Escapé

I could definitely use some sunshine and rainbows right now, as most people wish for when wishing for things in the wintertime.

And not that it's the snowiest it's ever been in the northeast area where I reside; however, it is still cold and annoying. Lately, I have found myself trying to relive peaceful moments in my mind, to lessen the overall dismalness of winter.

One of those places that my mind snapshots to is a little lake on the bottom edge of Ireland.

While most towns are small and remote in Ireland, this one was special because we had to travel over hill and dale to the middle of a lake on a manmade "parking lot" / kayak dock.

There were twists. There were turns. There was only enough room for half the width of a compact car . . .

...oh wait. That's normal.

-

Anywho, we arrived at dusk, kept our phones safely housed in our car (yes, it was extremely difficult to leave my beloved cellular behind; unable to document the once in a lifetime experience*), and made our way to the 15+ kayakers waiting to depart on an epic journey.

Credit must be given to my friend who found this "off the beaten track" experience and booked it for us. I wouldn't have imagined Ireland to have something that you can also associate with the beaches of Bali or somewhere in the southern hemispheres of the world where it is a bit toastier. In fact, I didn't realize lake water could be so pretty, anywhere.

But there we were, pushing off the banks of Lough Hyne - out into the semi-dark (at that point).

There were 4 of us, which meant we had to be separated into two kayaks. Little did they know that you can make a two person kayak into a 4 person kayak with simple wrangling and steadfast holding techniques.

But wait!

If you are a faithful reader of this blog ...or you were actually on the trip with me, you'd know that there were 5 of us on that Irish adventure last summer.

Where, you must be thinking, did your fifth friend go?

Never fear, dear reader, our fifth friend, who tends to opt out of the overindulging and strenuous activities by choice, was back, 30-ish minutes away at our AirBnB out in Skibbereen

(proud home of the silver medalist rowers in the 2016 Rio Olympics - look them up, they're fantastic)

It was a dream situation for her: the whole house to herself, her pick of the beds, sweet sweet television that we had not been privy to in days... I mean hours.

No exertion.

No bone-chilling coldness out in the middle of a lake.

It was perfection.

. . .

Until she heard a chainsaw start up in the backyard.

You see, this AirBnb was actually a hostel (not my fave living option, FYI), that was moonlighting as a AirBnb for us because we were a large enough group to fill all the rooms.

The owners lived in a home very much connected to where we were dwelling.

Sure, they had cute pets roaming the property.

And yes, they seemed very sweet.

But so did Ted Bundy or that neighbor in, Abducted in Plain Sight.

Also the house was literally miles away from anything resembling legal help, if necessary.

So we received that text shortly after departing the house:

"That guy (the owner) is running a chainsaw right now. Goodbye."

- and then radio silence -

...mostly I guess because we had to leave our phones in the car and could not continue texting to see if she had survived. #friendshipgoals

When we returned, we realized that while Michael Myers had not murdered our beautiful friend [thank God], a family of spiders was unhappy with our presence.

The onslaught of texts we received once returning to the car at 11pm, for your reading pleasure:

PS: times were in EST, not Ireland time.

Long story short: it ended up everything was fine.

...even though that was NOT us downstairs at "5:54".

Honestly, it was probably the chainsaw guy again being weird:

- - -

And to get back to the entire point of this post,

the experience of bioluminescent kayaking, or as my friend called it, " bacteria canoeing" - was magical.

The sheer silence that was "heard" / felt on that lonely lake is something that will stay with me, forever.

Free of worry. Free of the hustle & the bustle, as well.

I felt small. Humbled. And ready to re-enter life with a more serene persona.

Equally -

I'll also forever remember being the annoying Americans who reversed the silence whilst trying to relocate one another's kayaks by "ca-cawing" and pulling our boats back together.

I am sure people hated us, but that's life, baby.

Not everyone gets your humor.

Moral of story: next time you're in Ireland, go bioluminescent kayaking

...and book an AirBnb that doesn't double as a hotel for arachnids.

Skål xx y'åll

Water related tunes

credit: Youtube