Bangor, Ward Park, County Down, Northern Ireland

That is where my destination was this weekend.

To get there I had to use three different currencies, cross one real border and two cell phone borders (well, I think based incomprehensible Hungarian cell phone company text messages indicating something about the price of using my phone). I had to take a plane, a train, a bus and several automobiles, and change time zones (and then all that on the way back). But I made it and it was awesome.

You're probably wondering what the heck possessed me to go to such great lengths to visit a town, well, a park, in outskirts of Belfast City....well, I went to see Snow Patrol......with a Vero, a friend I met in first year university from Argentina.

I booked a flight to Dublin way back when, and remembered that Vero was in Dublin, and well, that same weekend Snow Patrol was playing in Bangor, and well, when you are hop scotching around Europe with nothing more than a 20litre backpack, this is totally normal, right? Me, Vero, Augustina, Maria and Jimmy did it. (can you tell we are at a concert in Ireland?)

To start the purpose of this post (to tell about my adventures on the Emerald Isle), I first must talk about the concert.

It was AMAZING. Most people know Snow Patrol as the band who sings 'Chasing Cars' made famous by that one Grey's Anatomy episode year back.....but I have their whole album and they are awesome and well when Vero mentioned that they were going to be in Bangor playing an outdoor concert I thought it would be great to go an see them live. Several other NI bands were there too for the festival, including Lisa Hannigan, (who was like a fusion of Serena Ryder and Sarah Maclachlan) and she was amazing too!).

Now Back to Snow Patrol: The band, who met at university, actually hails from Northern Ireland (all I knew is that they were from the UK), the lead singer is actually from Bangor, where the concert was. You could just tell from his utter happiness throughout the concert, his constant smiling and bashful giddiness that he was proud to be home, playing to a sold out crowd, playing for his Parents and his three year old Niece, in an outdoor park, on his home turf. It was the first time I saw a rockstar genuinely smile on stage. You can just see it on his face....he's excited...

Did I mention that this concert was actually the biggest concert in the History of Northern Ireland? yup more than 40 000 strong, with least One Canadian, Two Argentinians and Two Venezuelans were there to hear them ROCK! ( this concert was bigger than U2!). So there we were, singing with Snow Patrol, right up close, and it was great. THere was even fireworks at the end (which I can say, was very unexpected).

There was also a moment that I realized that I was not in Canada any more. Yup, at the end of the concert, I said 'one more song', the crowd said "Play another jig, play another jig!, Play another jig!". The band came out, and played another three :).

(P.S. Entering the land of English speakers was fantastically wonderful too, you would not believe the detailed questions I asked people....just because I could...more about that later...)