I suppose the title of this post is a little bit off, as it includes the events that occurred on Saturday night, as well as what happened on Sunday. On Saturday night, I was relaxing at the hotel, but was getting quite irritated that I had not been able to get a hold of Preslie. I had talked to Mandie about doing some FaceTime so that I could see and talk to Preslie while I was away, and so far, I have only been able to do it once. Since then, I have tried unsuccessfully every night to get a hold of her. Finally, on Saturday night, I suddenly came across an old message on Facebook from Mandie, which had a strange name attached...and really the only reason that I noticed it was that I didn't recognize the name: Mandie Allred. To explain further, Mandie and I are not friends on Facebook, and since our divorce, has thus far kept my last name to my knowledge. When I looked at the profile picture closer, I noticed that it was of her and her boyfriend, while he was wearing his Air Force uniform, and she was wearing a wedding dress. I did a little searching, and discovered that apparently she got married this last week. Totally didn't even tell me about it. The part that really bothers me, is that apparently the wedding was in Las Vegas, but under our Divorce agreement, neither one of us are allowed to take Preslie out of State without notifying the other parent in writing at least 30 days prior. Preslie is also not allowed to ever be left alone with a non-family member, and if she is being babysat for more than 2 hours, the other parent has to be notified. Obviously with me being in Ireland, this makes some of this a little more complicated. Point is though, either way, she broke the terms of our divorce one way or another.
This did not make me very happy, not to mention all of the other obvious reasons why it would bother me. The more I sat and thought about it, the more pissed off I was getting. I decided that I needed to go out and walk it off. I sent an email to one of the lads here named David Daly to see if he wanted to get together for a pint or 4, and then headed out downtown.
After grabbing a quick bite at McDonald's, I met up with David at a local bar, and jumped right into the drinks. We decided to make a night of it, and David gave me the official Cork, Ireland bar hopping experience. We bounced from one pub to another, grabbing a pint or a shot at each, and then moved on to the next. I don't remember how many we were at, I just remember that all of them had absolutely gorgeous women, loud music, and most of them also had DJ's spinning music as well. At one point, we were at this place where we were packed in so tightly, you couldn't put your arms down. Suddenly, "Killing In The Name Of" by Rage Against the Machine came on, and the place erupted. Everyone was jumping up and down, and you had to as well, mostly because you were trying not to spill your drink.
Eventually, we made last call, which I believe was at 2am, and then headed over to a local chicken fast food place called "Hillbillies" to grab a quick bite. Along the way, I was realizing how completely smashed I was, and could barely walk. Suddenly, David asks me, "Do you want to get your picture with the Garda?" The Garda is the local Police. I said sure. We crossed the street and approached a group of 4 Garda standing on the corner. David started asking the reluctant female Garda members if they'd like to take a picture. They were not exactly game about it...ha ha. David was persistent, explaining how I was from the U.S. and such. Finally, one of them said, "You can take a picture with Michael here I guess.." I walked up to him so David could take the pic, and at the last second threw my drunk arm around his shoulder. Next, we saw a "Paddy Wagon" with some other Garda who were stopped on the side of the road, and David decided we should get a picture of that too. They were even less enthusiastic about it than the other ones. In fact, these ones told us to "Bugger off"and a few other things I didn't quite understand. Took the pic anyways :) ha ha ha
By then, I was so far gone, I had no idea where I was, couldn't quite see clearly, and definitely couldn't walk straight either. David was nice enough to walk me back to my hotel at The River Lee, and I managed to get into my room, just in time to pass out on my bed sometime after 3am. The next morning, I woke up with the sudden awesome urge to puke, and dashed into the bathroom just in time. I thought to myself, "That was a nice rental of all that delicious booze.." I took a shower, in an effort to wash off my hangover, which didn't work, then realized I had an hour before checkout at noon, and I had not packed up my room yet. I managed to do it with 5 minutes left, and then checked out of The River Lee.
A few minutes later, I met up with Nate and we headed downtown to check in at our next hotel, The Clarion. I was lucky enough to get upgraded to a nice "Executive Suite" free of charge, and Nate was upgraded to a "Superior Suite", which apparently is one up. I saw his room, and it has an amazing private balcony as it is a corner room, which wraps all of the way around the corner of the room. It also has an amazing view of Cork and the river as well. My room has an equally amazing view, only it has a rounded wall view that is jaw dropping.
Next, we met up with David Daly again, and another lad from work named Brian Honohan, and headed out to go mountain biking. Previously, I was all sorts of excited about this. Now, with a hangover, not so much. I was soon about to learn an important life lesson. Do not go mountain biking with a stomach full of booze and a terrible hangover. We arrived at the spot, which is basically a forest set up in some mountains. Ireland's version of a mountain that is.. I made it about 20-25 minutes into the trail before the learning 2 things:
1. My back is not quite ready for mountain biking.
2. Puking sucks when your back hurts.
I was trailing behind the other guys, but had to jump off the bike and walk it until I found them waiting a little bit ahead. As I was letting them know I would have to head back and just meet them where we rented the bikes, I realized I was going to be sick, but hoped I could walk away out of sight and hide my shame. Alas, it was not in the cards for me this day. After fully expunging all of the booze and other contents from my guts, I finished walking my bike back down to the start of the trail. It was a giant disappointment.
The guys finished the trail about an hour later, and we headed over to this cool Estate that was somewhat nearby. The Mansion itself is set on a very beautifully landscaped property, that is just massive. Unfortunately, I can't remember what it was called though. While we were walking around the grounds there, we came across some deer, which came right up to us, and probably would have ate out of our hands if we had any food on us. Took a few cool photos and some video of that and posted them to Facebook.
Finally, we headed back to the Hotel, and I was finally able to actually get into my room, as it wasn't ready when we first checked in. Amazing views and actually pretty nice! Nate and I wanted to check out the Euro 2012 game, as it was Ireland vs. Croatia, so we headed back out to a local restaurant/pub to catch the game. We heard from the locals that Ireland was pretty terrible, and it was basically just a good excuse to get "pissed". Pissed = Drunk. Sure enough, Ireland played a terrible game, and lost 4-1. The game ended, and we called it a night.
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