On a Boat... to Inis Mor!

For a week and a half, I've been spouting off to tourists about how the Aran Islands are so great, as is part of my job description, but I hadn't actually had the chance to go and visit them. Rectified that today, and let me tell you one thing- my directions to them about how to catch the bus were horrifically vague. I'm shocked none of them came back to yell at me- if they managed to catch a bus back. In any case, Hannah and I did manage to get on the bus to Ros a Mhil, where we caught the ferry to Inis Mor, the biggest of the Aran Islands.


First of all, the ferry was freezing, and my decision to let my hair fly free was sadly not the best one I ever made, because by the time we got off the boat I looked not so much like a human as a sunburnt pillar of salt wearing a seaweed wig. We were hoping to see dolphins, but they were not feeling particularly friendly that day, so we made it to the Islands without seeing a single one. We did, however, see a seal, who I have named Georges (pronounced zhorj). We also met a bull, who I named Grumpy, a horse, who I named Charles, a puffy bird who I named Moose (sorry, Moose!), and a three goats who I named Billy, Goat, and Gruff. Oh, Irish wildlife.

Anyway, that part's not important. We were assaulted right off the boat by guys haggling bikes and tours and even sweaters... jeez!!! It was like a gauntlet of advertising. We rented bikes and biked along the high road, visited the lighthouse at the highest point on the island, and then biked down a massive hill through a sudden rainstorm. It was awesome, but unfortunately Hannah slowed down to make sure she could see, and I didn't. I stopped at a beach at the bottom and waited for her, but she was GONE. I asked like 10 different people if they'd seen a dummy in a pink slicker, and no one had. I retraced my steps and finally decided screw it, I'll just go to Dun Aonghosa, our destination. I figured I'd wait for her there.

I got myself a slice of cake and was calmly eating it when I ran into two girls we'd met on the boat. They said, "Your friend's up at the castle." As Hannah would say, "What the crap?" I jogged up the ten-minute, all-the-way-uphill, jagged limestone path to the old fort and promptly told Hannah in no uncertain terms that she was an idiot. This she took with dignity and said something rude about my mother. In any case, once I'd gotten over that (and the height dizziness), Dun Aonghosa became the undisputed highlight of our trip. The cliffs! The clouds! The roaring ocean! The bossy Asian tourists with video cameras! It was stunning. Even the Asians. More pictures on FB! Dun Aonghosa is a fort, said to be the castle of Aengus, King of the Tuatha de Danann, the fairy people who lived in Ireland before the Celts. Cool, ey?

When I finally tore myself away from it, we hopped back on our bikes to go see the seal colony, which consisted of like 4 seals lazing happily about. The rest of the bike ride was fairly quiet, but beautiful, with several Iron Age forts and some 15th century churches. We went to a pub where there was live music and some really delicious brownie cake. Hannah stopped in the Aran Sweater Shop, where all of the sweaters are hand-knit with Aran wool, beautiful and guaranteed to stand up to wind, water, sleet and snow, but they're also crazy expensive. Each of the knots meant something different- diamonds, for example, meant luck.

We got back on the ferry, completely exhausted, and passed out the whole way back. There were so many people struggling and shoving to get on the bus to Galway that we missed not only the first but also the second bus. They sent a third to collect us- but by that time I was royally pissed at the Lally Tour Company, let me tell you.

I'm back at the hostel, eating dinner... but today's lesson is in why the Irish believe in magic and superstition. When you're standing on Inis Mor, you can see the other islands shrouded in mist in the distance, and it's not hard to believe that spirits live on one of them. Ireland is just so magical.