Antrim Coast

Ive been slightly distracted the last few days. Does anyone think Natalie Portman still looks really hot, even though she shaved her head? (and add to that, imagine her eric chin level savings on eliminating hair salon and shampoo). It be known that I have a soft spot for short cropped hair, but hers is a bit extreme, bordering on the bull-dyke no fly zone. But still, in Natalie's case, wow still way cute, if not even more so, in that wacky bizarre, have to look twice to make sure, yet totally pulls it off Sinead kinda way. Theres just something really stunning about an exposed neck line (thats why hair tied up or pig tails are the dogs bullocks as well) Anyways if its up for debate, comment below, but if you disagree, just know, you are wrong.

Insert clever segue, here are pics from the Northcoast of Northern Ireland... very pretty, and shockingly surprising and unexpected, almost out of place, just like when I first found out Katie Holmes was seeing Tom Cruise (That under tall, overacting asshole. I hurt my foot kicking the door in when I found out that one...) Maybe she didnt notice yet that she is one foot taller than him.

Normally this is what most people expect from the Irish coast. That surfer is NUTS.


Not the Antrim Coast. This is Portrush, the small beach town getaway of Northern Ireland.



More Rhymes. Throwing Disc is one of the trips themes.





Further on down the coast, about 10 minutes, is the Giants Causeway. It has funny rocks, shaped liked that old school Qbert videogame.



Further on down the coast a bit more, 10 more minutes is the Carrick-a-Rede.


Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge.


"Kindly Remove Bottle" "Kindly remove yourself, Mr. Moto!"... "ARgghhh... KIYAHH!"

Derry / Londonderry

Sunday, Bloody Sunday -U2

The Republican Irish call it Derry. The Loyalist Irish call it Londonderry.




Its the last European walled city in Ireland, and it was the location of the infamous Bloody Sunday Massacre, same one referenced by U2, the devastating random killing of unarmed Catholic Rupublican protesters by the British Army. And its reknown for its political murals from Irish Republicans (Catholic and Allegiance to Ireland) and Irish Loyalists (Protestant and Allegiance to Britian). Things seem grand now, but Derry / Londonderry was one of the flashpoints during the "Troubles" that plagued Ireland through the 60s - 90s. Now its a good place to visit, a beautiful city and definitely interesting. If and when I build a house, Im seriously thinking of saving one wall to paint a giant mural on, with dudes in gas masks and balaclavas, carrying guns. But, in the Jungle, brown dudes with bandanas and flat noses and smoking; filipino styles...


Here are the Republican Murals... aka IRA... (Catholic Area)







And here are some Loyalist Murals... (Protestant Area)

Galway

Hiking into Galway. But only from the Parking lot to the Hostel.


The Living Room Bar. Erics new favorite bar. Traditional Pub Downstairs, more modern club upstairs, with a multi-level setup, with a chill couch section, Plasma sports section, and a table section. And the Bar glows Red.


Galway University






A bit of black and white styles

The Burren

The Burren is a rock wasteland / protected national park on the west coast of Ireland. Its landscape is as close as you can get to the moon... hardly any soil over a 100-200 square mile area. Marty and Eric feel asleep as we drove through this interesting landscape... I had to stop and take pictures to wake them up... LOL

Cliffs of Moher, Part Dos

Between all three of our cameras, I estimate we took maybe 1300 pictures on this trip. And a disproportionate amount were skewed towards Ireland. It feels like we took WAY more pictures in Ireland than the rest of the trip. I dont know why that is cuz the weather was half crap. I guess it was still the beginning of it all and the paparazzi was trigger happy. Its a little bizarre, because Im kinda from here... so why would I be taking so many pics around these parts; a bit odd. Then again I had a brand new camera, a way better one, it was just begging for overuse. Anyways expect more than a few pics from Ireland.

Ive posted from the Cliffs before, when Martin visited last September. Oh well, lets do it again.

Dublin

Without question, this is the first thing you do when you step off the plane in Dublin


Now introducing the Asian Paparazzi




First Night in Dublin's Temple Bar


Daytime in Temple Bar, Dublin



Trinity College, Dublin


The Guiness Storehouse. St James Gate, Dublin


The Guiness Storehouse Gravity Bar. Only suppose to get one free Pint. Eric and I scammed two. Marty scammed three.


Marty, trying to pick up while in line at the Guiness gift shop.


Marty's new favourite fast food.


Rhymes. Theres always time to throw the Disc...

Obragado! Da Nada...

You know the old boys code; whatever happens on the road, stays on the road. Well throw that out the window when you travel with Marty Chow... sometimes the goldmine of moments provided by the situations he gets into simply triumps over any such antiquated "guidelines". Its no contest. What Marty brings to the table is too precious, and it would be a waste not to mention at least somethings, especially if you get precious dime quotes such as:

Marty (drunk in Lisbon): "I know youre going to blog this, snap!, which is so so gay, but whatever, here it is: When you go up to a group of girls mixed with guy friends, always go for the ugliest one. Thats the rule, cuz shes has the biggest probability of not having a boyfriend, you know...so theres the smallest chance of getting beat up."

Thats so awesome... comeon, like it would be bad form not to share this stuff. It would be an insult toward journalistic integrity. And its the intangibles that Marty brought that helped make the trip so awesome. Every night going out, it was Marty doing his thing, laying on his "sweet and sour" game, and myself and eric staying in the background, giggling like girls, and taking blackmail pictures of Marty in action. Good times, good times.

And Marty has the worst beer googles. If you want to simulate for yourself, put on a pair of dark sunglasses, and then smear butter over the lens. That has got to be the level of vision. Frankly, I dont even know why he bothers putting in his contacts... he cant see either way. Feel free to check out Martys blog though, sweetchowofmine.blogspot.com, to get his version of events. Some of the details of our trip is already there so please do check it out... he felt that by beating me to the punch I couldnt make fun of him as much... LOL... touche... I wont repeat anyting that he has already mentioned in his blog, but just know that she was definitely a sub par 5. I have the pictures.

The trip itself was so unbelievably sweet, but sounds like an itinery out of the Amazing Race. 2 nights in Dublin, 1 night in Galway (Westcoast Ireland), 1 night Derry/Londonderry (Northern Ireland), 1 night Belfast, 1 night at my place, 1 night in Faro, Portugal, 1 night in Lagos, Portugal, 3 Nights in Lisbon, 1 overnight train from Lisbon to Madrid, 3 Nights in Madrid, 2 Nights in Barcelona, and 1 overnight train from Barcelona to Nice, 1 night in Nice. Yeah I know, thats why I slept all this weekend, so exhausted, it took me till now, Sunday, to post something. But still, nothing better, I wouldnt take anything away. Staying in one place for two weeks is for chumps, or families.

Ill be posting pictures over the next few days for more chronilogical detail, and post comments along the way.

Moving on, Post Trip Tallys

Shoe purchasing contest:

1st: Marty. 3.5 Shoes. (Green Asics, Campers, Campers, Havaiana Flipflops = .5)
2nd: Eric. 3 Shoes. (Brown Koudenbergs, Skinny Campers, Asics Cleat boots)
3rd: Me. 1 Shoe. (Two tone khaki Campers)

I am so ashamed. I got throttled in this competition HUGE time. And this was my arena too, my hometurf, my homecourt advantage. And surprisingly, Eric, who is well known on our Seattle shopping trips for cheaping out and only buying stupid socks, was leading this contest for a while. That is until marty got motivated and edged out in front with final purchases at Campers Madrid. Its kinda wierd cuz Eric leading myself and Marty in a shoe buying competition is like Oprah pulling out in front of Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis in the 100 yard dash. Its like what the?

Falling asleep in a bar contest:

1st: Eric. Twice.
DNF: Noli, Marty. Zero.

This was no contest as well, this is Eric's perfected art.

Grabbing a random girls ass and being caught contest:

1st: Marty. Once.
DNF: Eric, Noli. Zero.

Marty pretended not remembering this. Hahahaha... he didnt even remember the girl turning around and grabbing him by the ear.

Ill continue posting the next few days... more details on Portugal, Madrid, Barcelona... and Monte Carlo.