You know those stories about the idiots who are so wrapped up in what their GPS is telling them that they don't pay any attention to their actual surroundings and drive into a lake? I might be one of those idiots. Today was actually a wonderful day which I spent more or less driving all over the countryside, following sometimes less than stellar directions delivered in a soothing British accent by the GPS lady. I was not necessarily soothed though, when at one point I ended up (because she told me to turn left, so I turned left) on what was a rutted, rocky, and in places steep dirt track. I had gone a few yards and was thinking, "this can't be right" when I noticed the very rugged jeep that I had just passed was a few yards behind me. I put the car in park in the middle of the road (there was no 'side of the road,' there is rarely any 'side of the road') and trotted back to ask advice from the guys in the jeep. They could not have been friendlier or less perturbed by the fact that I'd stopped my car in front of them. I asked if the road I was on connected to a main road, they thought it did; I told them my GPS had instructed me down it, but that seemed like a really bad idea, given the micro-car I was driving and the fact that the 'road' was barely a road, right? Nah, they said, I would be fine, and besides, they'd be right behind me if I got into trouble. The actual consequences of me 'getting into trouble' didn't really mentally take hold, and they were so good-natured and encouraging that against any reasonable person's better judgement, I hopped back in my car and continued down what could generously be considered a goat path that was barely the width of my car. But most of the country roads here are barely the width of my car, and between the suspect GPS and google maps on my phone, I eventually found where I was going, found the next place, and the place after that, and eventually made it back to Julie and Matt's, ready to be back in their awesome house or really, anywhere but behind the wheel.
That being said, there were times when I would come to the top of a hill and catch a view and let out a snort of joy (snort of joy? That's what I'll name my band) because it was just so lovely. The sun was shining, I didn't drive into a lake, the roads are narrow but the countryside they go through is stunningly pretty... just look:
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Little perfume factory and shop in the middle of nowhere;
if you go, take the road, not the goat path.
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| lunch was at the Falls Hotel in Ennistymon |
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then I drove to Lahinch and sat on the cliff eating a snack
I'd never buy/eat at home, and watched the surfers |
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| This is the snack; yes, that's Rolo pudding. It was fantastic. |
