a year of burning mountains

From my diaries: the year 2002 ...

* New Year's Eve – hotel reception work, a kiss in the staff room and a pan-European folk dance (the latter is what happens when a Czech and a Finn dance wildly to traditional Irish tunes).

* Europe's massive currency revolution – spent days juggling Irish pounds and euros.

* A very close encounter with a badger one dark night.

* Many cold nights with no heating. Resorted to illegal squatting.

* Cycled in pitch-black darkness to the village twice a week to play badminton with a very eclectic assortment of people.

* Crashlanded with the bike, went to a play in a Dublin theatre, enjoyed and sometimes endured traditional Irish music seisiúns.

* Saw burning mountains and set fire to myself while DJ'ing at a party.

* Jammed with a punk queen and a Grammy winner while sharing a spliff.

* Spent my birthday in a rainy fishing village and a Dublin suburb, drinking champagne with a Newfoundlander.

* Participated in a rare census of Ireland.

* Took trips to nearly every corner of the Emerald Isle. Saw Belfast murals and barbed wire, the Atlantic evening light over Donegal, a spa in the violent city of Limerick, the dramatic Ring of Kerry, the windblown flatness of the sunny Southeast, the quiet villages in the heart of the country and the ancient Hill of Tara.

* Hero worship and homesickness.

* Moved to a hotel attic where everything was yellow.

* Inhaled strawberry smoke through a hookah in a dreary Irish kitchen.

* Witnessed spectacular car crashes, deportations of illegal aliens, big fat gypsy weddings, and tanks rolling past my front door.

* Had a bathtub full of blood after participating in my first (and last) drinking game.

* Foolishly intervened in a fist fight.

* A September holiday in Finland – a visit to paradise and lazy days with the Helsinki gang (cheap sweet cider from a corner shop tasted much better than the famous Irish stuff).

* Suffered a cat attack and a tetanus shot – and a taxi driver who laughed until he cried at my misfortune.

* Tried to assist in a police investigation regarding drugs while surreptitiously chasing a rat in the hotel lobby.

* Participated in the no less than heroic feat of running a hotel with no electricity or heating for several days in an October storm. A positive side effect of the crisis was hanging out in a bar filled to bursting with candle light and excited people.

* A December holiday in Finland – skiing down a hill, my last nights in my childhood home and another few nights in a Mennonite library (situated upstairs from the hospital's ward for contagious diseases).

Memorable email to friend back home:

”I wanted to get away from Finland so I chose a country of drunks and fighters, emotionally and spiritually inhibited ”normal” people who have no depth – and if they have it they're afraid to show it. Finland number two. But with worse weather. Yes, I love this country, actually.”