One job. Navigate. Watch the map. Watch the road. It doesn't seem like much compared to figuring out how to drive on the wrong side of the car on the wrong side of the road while whipping through roundabouts, but it kept me up last night not quite anxious but a little worried. Ireland is a small country--about the size of the state of Maine--but it's big enough to get lost in. And we always seem to have one or two experiences in our travels when at least one of us is sure we won't make it back alive, so I had some things to think about before falling into a fitful sleep. But today wasn't the day we almost died, except maybe once. Instead, today was the day we got up, rented a car in Limerick and drove directly north to Letterkenny without making a single wrong turn.It's a beautiful country to drive through with green everywhere you can see, unless you're along the coast and then the North Atlantic is a steely blue. There are cows and horses and sheep along the way and gardens with gigantic lilies in full bloom. We stopped in Charlestown on the border between Mayo and Sligo for lunch at a place called The Broadway, where Chris had seafood chowder and I ordered what I thought would be egg salad but what turned out to be hard boiled eggs with a side of mayonnaise.It turns out, most of the fuss of egg salad is unnecessary. The motorway passes over rail tracks and rivers and occasionally butts up against the coast and towards the end we traversed the lower Bluestack Mountains. We passed through the counties: Limerick, Clare, Galway, Mayo, Sligo, and Leitrim before reaching Donegal.early this evening. We listened to Irish radio, being broadcast in Irish and occasionally interrupted by traditional Irish music selections, many of which sound quite a bit like polkas, most of the way. And it wasn't until we had arrived in Letterkenny that we accidentally pulled into the wrong lane of traffic and would have felt like we were going to die but blessedly there were no cars oncoming. We didn't have directions to our B&B, only an intersection and the hope we would find it and, again, we were able to drive directly there without a misstep. I don't mean to give the impression that any of this was easy. It was, frankly, amazing. Chris is an excellent driver, even with the pressure of not knowing exactly where to go and operating under entirely different road rules. And he's driving a manual transmission car, and the stick shift is on his left, so there's a lot to think about. And it seems like those cars are going to hit you and hit you hard when they're coming at you from a direction you're not used to seeing them come at you. So there was a lot of flinching but no crashing.
Our hostess, Anne, ushered us in and only gave us enough time to set down our bags before cozying us into the lounge with some tea and a platter full of spice bread, cake and candy. People who take a break mid-day for spice bread, cake and candy--oh, and tea--seem like a smart people. We had been in the car for about five hours, so we rested a bit in our room before heading out to the Letterkenny city center. This country grows quiet on the weekend and such was the case as we walked up and down High Main and Low Main Roads this evening. There were cheers and jeers spilling out of a pub or two, but for the most part, by seven in the evening, the shops were closed up and the people few. But it's lovely nonetheless and we were able to scope out some places we'll revisit later in the week, during the day and when we have more time. We talked as we walked and commented on the strange feeling we have when we first arrive in a new town and it's hard to understand what type of neighborhood we're quite in, especially when we arrive in the evening. One of Chris's coworkers told him to be careful not to be stabbed in Limerick, and Limerick seemed quaint. I suspect we won't be stabbed here, either, but I think we'll have a better sense of the town Monday when there are more people about. We're back in our B&B for the night now, which is as different from the dorm we stayed in at University of Limerick as you can imagine, and we're looking forward to Anne making as a traditional Irish breakfast tomorrow at nine.
Our hostess, Anne, ushered us in and only gave us enough time to set down our bags before cozying us into the lounge with some tea and a platter full of spice bread, cake and candy. People who take a break mid-day for spice bread, cake and candy--oh, and tea--seem like a smart people. We had been in the car for about five hours, so we rested a bit in our room before heading out to the Letterkenny city center. This country grows quiet on the weekend and such was the case as we walked up and down High Main and Low Main Roads this evening. There were cheers and jeers spilling out of a pub or two, but for the most part, by seven in the evening, the shops were closed up and the people few. But it's lovely nonetheless and we were able to scope out some places we'll revisit later in the week, during the day and when we have more time. We talked as we walked and commented on the strange feeling we have when we first arrive in a new town and it's hard to understand what type of neighborhood we're quite in, especially when we arrive in the evening. One of Chris's coworkers told him to be careful not to be stabbed in Limerick, and Limerick seemed quaint. I suspect we won't be stabbed here, either, but I think we'll have a better sense of the town Monday when there are more people about. We're back in our B&B for the night now, which is as different from the dorm we stayed in at University of Limerick as you can imagine, and we're looking forward to Anne making as a traditional Irish breakfast tomorrow at nine.
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