Photos from last month’s Automattic meetup in Budapest. We were there for a week and had an absolute blast. It’d be fun to go back when the weather isn’t so dreary.
Category: Galleries
Photos from trips and time out with the camera.
More Marseille – Travel Log, Day 9
I spent my last day in Marseille seeing Notre-Dame de la Garde which sits on the top of the highest hill around and had some terrific views of the city. To get up there, my brother and I walked up some pretty steep, San Francisco-like streets.
The tower of Notre-Dame de la Garde is capped by a colossal statue of the Virgin Mary with Baby Jesus.
The interior had some amazing mosaics on the wall. It was a tremendous effect when combined with the striped stonework.
The views over the city and out to the Frioul Islands were terrific. You definitely get a sense of how Marseille is the second largest city in France.
After that I headed up to the Palais Longchamp to hang out in the park and read for a bit. Both museums were closed, one for renovation the other because it was Monday, but the park was nice.
Marseille Graffiti – Travel Log, Day 8
Yesterday the plan was to see a few museums and then head out to Olympique de Marseille to watch the match against Brest. For some reason the two museums I wanted to catch weren’t open despite their hours clearly stating that they were.
Instead I walked around and snapped some photos of the graffiti stores put on their shutters. It’s kind of a bonus ad for when your business is closed. Even the Leica shop got into it. Pretty cool.
Photos, and hopefully some video, from the football match will be coming later.
Château d’If & Frioul Islands – Travel Log, Day 7
I spent my second day in Marseille out on a series of islands that are a 20 minute boat ride away. The first island barely fits the Château d’If that perches on top of it. The castle itself is relatively basic and bare but it gives some great views back to Marseille and the surrounding islands.
From there my brother and I headed to the nearby Frioul islands. These have a few forts on them and include a hospital that was used for plague patients a few centuries ago. The water is gorgeous and we found a quiet cove to just hang out in. I got some great reading time in too.
After that we headed back to Marseille. The boat ride back had cool views of the harbor and surrounding buildings that you don’t see from land.
Marseille – Travel Log, Day 6
My first full day in Marseille was split between being out near my brother’s university and wandering around the city. My hotel is right in Vieux Port which is terrific. Tons of restaurants, bars, and shopping right nearby and easy access to metro and busses.
In the morning I headed out toward the southeast where my brother’s staying this semester. We hiked out to the nearby calanques. These were gorgeous and just a 30 minute hike from his school.
We hung out on the rocks at the bottom here where there were a series of coves you could swim in. There was also the occasional tour boat of people but they didn’t come too far into the cove.
After getting back into Marseille I headed out to the Cathédrale de la Major. It’s a fantastic domed cathedral that was practically empty when I went in.
I forget who this statue is off but it’s just off to the side of the cathedral.
From there I wandered around the harbor and surrounding neighborhoods a lot. My Fitbit is quite happy with the number of steps I’ve taken.
San Sebastián & Idiazabal – Travel Log, Days 2 & 3
My second day in Spain was spent wandering around San Sebastián and Lasarte with Cam. In the morning we took a hike through the beautiful countryside outside Lasarte.
After that we headed back into San Sebastián and wandered around the streets. The city has a terrific blend of architecture and beach scenery. The old town center is filled with bars, cafes, and anything else you can imagine.
We hung out on the beach for a few hours and then Cam and Marco, the other BasqueStage, had a live chat with prospective applicants for next year’s program. From there we hit some pintxos bars which were delicious.
Today we went out to Idiazabal to see how the Aranburu brothers make their award-winning cheese.1
The cheese was fantastic. It had a nice mild flavour that wasn’t overpowering and was wonderfully delicious.
After cheese we drove up to the mountains a bit and took a short hike around a reservoir. We then went out for lunch at Zezilionea. We split three appetizers and then had a main course plus dessert. Quite the memorable meal.
Huge thanks to Andoni for making today possible.2 He’s fantastic and was a perfect guide for today. It was truly unique.
- Running into random WordPress users also makes me happy too. Check the source of the site. 🙂
- He’s also a WordPress user. It’s a crazy small world.
San Sebastián – Travel Log, Day 1
20+ hours in airports filled yesterday but it was all worth it. I got into San Sebastián around 2:30pm and was meeting up with Cam at 7 so I had some time to kill.
I headed down to old town and then up to the top of Castillo de Santa Cruz de la Mota. From the top you got some terrific views of the harbor and beaches below.
The castle peninsula splits the two beaches in San Sebastián. Both are gorgeous beaches with surprisingly warm water for the Atlantic. The beach to the left of the castle also has some pretty decent surfing.
There are also a few sail boats and smaller motorized ones going around the harbor. It looks like an awesome place to enjoy some sailing. Will have to wait for next time.
More photos to come later but that’s a taste for now.
Mt. Adams
Last weekend Daniel, Adam, Jon, and I hiked up Mt. Adams, a 12,000+ foot glaciated peak in southern Washington.
It was one of the more physically demanding things I’ve done in my life and, even with crappy visibility on summit day, was way worth it. Adam, Jon, and myself made it to the summit but Daniel was hiking in ski boots so that didn’t work out so well. 🙂 He got a few turns in on the way down though.
We left Portland Saturday morning and started hiking around 3pm. We went up to 8200 feet and camped about 45 minutes short of the Lunch Counter. The mountain was super crowded. At times we counted 50 people just within eyesight.
Sunday morning we got an early start around 4:30am and started up for the summit. Adam, Jon, and I hit the false summit around 10am and then hit the summit about 90 minutes after that.
The way back down was considerably quicker as we glissaded down to about 9000 feet. Adam took an 8 minute-long video of the longest slide which was pretty cool.
After packing up camp we got back down to the car at 5600 feet around 5pm and then drove back to Portland.
Three Sisters Wilderness
I spent last Thursday through Saturday hiking through the Three Sisters Wilderness with Leah and our friend Luke. It was an absolute blast. My iPhone was in airplane mode the whole time and the only thing electronic I touched was my camera.
The weather was gorgeous and we got 4 hikes in. We covered Obsidian Falls, Horse Pasture Mountain, Hand Lake, and Sahalie Falls. My Fitbit tells me it was over 33 miles of hiking. I’ve kind of thrown off my weekly averages there.
St. Louis Happiness Team Meetup
I spent August 4th through the 11th in St. Louis with the rest of the Happiness Team at Automattic. We had a great time, got a lot of good things done, and enjoyed a couple Cardinals games against the Brewers.
After that it was off to San Francisco for WordCamp where I helped organize two new user workshops. Those were extremely enlightening and I’ll have more coming on those later.
