blOgZ ARTke: Aran Islands Weekend Excursion!

For our first weekend excursion we went to the Aran Islands! The Aran Islands are the three islands off the west coast of Ireland, west of Galway. It was an all day journey just to get there. First we took the van from the cottages in Ballyvaughan to Galway (and hour drive). In Galway we caught a bus to take us to a ferry (another hour drive). While we waited for our bus to ferry we inadvertently had coffee at a food bank for the homeless.

We gave them donations (in turn paying) for our coffee.

Once we got on the ferry, it was a 45 minute ferry ride to the largest of the 3 Aran Islands, Inis Mor. The ferry ride was quite exciting, due to the rough seas and high winds. Luckily no one in our group got seasick! Once we got to the island we checked into our hostel, Kilronan Hostel.

The ferry made announcements in English and in Gaelic, it was awesome!

After settling in we did some shopping and had a delicious lunch at the Beach Stone Cafe. The Aran Islands is known for their wool and wool sweaters, so lots of people got sweaters. The hat and scarf that I got from the Shannon Airport were made here, so I didn't feel the need to buy a sweater (thank goodness, because it never would have fit into my overnight bag!)

Irish chicken parm... it was delicious!

Look at this cutie in her adorable woolen outfit!
Finally a pro!

I loved the ad with the guy and the cat.
"Sensitive, cat loving, Irish men wear Aran Trinity Caps"

Naomi in her new Aran wool scarf!

I asked this shop owner a question, but he didn't know the answer.
So he spent a good 15 minutes looking things up on the internet.
And telling me about New Grange and how I should visit it.

There were almost as many horse drawn carts as cars.

The Aran Islands are some of the western most parts of Ireland,
therefor they are seen as one of the most authentic "Irish" areas in Ireland.
There were lots of things written in only Gaelic.

Once all of our souvenirs made it back to the hostel we decided to hike out to the west coast of the island to the Black Fort. We ended up with another beautifully sunny day!

Naomi and Martha

We weren't sure we were headed the right direction,
so we stopped and asked for direction.
It turns out we were going to the wrong way, haha.

We found the sign! We're gong to right way!

The further west you go, the more and more of these amazing dry stone walls you find.

We hiked along the "road"

Fields and walls just went on and on forever.

But then all of a sudden the road ended at the ocean!

"Be careful, it's a cliff. Like in the movies. Straight into the ocean," Martha

The view was amazing! It was like the Cliffs of Moher, but without any tourists, shops or guard rails!

Rachel was brave! She kneeled near the edge!
And put her camera's life on the line as well.

I on the other hand, inched my way to the edge on my belly just enough to get my eye balls over.
And I thought I was going to throw up!
It was crazy.

A picture Rachel took...
I couldn't look over the edge and hold my camera at the same time.

The picture doesn't get really get it across,
but it was a really really long way down.
Straight down.

Recovering from my "edge of the world" experience.

Martha and Naomi taking it in.

That's the Black Fort off in the distance.

We didn't actually make it all the way to the Black Fort. It was really windy and it looked like a storm was headed in our direction, so we decided that the crazy cliff edge was enough for one trip and headed back to town.

A glacial erratic!

We made a friend!

Beautiful beach.

Dawn and Martha and having a moment.

After our long hike we celebrated with a victory beer. I finally had my first Guinness in while in Ireland! Verdict = delicious! It is better in Ireland!