Meetup.com is a great idea.
Especially since the breakdown of my marriage, it had been rather difficult for me to make new friends. My old friends either live far away from me, or the friendships seized after breaking up with my wife.
It is actually quite odd how some friendships just disintegrated after my wife and I split.
I than heard about meetup.com and since I am a passionate hobby photographer, I decided to sign up to “Photograph Ireland“, a newly formed group.
The first meeting
The first meeting was set for January 17th. The venue was the visitor centre of the early Christian site of Glendalough.
Glendalough Monastic Site
At 2 p.m. we were to meet. I pulled up at the car park at 1:45 p.m. and received a message from two people saying that they’re already there. On my way into the visitor centre I saw two people (with cameras) standing outside the visitor centre. I approached them and bingo, they were part of the group. I was talking to Anthony and Peter. Over time, more members joined.
Photo Safari
I was wondering how this was now going to work. Are we moving as a group, taking photographs? This would be rather awkward, as every photographer needs more or less time for his images.
It turned out that we all went our own way, but as we went along, we kept bumping into each other and exchanged ideas etc.
It was a really nice and easy going afternoon. We had agreed to meet up again after a couple of hours in the cafe on site.
Poulanass River, Glendalough
Chat over coffee
We ended up meeting over coffee, or whatever individuals decided upon and had great little chats. It is a really nice and relaxed way of meeting like-minded people.
The next meeting is in Dublin, on February 7th.
