Let the Martzy fun begin!

Alright-so here it goes. My first night in Ireland was, as you can only imagine…eventful. And I’m sure it has just begun.

After, what would have taken about an hour in the States, 4 buses and 6 hours later, I finally made it into Killarney and and the Hostel. Needless to say, I was exhausted. By the time I got off the last bus, I could barely pick up my pack anymore. A busdriver helped me with it and asked me “Why in the World would you want to carry all of that stuff with you?” I responded with “I’m starting to wonder that myself.” I’m seriously rethinking quite a few things I’ve brought. However, my favorite purchase for this trip so far are my thermal leggings. The Irish don’t seem to need to be as warm as us cold blooded Americans.

So anyway-on with the funness. I was seriously pathetic and after going out for dinner, I got into my PJs and hunkered down for the evening at the ripe old time of 7pm. I had one roommate named Khara and she seemed pretty nice. She checked in and went out for awhile, so I thought I would lay in bed and read or write. About 10 minutes into writing, another woman came in the room. She didn’t have any things with her and she just leaned against the bathroom door and stared at me. I introduced myself to her and she just grunted and continued to hang out in the doorway. I went back to my writing, but was a little uncomfortable with her watching me. She circled the room and checked under all the beds and around the windows. I finally asked her if she was staying in our room. She said “Well, YEA. How do you think I got in?” OK. She then sat down and said her name was “Ester”. And trust me, there’s a reason for the quote marks. She started to talk to me about her travels and ask me about my travels, we had a mildly “normal” conversation for about a half hour. Then the conversation took an interesting unexpected twist. She moved further away from me and began by saying “I actually haven’t been honest with you. I haven’t only been here for a week, and my name really isn’t “Ester”. I have to be careful because I’m being tracked and stalked. A few weeks ago “THEY” sprayed my car down with Piloneum 2000 (a form of some kind of nuclear poison…god only knows)”. As you can imagine, the expression on my face stayed about the same, but my brain did a major tail spin. She continued to tell me about the different conspiracies she’s uncovered, particularly with the Russian government and all the terrible things that have happened to her because of it. And yes all, this is my roommate. I was very excited about it.

In the middle of one of her stories, as I’m running out of the room screaming in my head, Khara comes back in. “Ester” stops talking and makes things extremely uncomfortable. Khara introduces herself , but “Ester” doesn’t even make eye contact. So Khara just goes about her business and goes to take a shower. “Ester” finishes her story and tells me she’s going to her car to get me some literature on her cause. She leaves and never comes back…so we hoped. Khara came out of the bathroom as soon as “Ester” left and we discussed the freakiness. We both saddled up in our beds surrounded by ALL of our belongings.

Around 1:30am, “Ester” comes back and even though Khara and I didn’t speak, we both knew the other was awake. “Ester” stood between our beds and hovered over us making the signs of the cross over and over again for about a half hour. We both lied still. Finally Khara pretended to wake up and asked if she needed a light on. “Ester” then accused Khara of drinking too much that evening, even though we had both gone to bed around 9pm and had drank NOTHING. When Khara told her she hadn’t drank, “Ester” said that it must have been me. She said that the room smelled like 6 Molson’s…exactly. She opened the window, after checking all around it for god only knows, and finally went to bed. I lay there, eyes wide open for at least 4 hours. Even though I could hear “Ester” sleeping, I didn’t quite trust it.

This morning Khara and I planned on going on a tour of the Ring of Kerry so we set the alarm for 8am. When it went off, “Ester” JUMPED out of bed, dressed and ran out the door, leaving behind 2 grocery bags she had brought in with her in the middle of the night. We got dressed and went down to the front desk, where they had already been VERY aware of her presence. I guess they had a minor issue with her when she came in late last night. She had foil across her windshield to stop any satellites from tracking her and she wouldn’t give the front desk her name. I told him that she said her name was “Ester” but then said that it wasn’t her real name. That is when he told us that HE had named her "Ester" because she refused to give him any info…nice. He then apologized profusely and said that she has been removed from the premises and will not be allowed back. As we walked out the door for our Ring of Kerry tour, he said “I don’t understand it, weve never had a crazy like THAT here!” I thought “of course you haven’t. Then again, you’ve never come in contact with Martzy”, We walked out the door where we then came in contact with SNOW! A man on the tour with us said “I’ve lived here for a few years, and NEVER have I seen it snow.”…Black Cloud anyone?

The rest of the day went well. It was cold, but the Ring of Kerry was beautiful. I even got to see the Beara Penninsula (where I’m going to live) over the Atlantic Ocean. That was pretty cool. I now have a room to myself tonight…YEAH!!!!!