"You have to turn around," Robin said, as we left the village of Cleggan. She meant the car blocking our way, and I promptly went around it. A few miles later she said, "Is this a loop road?" I still didn’t get it. Only when we arrived, to my shock, at an unexpected village did she chortle, "How often do you do this when I’m not around?"

I believe you’re only lost if you care where you are at any given moment. In this case, however, I did. I was starved, and the pub in Cleggan was filled with smoke and German bicyclists, occupying every table. So we were allegedly headed back to Clifden, by the scenic route now.

The landscape around the north shore of the Connemara is a crazy rocky patchwork amid a confused, ragged coastline. The water is Caribbean green. Among the rocky hills you can detect, by the straight lines of vegetation, the old potato rows. The heavy rains of yesterday are gone (we had walked several miles, encased in Goretex, along the Sky road), replaced by "fresh and breezy conditions" that make for a scrubbed look to the sky and hills.

We were the lone diners at Clifden’s only Chinese restaurant last night (pretty good, by the way). "The cook’s jaw dropped when you asked for more green vegetables in your dish," said Katherine, our waitress. Her sister is married to the cook/owner, who’s from Hong Kong. "Most people push them around on the plate so they look like they’ve been picked at, or hide them in the napkin." And we have all that kale and chard going to bolt back home. "The owner nearly died when he had to put chips on the menu," she added. It’s like my father now, he doesn’t consider it dinner unless there’s potatoes."

That night we watched The Quiet Man on our TV, which was filmed not 40 miles away. Robin calls from the bathroom, where she’s brushing her teeth, "I wish they would just vote!" she calls out. I burst out laughing, knowing she means the placement of the hot and cold water faucets. Then again, this is a culture of the non-commital response, where rarely (unless you’re discussing politics) does one get a direct yes or no answer to any inquiry. So does the hot go on the right or the left? Well, that depends.

March 2000