Started my day feeling the power of angels surrounding me alleviating my fear about driving. Woke up around 5 and dozed back again. This is my last breakfast here at the Iona bed and breakfast in Sligo - its time to move on.

Stopped in Donegal town to shop for supplies. Meant to buy a little radio but when it came down to it I could not be bothered to stop again. The towns in Ireland are so congested I want to flee them. The search is never ending in the towns for disc parking and finding your way around the maze of one way streets. I was glad to leave Donegal behind me

At the Clock Tower Restaurant in Fintra, I pull over to get a bite to eat when I had this feeling come over me that the place has pain surrounding it. Then I read in a little booklet that the land belonged to the Hamilton family who had been planted here in the 16th century. The stones used for the clock tower came from the stables. Maybe I heard the cries of the horses of the people of the land groaning.

I move onto to Glen Colm Cille. Here I will stay for the next two weeeks. Thankfully, my cell phone works so I can stay in touch with Jon with text messaging. This is good. We were talking (aka texting) when one of my room mates for the week comes in. Her name is Joan. Another one is due tomorrow. We are sharing Teach Foinse next door to the Cistin and the OIdeas Gael college. Joan and I work our way through an article written in gaeilge – Sasamh agus Stadas (Satisfaction and Status) about the naming of Gaeilge as one of the official EU languages. Joan is proficient and we read one paragraph at a time, she translating and me struggling through the translations.

Ta Luchair agus gliondar (delight and joy) ar mo croi inniu, a chairde…
Later in the evening we do a mini pub crawl to Roriaty’s – atrocious red wine , and then onto Biddies’ and this time I take an excellent pint of Guinness. Sitting next to us are an older couple – they could be husband and wife or brother and sister. They are sitting there no drinks in front of them (why did nt I offer to buy a drink?) a missed opportunity. They have basic English skills and try to converse with us much as I would do speaking gaeilge with a native speaking. What did I learn? To be more of a pilgrim?