooting photos for a wedding with my ma.
  
• Helping dad work on little bro's house.
• Sake bombs in Ithaca with the brothers and friends.
• Shooting photos of little bro's soccer game.
• Hiking up Buttermilk Falls in Ithaca.

Vimeo Video Test

I Recently picked up a Kodak Zi6 HD pocket video camera. This thing is so much fun, I keep it on my person almost all the time. So, I have been bouncing around, looking for a decent site to host videos and I came across Vimeo. I like their embedded video player and they allow 1 HD video per week as well as 500 megs/week of VGA video for their free accounts.
I figured I would give them a try! This is a video from my recent trip to Hawaii on the coast of the Big Island just north of Hilo.