the land of the leprechauns

it was a dark and cloudy night, and i was handed the keys to a 3 door opel astra... wait a second, who gives the dyslexic kid the keys to a car on an island where they drive on the wrong side of the road??? national rent-a-car, that's who.

after getting behind the wheel and acquainting myself with this new setup, it took me a grand total of 3min to get pulled over by the cops. i'm guessing he thought i was drunk driving (possibly not stayin in the lane too well, it's hard to judge the far side of the car when it's the wrong side) but then once i opened my mouth he pretty much said "oh, you're a yankee... take it easy"... after that less auspicious start, we started off to the west side to visit galway. but first, the cliffs of moher and random tiny roads with people buzzing around the blind corners at about 50mph... WOW! talk about nerve wrecking. but we made it, and i even pulled a tokyo drift-like move on the switchback climbing on a few of the roads up there. fun times, fun times indeed... just don't ask my two passengers. all in all, the cliffs are amazing. 200m (600ft) high and straight down to the atlantic ocean.

that night brought us to galway where, unbeknownst, to us, the volvo world race was in harbor on a fortnight break. town seemed kinda packed, but without all the tourism there for the race it woulda been a pretty cool place. off to ring of kerry next.

so the ring of kerry is a beautiful drive along the coastline and through mountainous ranges of south-western ireland. breathtaking views, awfully small roads. now, i've been to this area before. i was here back when i was 11 on a family vacation before we went on home leave one summer. i don't remember seeing much, but i do remember that a rock "jumped out" at our car and took one of her tires with it. i remember this cause i remember hanging out with lynn and paula lopez hernandez in the tall grass fields amongst the sheep. i mention this cause i wanted to go on record as saying that i was able to navigate these roads without such incident. just an fyi...

the next day, we made our way to cork and the nearby blarney castle. and yes, we were all able and willing to kiss the famed blarney stone. not much else to say about that besides that it was pretty cool to walk up and down the castle and read all the interesting tidbits (but i'll save you from the verbal diarrhea at this point). that night we found ourselves in cork (awesome place) right after their annual bank holiday marathon (i'm not exactly sure which bank holiday it was, but everyone kept on calling it a bank holiday weekeend). next up???? dublin.

and no visit to dublin is complete without a guiness factory tour. i'll let the picture speak for itself.

with this, we wrapped up our time on the emerald island and parted ways with jackie. next up for shubha and i, copenhagen. more to come in a few days. stay thirsty my friends...