ireland 2006

so where do i begin for part two of my summer adventure?

i flew into cork, ireland after having little to no sleep after a night of watching the stanley cup finals, game 7 and then catching the standsted bus at 4am. by the time i got to the airport the lines were massive for checking in and even for security. but thankfully, i made it just in time.

i was totally in a zombie state once i landed in cork and my contacts were glued to my eyeballs. i managed to take them out but was a bit worried that i wouldn't be able to track down miles as he was picking me up in our rental car. but after waiting twenty mintues in the october-esque like vancouver weather (rain/overcast), he pulled up in this burgundy cleo.

day one was a bit of a blurr as i wasn't really doing my part of the job on this trip. miles was the only person registered on the rental car so he agreed to drive. mind you, though i know how to operate a stick shift, i was a bit hesitant as you have to drive on the other side and maneouver with your left hand - makes it much more complicated. so i was the designated navigator for the trip and i must admit...i wasn't very helpful for the first few days. i guess coming off part one of my trip and driving the entire ten days i probably turned gears and didn't want to operate a car nor even look at a map to get any sense of direction. sorry miles!

we ended up getting out of cork and driving up to the blarney castle where we managed to walk the grounds and make it up to the top where we both kissed the blarney stone. we then drove around the ring of kerry and finally settled in a B&B in Killarney. we were told by our host (james) that it was going to be quite loud in town as it was a gathering of harley bikes from across europe. we ended up going to the main strip and had some pub food as we watched the england match.

we continued up along the west coast and took the ferry from tarbert to kilrush to make it to the burren region. along the way we made a wonderful pit stop at the cliffs of moher. it was the one moment on our ireland trip where the clouds disappeared and the two hours that we spent there was just splendid - clear blue skies and picturesque views of the ocean and the aran islands. at one point, miles and i just sat there and both noted to each other that this would be one of the top ten places to die (both morbidly thinking in suicidal terms).

we continued along through the burren region and drove through areas of the 300 sq km of karst limestone.

the second night we landed in a small little coastal area called Rossnowlagh and found a wonderful little B+B with a great little pub and a room with a view. i think i had the best irish meal at this smugglers' creek inn and thought the staff was so hospitable. Even the owner bought us a round of drinks (malibu pineapple, baby!).

we woke up the next morning and i guess miles thought it would be cool to offroad in our economy size car onto the beach. thank god we didn't get stuck because i would of kicked his hairy arse. we then decided to head up north and ended up in Ballyliffin. along the way we attempted to make it to slieve league, the highest cliffs in all of europe but unfortunately by the time we got there, the rain clouds just kept following us. you'd hike up a short distance and all you could see was the whiteness in the clouds. it's almost like you were walking into heaven with all the moutain goats surrounding you. i tried to catch up to miles but to no avail...i couldn't even see a foot ahead of me.

before heading to befast on the eve of our irish excursion, we drove to the northern area of malin and made our way to the giant's causeway. this was a cool hike and there were a few moments where i almost pushed miles over the edge (literally).

so now onto belfast....

we landed a cute little b+b in crumlin (which was only minutes away from belfast international airport). turns out there was a cancellation and we lucked out as rooms were sparse due to the irish special olympics. if ever you're in the area, check out caldhame lodge and ask for the bridal suite. anne, the host, was very pleasant and i was quite impressed by the decor of her home and her kick ass villeroy & boch jacuzzi tub. so we took a quick power nap and got ready to hit the town of belfast. we parked our car along a main strip (college street east) and checked out a few restaurants before we settled in at an aisan fusion joint called cayenne. the food was decent but we had an interesting conversation with ms. jules black, a local girl who happened to live in vancouver for several years and was in love with south korea. she recommended a great dancing club and after we finished up with our lovely cappucinos we headed back to our car.

this is where the story changes....

within minutes away from our rental car, i looked over to miles and told him that despite the rain i had such a lovely time in ireland and that even if we didn't go dancing that i was very pleased with the trip. so, i then skipped to the car and within seconds after shutting the door and attempting to buckle up i noticed some commotion from my periperhal vision. some dude walked over to miles' side and began hassling him and then simultaneously his partner in crime opened up my door and began to yank on my right arm. this had to be the most scariest situation that i had ever been faced with and i had no idea what to do. it all happened too fast and at one point i was trying to figure out why both of my arms were being stretched in different directions. it's like a moment in time when you have no idea what's happening and you have absolutely no control of the situation. this nasty culprit was pulling on my arm as my left arm was tangled by the seatbelt. i began to panic and then started to screech. it had to be the most interesting sound that came out of my vocal chords and a sound that could never be replicated. at this point, i had no idea that miles had an 8 inch kitchen knife nestled right into his stomach. if i had known that, i don't think i would of screamed in such an odd way. after realizing that we were getting carjacked, i finally removed my arm from the seat belt and moved away from the car. miles and i met at the back of the car and it was literally like 10 seconds before the two criminals managed to start the car and maneouver into gear. it was within those ten seconds where i thought, "thank god, we are not hurt", "why didn't i jot down the license plate number?", "why didn't i open up the trunk of the car and get the motorcycle jackets and digital camera out of there?". it's the what if, what could of you done if you could turn back the clock.

so, interestingly enough ... after completing our police reports which took over two hours and then being escorted in the "ghost car" (with the sirens running), we were told that they found the abandoned car and that we could go to the site and gather some of our belongings. thank god we retrieved the keys to the b+b and my damaged sunglasses. but oddly enough, miles' only set of apartment keys which were in a shallow pocket of his motorcycle jacket (that got swiped) was dangling on the keychain of our b+b. oh, and i almost forgot to mention, en route as they were escorting us back to the guest house, we had to make a detour to the mysteriously located and highly secured belfast police compound. it looked like a barricade enclosed by a 20 feet high bulletproof wall and i noticed a few seargents coming out of their white bulletproof mini hum-v's and had some anti-explosion garb on. makes you wonder how dangerous northern ireland/belfast can be...

the next morning, we had to cab it to the airport (with very little, to no sleep) and as we were walking over to the avis rental car agency, our dear friends constable bill and kieran tracked us down and had surveillance video in hand and wanted us to positively identify the two "hijackers". okay, who would of thought that in a matter of nine hours that you would go from being carjacked, to finding the stolen vehicle, entering a highly secured police compound to being escorted in the airport by several police officers to go knab and identify the assailants.

what a crazy story to share with others. and unfortunately, with my camera lost into the hands of the black market, the only picture i can share is what we took off of miles' camera the next morning. may i introduce to you constable bill and kieran....