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Where I live (dublin) there's a persistent tourist subculture that photgraphs doors of georgian buildings. I've met several tourists with irish surnames who set

Where I live (dublin) there's a persistent tourist subculture that photgraphs doors of georgian buildings. I've met several tourists with irish surnames who set out to visit every pub that has their name (hard work if you're a murphy, kavanagh, ryan...). I met a chinese-australian couple doing an "ancestry trail" visitng the ancestral villages of their in-law. That kind of stuff is ultimately just a frame. A way of exploring, selecting destinations, and allowing the unexpected to happen. The premise itself isn't the point. The premise is a way of facilitating harder to target stuff: meeting people, exploring. I've heard similar criticisms of photo-takers. They're more concerned with photos than experiences. These criticisms and accusations of shallowness are shallow themselves, and uncharitable. Collecting countries, places, pubs, doors or whatnot is just a way of deciding what to do next, and allowing experiences to happen themselves.

aldanor 8y ago
Ditto re: doors :) I’m renovating a Victorian house (Dublin centre) and it took us a good few weeks to pick a front door and its colour so it blends in the neighbourhood. I was surprised to find out there isn’t a single book on that.
- dalbasal 8y ago
  Hello neighbor.
Uberphallus 8y ago
Yeah, just let people enjoy whatever frame they enjoy. I (used to) do urban exploration when traveling, especially in frozen conflict areas, unrecognized states and similar, so I do tons of photography of stuff most people isn't interested in, can't comprehend, and potentially illegally. You talk to locals, do homestays, and hike? Cool, I do that too, but my goals are my goals, yours are yours. I move quick and fast because the spots I'm interested in are far in between and will require time and study to explore safely, evade surveillance and the like. One of my coolest trips I only knew long after the fact. I travelled to Abkhazia, a breakaway state from Georgia. There was a war between them in the early 90s and there were plenty of things to have a look at for me. Among them, I visited an abandoned beach resort hotel in Sukhumi. I have plenty of pictures and footage from inside. As I usually do, I collected some kind of souvenir, in this case, a check-in form, because yeah, back in the day they were on paper. From that document, I got to know that it was called Hotel Tbilisi, a very bad name for the Georgia-hating Abkhazia, so it doesn't even appear on Google with that name (or any name, for that matter). Fast forward a few years, and my wife starts explaining my weird travel kink to my mother-in-law (they're Ukrainian). So I start showing some pictures, and bam, full front picture of the hotel. She was like "that's in Sukhumi, right?". Yeah, right. It happened that my in-laws had their honeymoon in exactly that hotel, before the war and the collapse of the Soviet Union; she recognized the interiors, the check-in form, the surroundings. It was a sad, happy, and powerful moment that made us feel closer.
- tasuki 8y ago
  Pictures and more info please :)
  - Uberphallus 8y ago
    Don't have access to the pictures (I'm at work), but I have a video[0] I recorded on my way out (missing the rooftop, unfortunately). The biggest trouble I had in Abkhazia was regarding the visa. You first have to obtain an entry permit, and with it collect the visa at the Ministry of Interior (IIRC) up to 2 days after entry. Mine was a 3 day visa. The problem was that I arrived on Saturday, and it was closed, Sunday, closed, and Monday that I wanted to leave it was some national holiday as well. So I had no way to collect the visa, nor the visa would be valid if I stayed until Tuesday. So on my way out they didn't want me to leave. Fortunately one of the soldiers was understanding and let me through, but only after about 4 hours of questioning and inspection of my stuff. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSi88CLRuZE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSi88CLRuZE (around 6:30 for the moment I collect the check in form) Edit: found a picture [1] of the border checkpoint. This is illegal, they spotted me and made me delete the picture. I kept that SD card aside the rest of the trip so I could recover the deleted files. They reason there are horse cars is because no motor vehicles are allowed to cross in/out except for certain people. Enjoy! [1] https://i.imgur.com/7uWzera.jpg https://i.imgur.com/7uWzera.jpg
    - tasuki 8y ago
      Super interesting - thank you! Also quite brave.
renholder 8y ago
>...hard work if you're a murphy, kavanagh, ryan... Might I interest them in some grossly unfair life insurance? :)
dspillett 8y ago
> That kind of stuff is ultimately just a frame. A way of exploring, selecting destinations, and allowing the unexpected to happen. The premise itself isn't the point. Exactly. I'm doing an A-to-Z of half-/full- marathons. It started as an idea stolen from another runner: a challenge to see how quickly I could cram them in. But as I started searching for options (and going through those already on my "I'd like to do that one or visit there some day" list) it has morphed from 26 UK road halfs in two years or less, to a much wider spread over several years, still many road runs but a number of beautiful looking trail adventures too, taking the time to visit places and at least superficially explore them, seeing things I wouldn't normally see, taking regular proper breaks from my normal daily grind. If anyone else has a problem with this, it is their problem. It is going to be rather good for my enjoyment of the next few years and I might make some memories that will last much longer than that, and it all started from that somewhat arbitrary initial goal.
- dalbasal 8y ago
  Perfect example.
- taneq 8y ago
  > A-to-Z of half-/full- marathons [...] a challenge to see how quickly I could cram them in. Isn't this really bad for your health? I thought you needed a significant rest period between marathons to give you time to recover? (Please don't interpret this as 'a problem with' what you're doing - it sounds fun and a great way to see the countryside, I just hope it's not damaging you!)
  - ashtonbaker 8y ago
    Depends on who you are and how much you run. If you're running 50 miles a week, a slow marathon here and there would probably not hurt you too much. I know a guy who used to run a marathon every weekend through the whole season, but I think he ran way more than 50 a week.
  - dspillett 8y ago
    If you throw yourself at it without any prep it won't be good for you. But a proper marathon training plan at my sort of level includes a long run between 13 and 20 miles most weeks. My full recovery time after hammering for a PB at half distance is over a week but going even a little easier brings that down considerably. So a half every ~three weeks, with a couple of longer breaks here or there, should be perfectly fine. I'm not particularly planning to gun for a PB on any of these. Doing a full is a different beast requiring more R&R afterwards, even if taking it easy, as is a fairly technical trail run, and if I'm travelling further to a new place I want time to see some of that place beyond running through part of it, hence the plan is now "several years" to spread the annual leave & travel costs out a bit more, and to allow more time for R&R and reconditioning as needed. This way some of the more local road halfs fold nicely into a conditioning (or condition maintaining) plan for the longer/harder runs too. The longer time also helps with arranging the runs: due to the way the organised events tend to bunch around spring & autumn that becomes a constraint if you want to do it in a short time (not being able to do that particular B because it is too close to the C & D I've already set sights on, etc.)
vibragiel 8y ago
Relevant xkcd https://xkcd.com/1314/ https://xkcd.com/1314/
ajuc 8y ago
Completely agree. I regulary post on a forum about urban architecture. There's a section with people posting photos from their walks through their city. Basically google street view with some text commentary in an old-style phpbb forum format. It's probably very boring for outsiders, but I enjoy it a lot and I started doing such a thread myself several years ago. It's a good excuse to go outside, you visit parts of your city you otherwise wouldn't, learn about its history and architecture in general, and you look at places you visit daily from a different perspective (looking for a good shot makes you notice stuff you normally ignore). But for people on the street I'm that weird guy that stops to make a photo of an ugly house every 10 meters instead of enjoying the city :)
mstade 8y ago
I collect bars. Restaurants too, to some degree but mostly I care about bars that can make a mean classic cocktail such as a perfect rye manhattan. I appreciate that people frame their experiences however they wish, but having said that I'm also deeply uncomfortable with being an unwilling extra in people's photos, and flash photography is the worst. I don't care that you really want to take a picture of this amazing drink you just ordered, or whatever, but what happened to showing some respect to people around you? Flashing lights is a harsh yank out of the escapist experience a bar is designed to provide, and it upsets me more than perhaps it should. I also don't want to be in your pictures, and find it rude that I must make an effort to get out of the shot, rather than you making an effort be more respectful. ("You" not referring to you of course, but an imaginary person.) Some places I've gone have asked people kindly to at least turn off the flash, and asked repeat offenders to leave. I wish more would do so. More than that I wish people would learn some common decency.
oxplot 8y ago
For me, geocaching is what gets me out and helps me discover interesting places. I finally hid my first caches last year and it's a pleasure to read a log of someone having discovered a neat little spot they would never have bumped into otherwise. There are players who've found multiple caches per day average all year round.

aldanor 8y ago

Ditto re: doors :) I’m renovating a Victorian house (Dublin centre) and it took us a good few weeks to pick a front door and its colour so it blends in the neighbourhood. I was surprised to find out there isn’t a single book on that.

dalbasal 8y ago
Hello neighbor.

Uberphallus 8y ago

Yeah, just let people enjoy whatever frame they enjoy. I (used to) do urban exploration when traveling, especially in frozen conflict areas, unrecognized states and similar, so I do tons of photography of stuff most people isn't interested in, can't comprehend, and potentially illegally. You talk to locals, do homestays, and hike? Cool, I do that too, but my goals are my goals, yours are yours. I move quick and fast because the spots I'm interested in are far in between and will require time and study to explore safely, evade surveillance and the like. One of my coolest trips I only knew long after the fact. I travelled to Abkhazia, a breakaway state from Georgia. There was a war between them in the early 90s and there were plenty of things to have a look at for me. Among them, I visited an abandoned beach resort hotel in Sukhumi. I have plenty of pictures and footage from inside. As I usually do, I collected some kind of souvenir, in this case, a check-in form, because yeah, back in the day they were on paper. From that document, I got to know that it was called Hotel Tbilisi, a very bad name for the Georgia-hating Abkhazia, so it doesn't even appear on Google with that name (or any name, for that matter). Fast forward a few years, and my wife starts explaining my weird travel kink to my mother-in-law (they're Ukrainian). So I start showing some pictures, and bam, full front picture of the hotel. She was like "that's in Sukhumi, right?". Yeah, right. It happened that my in-laws had their honeymoon in exactly that hotel, before the war and the collapse of the Soviet Union; she recognized the interiors, the check-in form, the surroundings. It was a sad, happy, and powerful moment that made us feel closer.

tasuki 8y ago
Pictures and more info please :)
- Uberphallus 8y ago
  Don't have access to the pictures (I'm at work), but I have a video[0] I recorded on my way out (missing the rooftop, unfortunately). The biggest trouble I had in Abkhazia was regarding the visa. You first have to obtain an entry permit, and with it collect the visa at the Ministry of Interior (IIRC) up to 2 days after entry. Mine was a 3 day visa. The problem was that I arrived on Saturday, and it was closed, Sunday, closed, and Monday that I wanted to leave it was some national holiday as well. So I had no way to collect the visa, nor the visa would be valid if I stayed until Tuesday. So on my way out they didn't want me to leave. Fortunately one of the soldiers was understanding and let me through, but only after about 4 hours of questioning and inspection of my stuff. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSi88CLRuZE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSi88CLRuZE (around 6:30 for the moment I collect the check in form) Edit: found a picture [1] of the border checkpoint. This is illegal, they spotted me and made me delete the picture. I kept that SD card aside the rest of the trip so I could recover the deleted files. They reason there are horse cars is because no motor vehicles are allowed to cross in/out except for certain people. Enjoy! [1] https://i.imgur.com/7uWzera.jpg https://i.imgur.com/7uWzera.jpg
  - tasuki 8y ago
    Super interesting - thank you! Also quite brave.

renholder 8y ago

>...hard work if you're a murphy, kavanagh, ryan... Might I interest them in some grossly unfair life insurance? :)

dspillett 8y ago

> That kind of stuff is ultimately just a frame. A way of exploring, selecting destinations, and allowing the unexpected to happen. The premise itself isn't the point. Exactly. I'm doing an A-to-Z of half-/full- marathons. It started as an idea stolen from another runner: a challenge to see how quickly I could cram them in. But as I started searching for options (and going through those already on my "I'd like to do that one or visit there some day" list) it has morphed from 26 UK road halfs in two years or less, to a much wider spread over several years, still many road runs but a number of beautiful looking trail adventures too, taking the time to visit places and at least superficially explore them, seeing things I wouldn't normally see, taking regular proper breaks from my normal daily grind. If anyone else has a problem with this, it is their problem. It is going to be rather good for my enjoyment of the next few years and I might make some memories that will last much longer than that, and it all started from that somewhat arbitrary initial goal.

dalbasal 8y ago
Perfect example.
taneq 8y ago
> A-to-Z of half-/full- marathons [...] a challenge to see how quickly I could cram them in. Isn't this really bad for your health? I thought you needed a significant rest period between marathons to give you time to recover? (Please don't interpret this as 'a problem with' what you're doing - it sounds fun and a great way to see the countryside, I just hope it's not damaging you!)
- ashtonbaker 8y ago
  Depends on who you are and how much you run. If you're running 50 miles a week, a slow marathon here and there would probably not hurt you too much. I know a guy who used to run a marathon every weekend through the whole season, but I think he ran way more than 50 a week.
- dspillett 8y ago
  If you throw yourself at it without any prep it won't be good for you. But a proper marathon training plan at my sort of level includes a long run between 13 and 20 miles most weeks. My full recovery time after hammering for a PB at half distance is over a week but going even a little easier brings that down considerably. So a half every ~three weeks, with a couple of longer breaks here or there, should be perfectly fine. I'm not particularly planning to gun for a PB on any of these. Doing a full is a different beast requiring more R&R afterwards, even if taking it easy, as is a fairly technical trail run, and if I'm travelling further to a new place I want time to see some of that place beyond running through part of it, hence the plan is now "several years" to spread the annual leave & travel costs out a bit more, and to allow more time for R&R and reconditioning as needed. This way some of the more local road halfs fold nicely into a conditioning (or condition maintaining) plan for the longer/harder runs too. The longer time also helps with arranging the runs: due to the way the organised events tend to bunch around spring & autumn that becomes a constraint if you want to do it in a short time (not being able to do that particular B because it is too close to the C & D I've already set sights on, etc.)

vibragiel 8y ago

Relevant xkcd https://xkcd.com/1314/ https://xkcd.com/1314/

ajuc 8y ago

Completely agree. I regulary post on a forum about urban architecture. There's a section with people posting photos from their walks through their city. Basically google street view with some text commentary in an old-style phpbb forum format. It's probably very boring for outsiders, but I enjoy it a lot and I started doing such a thread myself several years ago. It's a good excuse to go outside, you visit parts of your city you otherwise wouldn't, learn about its history and architecture in general, and you look at places you visit daily from a different perspective (looking for a good shot makes you notice stuff you normally ignore). But for people on the street I'm that weird guy that stops to make a photo of an ugly house every 10 meters instead of enjoying the city :)

mstade 8y ago

I collect bars. Restaurants too, to some degree but mostly I care about bars that can make a mean classic cocktail such as a perfect rye manhattan. I appreciate that people frame their experiences however they wish, but having said that I'm also deeply uncomfortable with being an unwilling extra in people's photos, and flash photography is the worst. I don't care that you really want to take a picture of this amazing drink you just ordered, or whatever, but what happened to showing some respect to people around you? Flashing lights is a harsh yank out of the escapist experience a bar is designed to provide, and it upsets me more than perhaps it should. I also don't want to be in your pictures, and find it rude that I must make an effort to get out of the shot, rather than you making an effort be more respectful. ("You" not referring to you of course, but an imaginary person.) Some places I've gone have asked people kindly to at least turn off the flash, and asked repeat offenders to leave. I wish more would do so. More than that I wish people would learn some common decency.

oxplot 8y ago

For me, geocaching is what gets me out and helps me discover interesting places. I finally hid my first caches last year and it's a pleasure to read a log of someone having discovered a neat little spot they would never have bumped into otherwise. There are players who've found multiple caches per day average all year round.