Up and at ‘em early this morning. The girl in hotel cafe didn’t “get” that I wanted coffee only, no breakfast. Apparently this makes me a freak.

In the car to who knows where. I wound up in Clonmacnois, which is located at the crossroads…the river Shannon (running north to south) and the gravel ridges (east west). It nearly stole my breath and the truth be told, I wouldn’t have asked for it back.

The stone walls you see in photos of Ireland are literally EVERYWHERE. When I asked a guy at the hostel the other night if they were for land markings or to keep animals in or as windbreaks he said “all of the above”. He told me that much like the Aran sweaters (fishermans sweaters) with the braiding that tells a story, there are serveral styles of walls. He also told me that people are stealing the rocks to use them for their home patios, so they’ve started putting mortar on top of them to stop the theft, but when they do the walls can’t give way to the earths moves and eventually fail. The walls that have lasted for hundreds of years are being threatened.

I hear a lot of young people speaking the English-Gaelic equivilent of Spanglish (remember the song/album/band Los Ketchup?). I had read that the language was dying and this gives me hope.

Yesterday before Balla I drove around the Connemera coast until the road quite literally ended. All the road signs were in Gaelic with no English translation, and this too gives me hope.

On the road again to who knows where has landed me in this random town I mentioned in the backdated post for yesterday I just wrote. The sky is brilliant blue again and I need to get back out in it.

I think I’m going to drive to Mountmellick where my father lived after Balla.

Forgive any mis-types, I’m working with a European keyboard.

Cheers!