Sunday Best v.107

It finally feels like summertime, and that has me fantasizing about summer parties. I can't wait to have a backyard someday, but in the meantime, I have my eye on Anna Bond's gorgeous collaboration with BHLDN on this sweet tablecloth, $78. I don't even have a rectangular table, but such small obstacles can be overcome, right? lol

I had a great weekend, which I'll tell you more about tomorrow, but for now, here are some of my favorite links from the past week.

• As a big-chested lady, I found this article about a new book on the science of boobs fascinating. Might have to add that one to my Kindle!
• What's more calming than a manatee?
• Found via Cup of Jo, a primary schooler's cafeteria food blog.
• Should a quarterback be allowed to set paper airplane records?
• Brands you thought were indies.
• Random feud of the week: Jack White vs. Guinness World Records.
• Sometimes head injuries reveal new talents.
• Epic bad texts after a first date.
• Will Smith reprising our favorite theme song.

Eating in Ireland

Now that we've virtually toured Ireland, I thought I'd share some shots of the fine food I sampled while there.

I went to Ireland knowing the following: I don't actually technically love potatoes, meat pies or breakfast, which is basically everything the country holds near and dear. I love cheese and cheesy things. But I was pleasantly surprised by Irish cuisine, which has apparently expanded leaps and bounds in the last few decades.

The standard Irish menu in a moderately upscale restaurant looked like this: goat cheese salad, scallops, fried scampi, pasta bolognese, lamb, Guiness stew and/or cottage pie.

Disclaimer: Murphy's Law dictated that I managed not to take pictures of my very favorite meals in Ireland, of course. I'll shill for them now: I had an absolutely incredible John Dory fish with tomato-wasabi sauce at a family friend's restaurant in Killarney, called Gaby's.

One of our super simple but surprisingly delightful meals was at Grogan's Pub in Dublin. It's super no-fuss and more a place you go to have a pint than eat, but I was hungry so grilled cheese it was! 

One night in Dublin we ate in our hotel restaurant, and I had a fabulous goat cheese, pear and rocket salad (oops, no pics). But I remembered to take the camera the next night when we ate at a great Italian restaurant called Il Posto. I had rigatoni con salcisice, or rigatoni with roasted sausages in a spicy red pepper sauce.

Sean and I split dessert and to choose, we played Rock, Paper, Scissors. Sean won, so we ended up having an apple-berry crumble with vanilla sauce. The sauce was my favorite part!

On our last night in Dublin, Sean and I popped into a hip little restaurant called Elephant and Castle in the Temple Bar district. Crazy thing I learned about Ireland: the Irish are obsessed with chicken wings. Every table around us had chicken wings! I myself opted for the steak sandwich with jalapeno mayonnaise and goat cheese. Totally will have to do a spin on that at home!

I also loved the restaurant for its moderate-sized "chips." I was pretty over super-thick steak fries by that point.

Cute restaurant, right?

In Belfast, we went to eat and listen to music at Robinson's Pub, where Sean had his favorite meal: bangers and mash, with leeks!

I had classic fish and chips. It was delish....but I mysteriously spent the next day puking, so...I don't know what to think. Let's blame the three pints of Guiness, shall we? (Psst, it really is better in Ireland! Less bitter, more layered flavors.)

The next day, we went to the Titanic Museum and ate in one of the museum bistros, which were SO beautifully decorated. I took this picture as future kitchen inspiration!

I had some dumb tomato salad, which was fine until I took a bite of Sean's AWESOME burger. Irish beef is no joke. It's grass-fed, and as flavorful as Kobe beef, for sure.

The next night, we ate at The Porthole in the Bayview Hotel in Port Ballintrae, where you might remember we saw an incredible sunset!

We had a great appetizer that I'd love to reproduce at home: a selection of breads (including that sundried tomato loaf) with tapenade, olive oil and a cream dip almost like tartar.

I had the honey ginger pork chop with Asian noodles, which was great (and unexpected!)...

And Sean had fried scampi, which tastes like bigger, plumper fried shrimp.

In Killybegs, we ate at The Turntable in the Tara Hotel, overlooking the bay. I had sirloin steak (more Irish beef!) with grilled onions and a bourbon pepper sauce. It was basically like steak au poivre, but with the added bonus and snap of onions.

Sean had this deconstructed Guiness stew with champ, which is mashed potatoes with leeks.

In Galway, we had our most sophisticated meal yet at The Malt House, a restaurant devoted to new twists on locally sourced delicacies. Sean and I split medallions of monkfish, with beetroot and goat cheese arancini (my fave). It was fabulous!

Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures of our meals after this point, but I had the best BLT of my life  at The Waterfront Restaurant in Rosses Point, and the best salmon of my life at our rented house, cooked by my mother-in-law! She poached it in lemon and butter and topped with rosemary, and I'm thinking I might have to add that to my repertoire.

All in all, I came away with the following impression: the Irish love their Italian food, love American food, but love absolutely nothing more than their stews and potatoes! Also, I'm an Irish butter convert for life. Kerrygold is worth every cent!

Visiting Ireland: County Kerry

The last portion of our trip was to County Kerry, on the southern coast. My mother-in-law's parents were born in a village called Anascaul, and she promised County Kerry would be spectacular. At that point on the trip, I had seen breathtaking basalt formations and cliffs, so I was a bit dubious but she was not kidding! County Kerry is one of the most beautiful places on earth, with rocky beaches, primordial forests, steep cliffs and incredible clear waters. I was pretty sick by the time we got there, but I didn't want to miss anything, including our visit to Killarney National Park.

Visiting Ireland: The West

Soon after Derry, we crossed back into Ireland from Northern Ireland and traveled to County Donegal, famed for its production of woollen goods and the most amazing tweeds in the world. We stayed at Holly Crest Lodge in Killybegs, a major fishing port for Irish, Swedish and Icelandic ships. We drove up into the mountain, giving me my first peek at the coolest thing about Ireland's west coast: mountain cliffs dropping into beaches with water as clear blue as water in the Caribbean.

Visiting Ireland: The North

After three glorious days in Ireland, we set out to see some real countryside. Keep in mind that at that point, all I'd seen of Ireland was the airport and the city, so I was really excited to see the rolling green hills, ruins, rock walls and the yellow wildflowers called furze. We set out for Belfast (about a 2-hour drive from Dublin) in our fancy rented Audi, but make a detour to see , a prehistoric passage tomb in County Meath.

Visiting Ireland: Dublin Days

St. Stephen's Green in Dublin. All photos by me!

Oh friends, how do you even begin to recap a two-week trip? If I had to use one word to describe Ireland, it would be: gasp. Everything is beautiful — beautifully dreary, beautifully colorful, beautifully rustic. It's not hard to understand why so many people are captivated by its simple palette of vivid green hills, clear blue waters, gray stone walls and creamy woolly sheep and stucco houses. For those of us with Irish heritage, it stirs something deep within, and for someone like me who grew up in Appalachia, it was amazing to see how the lines connecting that community to its ancestors are so strong.

I figured it would be best to divide the trip into recaps of the different regions we visited, beginning with the east today, in Dublin. For more pics and details of our trip, click below!

Back from Ireland!

We're back from Ireland! Being away for two weeks was just enough...just enough to get a real sense of the place and just enough to be ready to come home! I saw some of the most incredible scenery I've seen in my life, and was charmed by the friendly people, lyrical accents and cute Irish names. I was sick for half the trip, however, and am still recovering from a nasty bout of laryngitis.

I'll start recapping next week...I will try to keep it brief, but prepare yourself for tons of pictures!

The Best Hostel in Munich

Screenshot of the lovely Jaeger Hostel in Munich

The final guest post comes from my friend Sam (a girl), who writes about the ups and downs of staying in hostels. Sam studied abroad in London, and managed to make her way across Europe bouncing from Easyjet to train to hostel the way most of us go from door to driveway to car. — Amber

Hostels are a necessary evil when poor and traveling the world. There are many ways to ensure you don’t end up in a hostel with a strange Ukrainian man breathing over you when you wake up in the morning, but a bit of Googling can more easily prevent that situation than any tip I give.

Instead, I will tell the tale of the perfect hostel I visited and the testimonial I’m sure the establishment did not place on their website after I left.

As the control-freak traveler in my group of five girls, I always found comfort in searching for the perfect hostel. While studying abroad, we lived in a tiny apartment complex in London, in a room that barely held the two twin beds, dresser, desk and sink. The room was so small that from our separate beds, my roommate and I could hold hands, brush our teeth and even open the door with a good reach. Long story short, we were pretty low maintenance.

Sam's travelmate Negra models the finest in hostel decor.

When I found the Jaeger Hostel for our trip to Munich, it fit the trifecta of expectations: it wasn’t sketch, it was cheap and it was located in the perfect place. What sold me was the free shot of Jaeger you received when you walked in the door.

We woke up in London, hopped on our Easyjet flight to Munich, spit out some “Sprache de English?” to some locals and eventually found ourselves at the hostel. As far as hostels go, this one was beautiful. Either brand new or remodeled, it was by far the prettiest of the six hostels we had already had the pleasure of resting our drunk bodies in.

The way hostels are set up, you can stay in rooms for four, six, eight or 12 people, with the rooms being cheaper the more amount of strangers you are willing to sleep with. Since we were traveling with five women, it’s always best to stick to the closest people-to-bed ratio as possible.

When we walked in our room, we were surprised to see the living situation was better than what we had in London. It was spacious, with brand new bathrooms and perfectly white walls. The only imperfection to be found was this tiny, drunk, Irish man propped up on the top bunk of one of the six beds.

“Hello, ladies,” the Irish man we named Urkel (because of his high pants and awkward face) said.

We shared amused looks amongst ourselves and responded with the normal salutations. He stepped back with his hands in the air.

“WHOA. Are you ladies from 90210?” he said with he slurred, foreign accent.

I actually found the question quite offensive.

We decided to get changed as quickly as possible to explore the city, lock our stuff up in a locker in the room and get away from the man who went from endearing to annoying faster than most men.

A night out in Munich (Sam is second from the right).

We had a little too much fun that night. Beginning with our shot in the hostel and getting as drunk as possible at Hofbrauhaus, we don’t remember much about stumbling our way back into the room. The ten-minute conversation on the metro about who was going to bunk with Urkel was pointless, because he wasn’t in the room at 3 a.m. when we got back.

There was a bit of an odor when we walked into the room, but initial investigation turned up few results. Honestly, we were too intoxicated to care. We woke up early the next morning to catch the tour of Dachau Concentration Camp, and Urkel was nowhere in sight. But the smell from the night before had gotten worse. Still, we could not find the source.

We were running late, so we were rushing out the door. The slowest girl of the group was still putting her shoes on while we stood in the doorway. She took one of her socks dampened from our original quest from the airport to the hostel off the heater. The next sock she picked up was a bit heavier.

“What the hell,” she said as she slowly opened the sock. Scream. The sock was thrown across the room. “THERE IS A SHIT IN MY SOCK.”

Multiple screams. I laugh. The sock girl begins to cry.

“The Irish guy shit in my sock,” she said still in a rage. It was just sock, but it seemed to have some sort of value the way she was carrying on about it.

To this day we don’t know how the poop got in the sock. Whatever way he accomplished such a feat, we took the sock to the front desk and attempted to squeeze some drinking money out of the staff. We didn’t receive a refund, but we did find ourselves in upgraded in five personal suites that had never been used.

My room. My bed. My shower.

Thank you, Urkel.

How Photographers Document Travel

Today's guest post is from my friend Pat Jarrett, one of the best photographers I know. He writes about how photographers capture their travels without forgetting to relax! He recently visited China and travels solo on his motorcycle. — Amber

The Lama Temple, or the Yonghe Temple, was built by the Qing Dynasty in the 17th century in Beijing. It was saved during the Cultural Revolution and was used for official business under both the ruling emperors and the communist party. It is now a government-approved buddhist temple staffed with government-approved monks who live and work past the ticket counter near the many gift shops. Shot on Fuji Velvia, 50mm lens. Photo by Pat Jarrett

For most people the camera is one of the most important factors in vacation planning. For me it's a bit different. As a professional photographer, I try to use my minimal vacation time to get away from making photos. I like to think of it like giving my eyes a set of hammocks and cold beverages. 

My dilemma: I still want photos from my vacations, so how can I make photos to capture memories and still have fun and be in the moment? The answer, my friends, is in camera choice. 

Last year I traveled to China to visit family. My wife had no problem getting a visa, but because I am a professional journalist, it was a big struggle for me. No joke, I literally had to send a letter from my boss in Virginia telling the Chinese government I would not be shooting photos for the newspaper while in country.

In order to keep a low profile while enjoying my family vacation, I only shot film on an old Nikon FM the entire trip. To cut down on lens bulk, I packed prime lenses — a 24mm, 2.8 and a 50mm, 1.8. I had a great time seeing and making photos without the back end work that comes with digital. 

View of the Great Wall of China. Photo by Pat Jarrett

When traveling to South Carolina a couple of years ago by car, I had space to bring a professional rig and no permission slip was required. I packed a pro body, three lenses and three flashes. The upshot of taking so much professional gear is that I licensed a vacation photo to an interior decorator. Probably wouldn't be possible if I were traveling light.

Members of the Photographic Society of America take photos of Fort Sumter from the ferry in Charleston Harbor. Taking some much needed R&R with the family in Charleston, South Carolina. Photo by Pat Jarrett.

Unfortunately my favorite mode of transportation dictates light packing. Long motorcycle trips can yield some of the most amazing scenes, but usually I'm too into my ride to even stop to get a photo. I minimize weight by shooting with the camera on my phone and sometimes bringing a digital rangefinder.

Fog enveloped my bike-a 1982 Honda CM250- on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Buena Vista, Virginia. Photo by Pat Jarrett.

The great thing about cell phone cameras is that they're all a bit weird. This last photo was shot as I left Cleveland last summer on my old Honda. Just prior to taking this shot I'd dropped my phone in a heaping pile of cream cheese frosting on a carrot cake muffin-hence the streaking on the lens. 

You can see more of Pat's photos on his website, his blog and his Flickr.

Who's On Your Cheat List?

Remember the episode of "Friends" when they all start talking about what celebrities they'd be allowed to cheat with if they ever met them in person? I've been working on my version of that list ever since. The other day I asked Sean who was on his list, and he said his is boring and predictable: Scarlett Johansson, Megan Fox, et. al.

Mine is full of sexy, smart guys:

 1. Ryan Gosling. I've loved him since I was an 8-year-old watching Mickey Mouse Club after school. I'm obsessed with his dog, George.

 2. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, another childhood crush since "Angels in the Outfield." Cutest eyes, adorable style. Swoooon.

 3. Jon Hamm, both as Don Draper and as himself. I love that Jon Hamm brought manliness back, along with suits and side parts. But even better, he has an amazing sense of humor and Midwestern down-to-earth attitude.

 4. Michael Fassbender. Newest addition to my list. I first saw him in a British indie called "Fish Tank," in which he managed to make a guy who did a pretty bad thing utterly charming. He is a sexy Irish beast.

 5. John Krasinski. I tell my poor husband on a weekly basis that I would marry this guy. Hilarious, smart, adorable.

6. And the longest-serving member, George Clooney. This man looks hot getting arrested while protesting human rights violations. Nuff said.

So, I'm curious: do you have a list? Who's on it, and has it evolved over time? Ten years ago, my number one would have been JC from NSYNC...I bet I actually have a shot with him these days!