my photography

Since I was having trouble keeping up with my goal to take a picture every day, a goal I ambitiously made on my birthday, I decided to change the site where I was posting these pictures. Instead of posting a picture every single day, I will use this site as a place to post my photography and I will try to update it regularly.

http://briannamariedonegan.tumblr.com/

happy father's day

It was just me and my dad on Father's Day this year, with my sister in Germany and my mom up at the cabin. We went to a yummy brunch in Issaquah at my grandparents' place. Then we walked around the Fremont Street Fair and had a great dinner at a new little neighborhood pub called Hudson. It was a fun day with my amazing father :)

I did not get any pictures of the two of us, but I did take a few at the street fair...

This is one of my dad's favorite quotes, painted on a car:

pizza pizza

Last night my roommates and I made homemade pizza for dinner. It was delicious (and cheap and easy)!! We just got pizza dough, pizza sauce, and cheese from Trader Joe's and added some veggies, chicken and basil.

We made a caprese salad to go with our pizza...

And had my FAVORITE food for desert... Cupcakes!!

Yum! Yum! Yum!

more pictures...

I have slowly been adding pictures to my par*is*tanbul website... It is so fun to go through these pictures!! It takes me back to our trip, and makes me want to still be on vacation.

Before I left, people told me that this was going to be a life changing trip. I didn’t really know what they meant, but I would smile and nod. Now that I have been back for over three weeks, I can honestly say it was. I learned so much about the French culture and the Turkish culture and both of their histories in the couple weeks I was there. But I also learned some things about myself. I don’t really know how to explain it, but I feel that I have a deeper appreciation for the things in my life and a more relaxed approached to life in general. I can truly say that this was the best trip ever. Thank you so much, mom and dad, for giving us this opportunity. I don’t know how I will ever show you just how grateful I am for our trip to Europe. Spending two and a half weeks with my family, getting to see my sister, and to do it all Paris and Istanbul – Life doesn’t get much better than that!

and istanbul

Then, as hard as it was to say good bye to Paris, we were off to Istanbul...

Istanbul was UNBELIEVABLE!! I am not kidding. I had no idea what to expect, and maybe that is why I was so blown away by this city. 15 million people live in the city and it is packed. Everywhere you go there are people, no matter what time of day. I would walk down a crowded street at 5:00 pm and it was busy, then I would walk down the same street at 2:00 am and it was still just as busy. The people were so nice and they loved talking with us, especially when we would try to speak Turkish :) And the history… Istanbul’s history is incredible. To stand next to a building or a wall or a mosaic that was built thousands of years ago and try to imagine what life was like back then, is breath taking.

Again, we did everything… We went to the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, the Green Mosque, Ortakoy, we took a packed ferry to the Prince’s Islands, road in a horse drawn carriage around the island, spent a day on the Asian side of the city, sat by the water and drank tea, walked along the Bosphorus, tried Turkish coffee, read our fortunes in the coffee grounds, had dinner at the rooftop restaurants and drank and danced at the rooftop bars, saw the underground cistern, went on a day trip to Bursa where we spent time in an amazing little village, ate some of the very best ice cream I have ever had, baklava, turkish delight, lots of yogurt, lamb and olives, walked through the Spice Bazaar, the Grand Bazaar, Music Street, İstiklal, tried lots of new foods, had a massage, did hookah (yes, with my parents!!), played backgammon, bargained for a good deal here and there… It was all so so so much fun!! And we were so lucky to have my sister to help us with the language. Although, I think I picked it up pretty quick -- “ichi tana Efes” means “I’d like two beers” and “teşekkürler” means “thank you.” What more do you need to know?!

I hope that someday I get to go back. There is just something about this city...

I will have more pics on this website soon: http://paristanbul.tumblr.com/!!

paris, oh paris!

Well, we are back… It has taken me awhile to sort through all (1500!!!) pictures I took and I still don’t think I have looked at every single one. I’ve been taking my time and enjoying the memories that come to mind with each picture. Now that I have things somewhat organized, I will begin to share :) The thing is, I don’t even know where to begin…

Paris was amazing!! We stayed two blocks from the Eiffel Tower and every night we got to watch it twinkle. Pictures cannot do this amazing structure justice. Standing right below the Eiffel Tower is an amazing feeling – I felt so small, yet so great. I think that is where I fell in love with PARIS!! We did everything. We saw the Louvre, Musee d'Orsay (my favorite museum), Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, St. Chappelle, Sacre Coeur, walked through Montmartre, the Marais district, Shakespeare & Co., had crepes, drank wine (once out of baby bottles!!), rode the bus, the train, the metro, the open air bus, went to the Rodin museum, the Holocaust memorial, shopped, got caught in the rain, checked out the nightlife, walked Champs de Ellyse, ate some of the best sandwiches and croissants ever, bought flowers from the street vendor, took a boat down the Seine, and spent a day at Versailles… Honestly, I can’t pick one thing that was my favorite because, really, it was all just perfect!! Seeing all of these things with my family was such a wonderful experience and I am so thankful for the time we had in Paris.

I have started a website with pictures from our trip here: http://paristanbul.tumblr.com/. I have uploaded as many pictures as they will let me do in a day today and I will continue to add pictures...