Castles and Boats and Bogs! Oh my!

Otherwise known as Howth Parth Deux.

The boats might be a lie, since I gave you boats in part one, however, I am happy to deliver more boats in this episode. Just so I'm not a liar. That's important.

As of the last post, I had just turned inland on my jaunt around the island of Howth. Just before turning inland the map promises a tower (Martello Tower to be precise) and when I reached my turn in point I could see the tower, but it was not nearly exciting enough to lure me off the path. When I hear of a tower I expect a proper tower (of at least fifty feet) but this one was maybe twenty feet and didn't look nearly as old or decrepit as I had been hoping. So, the tower was bypassed.

A brief digression: Martello Towers were built by the English to in the early 1800s as a means of maintaining heavy artillery. They became obsolete relatively quickly, but there are still a ton of them around wherever the English had a military presence in the 1800s (so most of the world). If you're really interested in the Martello Towers check out wikipedia.org for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martello_tower#Ireland (I don't normally recommend wikipedia as a source for research, but if it's just a cursory interest: go for it.)

So, I bypassed the tower (it was getting to be pretty late in the day, I wanted to see the castle still, and I had a meeting at Trinity later that afternoon) and continued inland. I was fairly well convinced that trekking through the interior of the island would be far less interesting that the walk around the cliffs, but I was wrong. (I'm going to try using a larger size picture today and see if that works any better. I think with the smaller size you end up losing a lot of detail).

After turning inland I had to hike up one of the larger hills on the island, but I was rewarded with a view of Dublin Bay. I have a bunch of pictures of the Bay, and I'll tell you where everything is, but I really like this picture of the bay because it almost looks like there used to be a gate here. (For the record, I love gates. I love taking pictures of them, and I am sure I will make a post all about gates in Ireland). Anyways, I had to share this picture because of the old feeling I got from it while I was taking the picture. Behind me are a bunch of houses, and while they aren't "modern" they certainly don't look old. Looking this way, over the water, made me feel as though I had stepped back in time a hundred years. That was a feeling I got a lot while I lived in Ireland. Sometimes I felt like I had gone back to a place where table manners counted, you still had to be introduced to a dancing partner, and no one went to their college classes in pajamas.

 This is Dublin Bay and the tiny strip of land that connects Howth with the mainland. The tiny strip of land is on the far right, the rest is of Dublin Bay. You can't see the mountains here, they are off in the distance, and they faded into the background with the overcast skies. The tides in Dublin are really extreme. I was staying on the southern end of the Dublin area (near Blackrock) and in the morning the tide would be so far out you could walk for nearly a mile out without getting to the water, but in the evening the water would be right up to the rocks along the road! Likewise the Liffey's depth (the river running through Dublin) changes several feet between high and low tides. The tide was pretty average since I was walking in the late afternoon, but in the morning there is a lot more sand than water in the bay. 

This picture was taken with a 4.3 megapixel camera!
Most of your phones have more megapixels than that.

I continued onward and had to walk through a golf course. There were a number of signs warning me to be quiet and not to disturb the players, so I didn't take any pictures of the golf course. Despite the cold weather and potential rainfall there were a lot of people still out on the course. As I was later told: if you wait for a day without rain to play golf in Ireland, you'll never play. This seems true. After that the trail got really muddy as I walked through a "bog." I was promised a "Bog of frogs" but the bog wasn't particularly boggy nor were there any frogs. The bog is on the same land as the big hotel (Deer Park) of Howth, so it makes sense that their bog is a bit more "upscale" than those found in the Wicklow Mountains. Speaking of the Wicklow Mountains: this is a picture of a bog in the Wicklow Mountains. It looks a lot more like a bog than Howth's "Bog of Frogs" so it's included here instead of the "Bog of Frogs." The "Bog of Frogs" and I also had a problem because it appeared as though a very, very old grave was near the path, but upon getting to the point where I believed it should be there was no way to get to it. With a muddy path and a meeting with a professor I hadn't yet met, I decided to forego the adventure to the grave and continue on the path.

The path was relatively uninteresting after the "bog" and I was soon in the residential part of Howth. The residential part, at least, that doesn't lie directly on the ocean (so where most people live who live in Howth). It looked a lot like other streets in "suburban" Dublin, at least the ones without the Georgian row houses, and since there were people out and about I decided not to take pictures as I try not to make people feel "exotic" (it's an uncomfortable feeling at best).

The next stop on my Howth trek was the castle! I LOVE castles. I think it must be because I am American and we have absolutely nothing like it in the States. The closest we can really come is the oil tycoon houses, and while they are impressive they aren't old, they've never been under siege, and they generally aren't in ruins. So I love castles. When I'm on a trip I always try to find a castle, and I'm amassing a decent collection at this point. I also like to find cathedrals, but that's a story for another day. So, when I saw Howth Castle on the map I could not pass up the chance to see this castle. The city of Dublin has its own castle, but at this point it doesn't look much like a castle anymore and it's a bit disappointing, so I was worried that Howth Castle would leave me feeling much the same. 

To my delight this was Howth Castle! It looks like a proper castle. I was ecstatic. The downside of Howth Castle? You can't get into it. Now, according to the tourism website there is a restaurant in the castle and there is also a cooking school here (and I think a transportation museum?).  Now, this is generally a cause of concern for me, I prefer my castles in an unadulterated state (I like them to look old and ruined like they are) not made into something they are not (like a transportation museum). However, there were signs all over the castle telling me I was not allowed near the castle and that I was not to trespass. These signs are usually warnings (I try not to ruin anything old by stepping on it, nor to put myself in danger). But if I want to walk around a castle and take pictures I will, sign or no sign. However, Howth Castle was right on the road into the Deer Park Hotel (the fancy schmancy hotel in Howth) and I looked a little like a bum (it was cold, and I had just walked several miles). Anyways, I certainly did not look as though I was a guest of the Deer Park Hotel and didn't want to push my luck.

 So I settled on taking some pictures near the front of the castle and near the gardens. The gardens are also supposedly open to the public, but as you can see they were not open the day I was there (look below). I was tempted to meander closer to the Deer Park Hotel, but the number of glares I got from Mercedes drivers led me to conclude I should just head back to Dublin and get ready for my meeting at TCD. That didn't disappoint me too much, I've seen plenty of fancy hotels while I've been in Ireland, and quite frankly, I wasn't sure how Deer Park would be greatly different. 

This picture of the locked gate into the gardens leads me to a  photography point I'd like to make. Most of my pictures from Howth have been in black and white, and as I said earlier this is because of the feel I got from the pictures as I was taking them and going through them later. There was something about the feel of autumn in the air, the wind, and the overcast sky that made me think these pictures belonged in black and white. So, instead of using the simple black and white tool on iphoto and leaving it at that, I also boosted or faded (it's also a simple button in iphoto) until I had what I liked. Black and white can feel a little two dimensional, so I adjusted so each black and white has a slightly different feel. Sometimes I would even un(de?)saturate the color until it was almost black and white. I also adjusted the shadow or the highlight to get the texture I wanted (all of this is under the adjust menu of iphoto). The picture of the garden, however, is not in black and white, but it's also not in color (as is the first picture of Howth Castle) it's a little brownish/reddish and that's because I used a filter. But wait! you ask, I thought you had a camera that doesn't use filters! 

If you thought that you are certainly correct. I cannot attach filters to my lens, however, that doesn't mean I can't use filters. In fact, I use my sunglasses. Several years ago I got some faux Coach sunglasses that have brown lenses, and in a stroke of genius last year I figured out that I could take pictures through my sunglasses! (If I could see through my sunglasses so could my camera) This was absolutely mindblowing for me. I mean it. It was like I had just discovered gravity. But it opened up a whole new world of options for me. I'll admit it is tricky to hold the sunglasses and the camera at the same time, but if I want to make an effect on picture (particularly in the fall when everything tends to be a bit warmer anyway) it's worth it. I have regular dark lenses too, and if I want to slow down my shutter speed without overexposing the film....ta da! This discovery changed how I take pictures. Forever. I don't have to be sad about not having cool filters (well I do, because some of the filters are pretty sweet....like the ones that are half and half) because I can make my own. I took five dollar sunglasses and used them with my camera to do something I wouldn't be able to do in iphoto and I don't otherwise have the capabilities of doing. Simple tricks go a long way to making your pictures unique.

Boats. I'm not a liar. Also, part of an old abbey.

Secret Fishing Village? OK!

Anyone who has spent much time in Ireland will tell you that Dublin isn't quite like the rest of the country. For one thing, Dublin is the largest city in Ireland. At about one million people, it is significantly larger than Galway, Belfast or Limerick (for the sake of argument I'm including a N. Irish city). Likewise, besides a few large cities most of Ireland is still centered around small villages. So, the countryside has a remarkably different feel from Dublin. And even Galway, the next largest city, has a radically different atmosphere than Dublin. So, any trip to Ireland that also doesn't include a jaunt out to the country is missing an integral part of Ireland.

The same, I imagine, can be said of nearly any place in the world. Living in Los Angeles (or a suburb nearby), I imagine if someone visited California but only went to LA they would have a very different idea of what California was than someone who went to LA, San Fran (and/or Napa), and Sequoia (or one of the other national parks). The same is true of my home state, Wisconsin, Milwaukee and Madison, the two largest cities, are not the same at all. Madison is home to the largest college in the state and so has the feel of a college town (it is also the seat of government and is on the whole more liberal). Milwaukee is a blue-collar big city. It has a history rich in manufacturing, and it is the home to Miller beer. The rest of Wisconsin, however, is largely small towns and deep woods. It's a beautiful state (I'll talk more about it later). But anyone spending time in only one of the cities would miss part of what makes Wisconsin what it is. But I digress...

My point in discussing the merits of visiting the countryside are not only to encourage everyone to go off the beaten tourist path (which they should!), but to show what makes Howth so awesome. My friends had been suggesting Howth as a day trip for a better part of two years. And, due largely to my failure to understand the DART, I finally went this past fall. Howth is only a half hour train ride outside of Dublin, so it's ridiculously close to the city. And because you can take the DART it's easy to get there and come back (especially for someone who prefers not to drive on the left side of the road). But Howth feels like it's several hours outside the city.

The above picture is of Howth Harbour and the houses nearest the water. It looks like a fishing village. It doesn't feel like a suburb of a major city at all. I really felt like I was stepping into a large(ish) village along the coast of Ireland. There isn't too much to do in Howth besides hike around the peninsula/island and eat seafood (both of which were good enough for me).  But if you don't really like to hike or don't like seafood (or both) you might be bored. There aren't any shops, and there's not a tour bus around the island. There is a golf course, and you can take a local bus to some of the places around the island, but really, it's a good place for hiking and for seafood.

I decided to do the 6km hike around half the island (there was a lighthouse, a bog, and a fort on the trail so it seemed like a good bet).  I equipped myself with a map of is the island (so I would have a general idea of where I was going) and set out. This is the beginning of my hike. Howth is rather hilly (not very hilly, but hilly enough) and it makes for some beautiful pictures. The day I was hiking it was a little chilly, overcast, and windy. I shot all my pictures in color, but I definitely got the feel from a lot of them that they would be better in black and white (it was just the feeling I got from looking at them). But more on that later.

The trail at Howth is well marked. The trails are even color coded with mile (or kilometer) markings on them. Being used to ill marked trails, I thought this was wonderful. And it was one of the easiest day hikes I've had in a long time.  

Because of all the hills on Howth there are a lot of cliffs along the water. The cliffs aren't very high, maybe 50-100ft (not compared with the Cliffs of Moher), but even still you don't want to jump in.  The colors while I was walking around Howth were really beautiful. There were a few purple flowers still hanging on, and the ferns were beginning to die so there was a beautiful mixture of green, yellow, and brown covering the hillisides. The first picture gives you a little glimpse as to what they looked like. The second picture is oddly shaped, because after looking at the original shot, I decided this was the most interesting part, so I cropped it way, way down. Now, it looks almost panoramic but not quite.

My Howth pictures were a little difficult because of the overcast sky. It was still bright out, but with the sky being overcast, in a lot of the pictures it disappears unless there are definite layers in the cloud cover (like in picture two). A lot of photographers use filers or special types of flashes to get around this problem, but I don't have either of those gadgets (if I want a filter I'll use a pair of sunglasses), so I'm usually just stuck with whatever natural light I happen to get. This used to really bother me, and sometimes it still does, but now I try to work with what I have rather than alter it. I think it's all right that my sky disappeared in the above picture because the sky isn't the focal point of the picture, the cliff is (and the water provides a contrasting background). 

The picture I use as my profile picture was taken on this hike, and it is of Bailey Lighthouse. I worked really hard to get as close as possible to the lighthouse, but short of ignoring a "No Trespassing" sign and walking through a helipad in direct view of the house or wandering around the edges of some cliffs in strong winds, there was no way I was getting as close as I wanted to the lighthouse. Signs and I have a love/hate relationship, I normally try to obey them especially when someone's privacy is at stake. However, if it looks like a sign is merely there as a half-hearted deterrent I'll take it more as a suggestion (more of this will be discussed when we go to the Cliffs of Moher). Anyways, I wasn't about to risk my life to get some shots of the lighthouse, so I didn't go any closer than this (the helipad was at the top of the hill on the right edge of the frame). I took a lot of pictures of the lighthouse, and when I discuss my photography attempts I'll show them to you and we'll discuss them. As well as some of the photoshop tricks I tried (and am still trying) out with them. 

 Bailey Lighthouse was really pretty. Although it would have been prettier if I could have gotten closer to the lighthouse, but I still had a bog and a fort to see before I went to find the castle so I continued on. The trail went along the coast for another hour and a half or so before it turned inland along a golf course.

The following four pictures document the progression of my hike along the coast. The first one is, obviously, a picture of the Howth coastline. The beaches along the coast aren't particularly large because of the cliffs (I assume). The beaches are also very rocky, although from what I gathered in my Howth brochure this is a big family destination during the summer months. A lot of families will head up to Howth and play at the beach. In the distance of the first picture you can see "mainland" Dublin stretch out against the Wicklow mountains (where Braveheart was filmed).

I added the second picture for aesthetic reasons. I like this picture because my horizon line is high, my tree hits the rule of thirds, and the empty space makes the picture interesting. I'll talk more about all this later. Also, I like how solitary this picture feels. I was mostly alone on my hike. There were some other people on the hike at the beginning (when the long trail I was on was still connected with the three shorter trails), but pretty soon it was just me. I used to hate doing things alone, as though that somehow made me a pariah, but now that I've properly lived alone in a foreign country I don't mind so much. So, I like this picture (and sometimes that's the most important thing).

The third picture is of the "trail" I was on. I think trail is a rather loose term because it was so well kept and well marked that I hardly felt like I was hiking. I felt like it was more of a wilderness walk on an unpaved path. Anyways, it was a lovely path that eventually wound through some people's yards, so that was neat to see (and I also felt like I was somehow invading their privacy).

This last picture is a close up of the beach (or at least one of the beaches it was easy to get close to). Most of the beaches were tantalizingly close. Just a steep twenty feet away. And while I was certain I could get down, I was less certain about getting back up again (all I had with me was my camera, a book, and a scone). A lot of the beaches were quite dirty, it looked like kids would go down there at night and would leave their garbage. The trails never close nor are the trails part of a larger park that can be locked up, so I imagine they have to work hard to keep people from getting into trouble at night. Anyways, this was a little beach I finally got to, and it was really quite beautiful. I made it black and white to keep with the feel of the other pictures (although if you've noticed by now, the black and whites aren't all the same).

At the risk of writing an epic blog entry, I am going to conclude my adventure in Howth for the moment when the hike turns inland. Meaning I still have some bog pictures and a castle, as well as an aesthetic discussion about my pictures before wrapping up this one day jaunt into the countryside of Dublin. Howth is a wonderful village, particularly if you are only in Ireland for a day or two (on an epic tour of Europe). You get a great feel of the countryside without having to travel for several hours in a car. But, we'll talk more about that later.