Flashbacks: Shutter View – Lokrum, Croatia
// July 28th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Photography, Travel
Blogging While Traveling: Is it WORTH it?
// July 16th, 2008 // 3 Comments » // Travel, Travel Tips
In the beginning I was told that keeping a blog while traveling would be nearly impossible. With the availability of internet and open Wi-Fi connections across Europe, and the sheer work load of writing in depth each night about my experiences in all of the cities and countries that I would soon be visiting, I knew this would be quite the task!
After completing three full months of blogging on the road, I truly found out how difficult it actually is to find time to sit down each night and put my day, thoughts and experiences down on paper or on the web in this case. Not only did I have to worry about writing often enough but I also knew that I had to make every blog entry interesting and read worthy. It had to be interesting enough that people from all over the world would actually look forward to tuning in to read what I had been up to and where I’ve traveled to over the past few days. I needed to find a way to engrave my website into my visitors heads and make them want to come back for more every day or two.
Before creating PauseTheMoment.com I would have never labeled myself as a writer, never mind a good one. After researching about the difficulties of keeping a personal travel blog, I didn’t think that I could possibly maintain a full on blog for a week never mind a few months. I underestimated myself as most would if they were in my situation. I now feel that overcoming my fears, and creating a fairly successful travel blog has not only been an incredible personal achievement, but it was one of the best decisions that I could’ve ever made. I wouldn’t change it for the world!
The best part about it all is that I now have an archive of great memories, stories, photos, videos, and more to look back on for years to come. I now plan on printing my entire journey to Europe in book form so that I can have an actual hard copy of it hanging around. How great will it be to be able to have a hard copy of my entire trip in arms reach at all times?
If you are thinking about starting your own personal blog of your travels or adventures, my advice is to go through with it! Understand that there will be a lot of hard work and effort involved but if you succeed in keeping it up to date you won’t regret a single minute that you spent on it. Good luck, and when you’re struggling to decide whether you should continue writing, or just quit and take the easy way out, KEEP ON KEEPING ON!
Flashbacks: Ray of Light – Castellana di Grotte, Italy
// July 16th, 2008 // No Comments » // Italy, Photography, Travel
A Surprise Flight Back to Boston!
// July 15th, 2008 // No Comments » // News & Announcements, Travel
Guess who’s back? Yes, it’s true! While I’m very sad to leave Europe and all of it’s crazy ways, I’m also happy to say that I’ll be able to sleep in my own comfy bed (after sleeping in more than 28 different beds across Europe), eat a nice fat American cheese burger with a side of fries not “chips”, drive my car again for the first time in three months and most of all be home to celebrate my mothers birthday with her. I won’t tell you how old she’ll be next week, but I will tell you that it’s a BIG one!
I’ve just returned from an amazing three month trip to Europe which allowed me to visit over 38 cities in 14 different countries during my stay. The things that I’ve seen, and experienced over the last three months cannot be justified in words, or photos.
My trip to Europe was a trip of a lifetime. It is something that many dream of, and an experience that most never get to live out. This trip has truly changed me as a person and my general outlook on life. I’m now returning with the a mind that is far more open than I thought it ever could be.
I have dreams of traveling again to many more cities, countries and even continents but unfortunately for now I will have to settle for the typical daily grind. I have no set plans as of yet for what I will do next but I’m definitely not finished traveling! After traveling through Europe, I’ve realized how many other interesting places there are in the world that are calling my name, just begging for me to encounter and explore them. I will get to these far away places one day, it’s just a matter of time.
—
I’d like to send out thanks to each and every visitor from around the world that has visited Pause The Moment religiously over the last few months and even the ones that checked back in every now and then. There were many times that I contemplated on giving up but every time that I logged in to check the visitor statistics for PTM you always made me change my mind! YOU (the visitors) are one of the major reasons that I kept PTM up to date and that I now have a personal archive of stories, photos, videos and more to look back on for years to come.
As most of you know by now, I love hearing from my visitors! Over the course of the last few months, I’ve tried my best to reply to each and every email and comment that has come through my site. Your feedback has always been greatly appreciated and will continue to be. If you have any questions, comments, or just want to chat… be sure to Contact Me!
A Day of Sights, and Music in Dublin…
// July 12th, 2008 // No Comments » // Ireland, Travel
My uncle and I headed into the city to run some errands for my grandmother who lives one block from O’Connell Street in Dublin City Center. Quite convenient huh? As we were walking down to the bank we walked by this statue of a hand that is behind these tall black gates that are usually locked.
I’ve walked past this statue about 3 million times at this point and each and every time I walk by it I think to myself… I wish I could just run in there real quick and jump up into the hand for a photo.
The first time that I walked by a few weeks ago the gates were open but unfortunately I didn’t have anybody with me to take the photo. But today I was in luck! Not only were the gates open, but my uncle was with me so he could be the designated photographer. Nice!
“The Hand” statue is my little secret because it’s not easy to find. It’s not smack dab in the middle of the city, and most visitors to Dublin have probably never seen it. It’s one of the many cool things to see during your stay in Dublin, but maybe I’ll keep it secret and we’ll see if you can find it on your own! That makes it more fun, doesn’t it?
Afterwards I headed down O’Connell Street past the G.P.O and over to the Ha’Penny bridge to snap a few photos while the weather was good. Good weather here lately is any day that it’s not raining! It had been very overcast for most of the day but hey, at least it’s not raining!
I crossed over the Ha’Penny towards Temple Bar where I spent a while listening to some buskers (street performers) play their music and although it’s somewhat rare to hear actual quality music, a few of these guys were great!
I have to say, there’s nothing better than coming down to Temple Bar on a nice day when everyone is out and the buskers are on every corner. It’s amazing to see some of these musicians with so much talent, yet most of them will never be discovered.
Until next time…
Flashbacks: Crooked Clock Tower of Kotor – Kotor, Montenegro!
// July 11th, 2008 // No Comments » // Montenegro, Photography, Travel
How to Book the Best Airline Seat…
// July 10th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Travel, Travel Tips
You know when you book yourself a flight and then you’re prompted to pick your seat? I don’t know about you, but for me this is a daunting task! If you’re like me, you take one look at this airplane seating chart and you think to yourself, well if I sit at the absolute front of the plane I’ll get the most leg room and I’ll be first off of the plane!
Being first off the plane might be great and all, but remember that most parents with infants snag seats right up front too so that they can use the baby trays that are attached to the walls. Believe me, I experienced a six hour scream fest of a flight on my way from Boston to Dublin back in April of 2008 due to a baby sitting across from me. Not cool!
Well, we’re all in luck now because some absolute genius has set up a website called (www.seatguru.com) that shows the seating charts of more than 50 Airlines! Not only can you see the actual seating chart of the actual plane that you’ll be flying on, but you can also find out everything you need to know about where the best seat on the plane is, which seats have the most leg room, which seats are exit seats, which seats do and do not recline all the way back, and best of all which seats reside right next to those fantastic smelling airplane lavatories! Mmm!
Check out SeatGuru now, for your own sanity!
Rest and Relaxation in Dublin…
// July 9th, 2008 // No Comments » // News & Announcements, Travel
I’m sure many of you have been wondering what I’ve been up to lately and why you haven’t heard any news about me heading off on another crazy journey through Europe for weeks, even months on end. Well, after 3 jam-packed months of travel to over 38 cities and 14 countries with more than 7 flights, 10 trains, 5 ferries, and 2 bus rides… it’s time for some rest and relaxation!
I’m so relaxed that my aunt and uncle are actually worried about me. They are constantly worried that I’m bored, or even depressed due to the lack of sunshine in Dublin lately. I think it might also have to do with that this has probably been the longest period of time that I’ve been in their house since I arrived in Dublin back in April. I basically dropped my bags here and took of across Europe only coming back for a couple of days here and there. It’s been so convenient to have a home base here in Dublin and honestly, I couldn’t be more appreciative.
On the topic of being bored, I don’t even know what boredom feels like! Since Liz headed home for the states this past Sunday I have had so much work to do on the site. I’ve been pretty busy all week doing site maintenance, organizing the categories and tags to make it easier for you to search, editing and uploading new videos, fixing the subscription based email updates, promoting the website (spread the word!), and most of all captioning some of the nearly 1600 photos from the trip!
My plans for the rest of this week are really to just to hang out and relax. I think that I’ll look for some last minute travel deals for next week so that I can take off for another week or two. We’ll see what happens!
Rewind 23 years…
// July 7th, 2008 // No Comments » // Ireland, Photography, Travel
This month marks 23 years since I officially tried my first Guinness! Or, if you count shoving your hand into the head of a Guinness and licking it off of your hands then I guess that works too.
About a year ago I was rummaging through the trillions of photos that my mother has lying around in shoe boxes in our house and I came across this photograph, and what a great one it is!
A beautiful day in Dublin, Ireland!
// July 5th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Ireland, Travel
All that we wished for this morning was that it wouldn’t be raining. It had been raining buckets all night and it even kept Liz up at times, that’s how hard it was coming down. Me? A tornado could have picked up the house and threw it down the street and I’d still be snoozing so I definitely didn’t hear any rain last night.
We headed downstairs and had some breakfast and as we were eating the skies completely opened up to blue skies, something Ireland hasn’t seen in a while now. It’s been raining, and raining, and raining here. When it hasn’t been raining, it’s been really overcast during the day. Depressing, right?
As soon as the skies opened up, it woke us right up! We finished up our breakfast and headed upstairs to get dressed so that we could take advantage of this great weather.
Once we got dressed and ready my uncle Richie took us into town and dropped us off at O’Connell Street in Dublin City Center. I took Liz for a nice tour around the city and finally got the chance to prove to her that Dublin really is a beautiful city when the weather is right. We took a stroll down Henry Street and stopped at a few cool little markets where Liz found herself a nice new ring.
Afterwards we headed down to the Haypenny Bridge where we took a couple photos before heading across the River Liffey to Temple Bar.
Alicante, Spain… AGAIN – Day 4 & 5!
// July 4th, 2008 // No Comments » // Spain, Travel
—
Day 4:
We got our lazy bodies out of bed this morning and decided that we would head to the Castillo de Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara Castle), for real this time! While Liz was getting dressed and ready, I ran down to the Alicante Tourist Information Center to grab a Santa Barbara Castle bus schedule.
When I arrived back at the hotel Liz was all set and ready to go so we walked down the esplanade until we reached the bus stop. It was about 30 C. (86 F.) at this point, and slowly getting hotter. We knew that today would be a hot one especially that we were going to climb to the top of the castle that overlooks the whole city! We were pretty much just making our way closer to the sun, instead of getting out of it.
The bus arrived on time to pick us up and it took us right to the top of the castle. I visited the Santa Barbara Castle back in the beginning of May and I was amazed by the views. Liz felt the same way as soon as she stepped off of the bus. Even seeing it for a second time didn’t bore me.
We ended up walking around to all of the different points of the castle and we took some really great photos as you’ll see below.
It was really cool to have someone with me this time around at Santa Barbara Castle. I had the chance to explore even more parts of the castle this time and also got a few really cool photo opportunities that I wouldn’t have had if I was doing it alone.
We walked around in the heat for as long as we could before heading back to the bus. Once we stepped on to the bus we felt a cold blast of air conditioning and we were in heaven. Finally! We just wanted to freeze before getting back out in the heat again.
Once we arrived back at our hotel Liz took her usual siesta, and I headed down to the hotel lobby to take advantage of the free internet so that I could update the site. After a few hours I headed up and woke Liz so that we could get dressed and ready for our official last dinner in Alicante! Once Liz was FINALLY ready we headed down to our favorite restaurant in Alicante, Foster’s Hollywood!
On our way to Foster’s we made use of our camera as usual. Liz found some beautiful flowers and decided to make a bouquet out of them for some reason.
Everyone that passed us seemed to think that I gave the flowers to her so it worked out perfect! I looked like the man, if you know what I mean.
After another unbelievable dinner at Foster’s, we headed down to Desden to meet up with Gosia and a couple of her friends for some drinks. We had a few social drinks at Desden with everyone before heading back to the hotel for the night.
We made one last stop at the Miami waffle stand before getting back to the hotel. We both ordered one of the best desserts that we’ve ever had, a glazed belgian waffle covered in hot chocolate syrup and whipped cream. It was unreal!
—
Day 5:
Our last day in Alicante! Already?
This morning we woke up and started to do some packing before our check out time of 12:00PM. I thought that the check out time was pretty generous since there are plenty of hotels that make you check out at 10AM. Basically we just threw all of our stuff into the suitcase and headed down to the lobby where we hung out for a few hours before we took the bus to the airport.
At 2PM we headed out to the bus stop and took the C6 Bus from Alicante, to the airport which took about 40 minutes or so. By the time we got to the airport we had plenty of time to walk around to a few of the shops and get a quick bite to eat before our flight back to Dublin at 6PM.
Our flight took off exactly on time and we even arrived about a half hour early to Dublin. It was great. Another great flight on the somewhat controversial RyanAir. I love RyanAir, they’ve been great to me on this trip so far.
My uncle came to the airport to pick us up and we headed back to what has been my home base for the last three months. Although I’ve only been in Dublin for maybe two weeks throughout this whole trip, if that! We ended up having a really nice dinner that my aunt cooked for us and Liz went up to bed early. I think she’s a little jet lagged from all of this traveling, flying, etc. Plus, she’s ready to head home now after a jam packed, nearly three week trip to Europe. I don’t blame her!
Tomorrow I plan on showing Liz around Dublin a bit if the weather clears up. It’s been raining here for weeks now. Ireland is having a terrible summer! Let’s hope for the best!
Alicante, Spain… AGAIN – Day 2 & 3!
// July 2nd, 2008 // 1 Comment » // News & Announcements, Spain, Travel
—
Day 2:
This morning we headed off around 11:00AM to Playa del Postiguet, the beach that lies right across from our hotel. Liz has been feigning for some sun and I just wanted to jump around in the clear blue water. The views from the beach are pretty incredible as you can see in the second photo below.
If you’re wondering what that mountain looking thing is in the background, that is Santa Barbara Castle (Castillo de Santa Barbara). If you’ve seen my photo album of Alicante, Spain you’ll notice that I took some pretty amazing photos from the top of that castle during my last visit to Alicante.
After spending a couple of hours at the beach we decided that we’d go grab some lunch at Foster’s, the same restaurant that we dined at last night. Normally neither of us like to dine at the same restaurant more than once or twice, but to be honest it’s extremely hard to find good quality food here in Alicante. There are many restaurants along the esplanade but nothing to write home about.
After another great meal at Foster’s we headed back for a siesta. You know, Liz and I try to blend in with the locals here and take part in the traditions. You know the saying When In Rome, do as the Romans do. Well, the same thing applies here in Spain. Or maybe I’m making all of this up and we could really care less about the traditions and we’re just so lazy that we want to take naps every afternoon. Either way we enjoyed our little siesta.
Once I woke up I headed down to the lobby to get some work done on my website as Liz slept a bit longer. Once she was ready we headed off to walk along the esplanade and took a stroll through the markets. Once we built up an appetite we stopped into a restaurant called Penelope which is located across from the port on the end of the esplanade. We had a fairly good meal and a few good drinks as well.
After dinner we headed to bed fairly early because we planned on heading to San Juan beach in the AM.
—
Day 3:
Well, what do you know? We slept in again this morning. We’re totally in lazy vacation mode. After going back and forth on what we should do whether it be head to the beach, or head up to the top of Santa Barbara Castle, I decided that we’ll go to the castle this morning to get that over with then we’ll head to the beach because once again, Liz NEEDS sun!
There are two ways to reach the top of the castle. You can jump on a bus for 2 Euro that comes hourly or you can walk. The walk really isn’t too bad, but we waited for a bus. The bus ended up not showing up so we decided that we’d attempt the walk.
Liz was feeling weak and tired and when we got about half way she decided that we probably shouldn’t attempt the climb because she might pass out. Luckily we were right next to the TRAM station which was the connection to San Juan Beach. As soon as I mentioned that we had the option to jump on the TRAM to San Juan Beach her eyes lit up like a christmas tree. Hmm, weird?
Myself and the tan-aholic jumped on the train and took the 15 minute ride down to a beach that I visited the last time that I was in Alicante. This is by far the best beach that I’ve been to, and I knew Liz would love it!
We stopped to grab some lunch first at a beach side restaurant called La Ponderosa. Liz had Spaghetti Bolognese and I had a 1/2 Roasted Chicken with Chips, yummy.
Once we finished lunch we got ourselves a front row seat on the edge of the ocean. We rented two chairs and an umbrella for 9 Euro, which was sort of pricey but if anything the umbrella was most necessary because I can only lie in the sun for so long. Liz on the other hand… well, let’s just say that she left with a burn!
We spent a few hours at San Juan Beach and we headed back to Alicante around 4:15PM. Once we got back to the hotel we showered and got ready to meet up with my friend Gosia who I had met during my last visit to Alicante.
We met with Gosia and her two friends around 8PM at Desden where we had a drink before heading over to an Irish Pub called O’Hara’s which is located on the esplanade. While there we had a few sangria’s and some food.
Before heading home for the night we grabbed a gigantic ice cream sundae from this gelateria called Explanade. We took it back to the hotel and absolutely devoured it in the lobby while I did some work on the site. What an end to a great day!
Now I’m relaxed, and comfortable and Liz is a lobster! Remember what they say… the sun is stronger in Spain!
Loading...
Our Favorite Quotes
As the traveler who has once been from home is wiser than he who has never left his own doorstep, so a knowledge of one other culture should sharpen our ability to scrutinize more steadily, to appreciate more lovingly, our own.
—
