"A Lovely Day..."

We are in Clifden, (I'm blogging from the Adult Video Shop) which is a small coastal town in Ireland on the North Atlantic Ocean, in the County of Connemarra. It's a beautiful place; the country, the land, the ocean, the rocks, the trees, the flowers, the little narrow roads, the hills and mountains...

We are staying at the AbbeyGlen Castle which is sort of like an Irish "Faulty Towers," with it's own "Basil," and "Manuel," and contigent of Irish maids. It's kind of silly, the way they go out of their way to try to entertain ("Danny Boy," is sung at the drop of a hat) the tourists, but this is the only false note in an incredibly beautiful place. It's almost impossible to write about it, without sounding (or being) cliche, but everyone who has ever written about this land has not quite captured the ineffable, profoundly beautiful, haunting, magical aspect of this little emerald island. It is truly a gem; a place that changes you just by being here.

Yesterday, we rented a big red, Audi 4 and motored our way from Galway to Clifden. It was a truly harrowing experience navigating these little winding, country roads, with the steering wheel on the right, the gear shift on the left (I'm a lefty so this felt natural) and these very tiny roads where it seemed impossible that two cars could pass each other comfortably without re-arranging a fender or two. We played the Belfast Cowboy on the cd player (he told us: "One Love is everywhere."), the perfect soundtrack for this little excurision. We are here for two days, hiking and eating and hanging out, then it's back to Galway, then Dublin, then onto Edinburgh Scotland.