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"They say the irish are crazy", spoke the mariner to one of the boys in his crew. He has been contracted to carry the torch from Ireland to Sweden, and now he had reached the green island. The ones who hadn’t been here before was amazed of the beautiful view.

"They must be", said the boy and pointed at some people who seemed to try putting fire to a house in the harbor. "Say, is it safe to walk the streets in this town?", asked the boy.

"You’ll never know, boy", said the mariner. "But we are on a mission, and we get paid to do this. So stop complaining!" The boy felt ashamed, and left the mariner.

Ashore the mariner didn’t know who to turn to. He had instructions to contact some people who were in possession of the torch. He asked around, first he didn’t understand a thing they said, but after a while he got the hang of it, at least when they started giving him directions with their hands. Though he didn’t understand the last one he asked, it was obvious that he was to contact the group they earlier had spotted, the ones who seemed to be putting houses on fire.

The mariner wasn’t afraid, he approached them, and as he did he called for their attention and started speaking: "Oy, you are supposed to give me that torch, I’m the contract mariner."

"Hurrah", cheered the irish fellows. "Welcome to our lovely island!" Even though they had looked like troublemakers from the ship, the mariner liked them.

"Thank you!", he responded and joy filled the air as they started to get to know each other. And in a couple of minutes the irish fellows brought forth their bottles.

"Lets drink to this", one fellow said. "Lets drink to that", another one said. And the mariner said: "yes". And later after about 20 of those "yes's", he wasn’t the man he used to be, but the irish fellows didn’t notice, they themselves had also changed…

After a feast that lasted for a couple of hours – no one really knows – the mariner and his crew headed for the ship, with them was a torch and lots of that irish liquid. Even though the didn’t go straight to the ship no one remembers making a wrong turn, or was it because they couldn’t walk straight, no one remembers?

Back on the ship they hoist sails and started to sail for Malmoe in the southern parts of Sweden. Everthing went well, at least so thought the mariner. Once in a while he and the rest of the crew sipped from the barrel the kind irish fellows had given them. And the more they drank, the better they felt…

Some days later they spotted land, and they were very happy. Accourding to the map they where just outside swedish shore, and they once again celebreted their success. Everything went smooth into the harbor, which called for yet another celebration. As the mariner proudly walked ashore, the crew behind him couldn’t help themself from celebrating the occation. But no one seemed to be happy to see them.

"Oy", said the mariner in Swedish to some people looking surprised to see them, "aren’t you happy to see us arrive with this torch?" But the resonse he got was impossible to understand. Yet again he asked if they were not happy, and once again he didn’t understand what they were trying to say. The crew found this something to celebrate.

Approaching the mariner was the chief of the harbor, he said in English: "What the hell are you doing here?" It took some time for the mariner to adjust to the languge, but when he did he said: "We are bringing this torch, it has come all the way from Greece."

"Stupid Swedes", said the chief of the harbor, "it suppose to be delivered in Malmoe, not in Danmark!"

Have you ever heard some words that make the most drunk person turn sober in seconds? That’s how they can sound. The mariner went from drunk, to half-drunk, over to sober, then to a state coma in 2 seconds. Luckily the chief of the harbor was fast enough to catch the torch before it flew into the water.

After making a phone call to the track manager at Viking Racing he started walking towards the bridge. It was a long walk, but when he arrived there was a crowd waiting for him, and they seemed to be happy seeing him. Or was it the torch?

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