April 8th, 2014

I actually slept pretty well, considering I slept on a leather love seat. Their apartment is set up so that the only washroom is in their bedroom. I went to bathroom in middle of the night, couldn't figure out the light, and I didn't want to wake them, so I went to the bathroom in the dark. Gotta love adventures!

We woke up early to catch the bus downtown to Square to buy tickets for the Aran Islands shuttle. Before leaving, Mel gave us oranges and granola bars in case we got hungry while on the Islands. We checked opening times for the ticket office to Aran Islands and it didn't open for a half hour so we decided to have breakfast at a little café just off the square. I had a Machiatto and a Raspberry muffin, it was delicious!

After breakfast we walked back to the ticket office. We asked for the student discount, well wouldn't you know, I was a genius and didn't bring my student ID on the trip so I told the receptionist that I didn't have mine and what the price is for the Adult ticket (it was only like 3 euros more) but she said she believed I was a student and gave me the discount anyways! Everyone is so nice in Europe! But if you ever travel anywhere as a student, bring your ID, you get so many discounts!

Mel then walked us to the bus stop for the shuttle to the ferry that would take us to the Islands. The bus took about an hour, but it was the ferry that got me… Normally I don’t get seasick but the crossing to the Islands was just so rough! I had taken two Gravol and I was still dizzy and nauseous! We were rocking and rolling! Franny was scared we were going to tip over at times, I guess I was too sick to notice how heavily we were rocking back and forth. It was probably bad because we were neither hitting the waves head on, or on the side, by diagonally into them. But I made it to the island without getting sick! Yay!

When we arrived on the Island there were a bunch of vans lined up to take passengers on tours of the island. Before leaving Galway, Gill told us the best tour guide was the man with the red van, so that’s who we walked up to! Since we were the first on his tour, we got the front seats in the van. They were the best seats because we could see everything and hear him perfectly!

Aran Islands are gorgeous! They’re all single lane roads, lined with rock fences. The fences are cool because they don’t need mortar. They are all fitted together perfectly, with small gaps and holes in them so the wind can get through. Most of these fences have lasted for thousands of years! They are truly a sight to behold. 

He drove us around the island for a bit, stopping for good photo stops. We spent sometimes at the fort & cliffs (where they filmed part of leap year). 

We had lunch in a tiny village, one where they make the Aran Knit Sweaters, the line up for the café was long but definitely worth it. Franny and I both had traditional Irish Guinness Beef stew, we then shopped in the wool shops until the van came back to pick us up. Everything was gorgeous but extremely expensive.

We also stopped at the old monastery. Men used to come from miles around to train at this monastery. There were even a few graves of roman soldiers who died while in training. At the monastery lives Jack the donkey as well. He was so cute and he’d walk right up to the fence when you called his name!!

We went down to the ocean a bit and saw a very pretty lighthouse. It’s actually the last lighthouse before you reach Newfoundland, Canada! We also tried to see seals but the tide was too high and they were all swimming in the water.

Our last stop was a round fort, the highest point on the island. Technically it was closed to the public but our driver said there wouldn't be a problem. It was a terrifying hill to get up to the fort. For those of you who know me, I don’t like hills because one of my biggest fears are the breaks failing and us rolling backwards uncontrollably… Well, we are on this tiny, steep hill, barely enough room for our van to get up there, with stone fences on either side of the road… and the car stalls… Scariest moment of my ENTIRE life. Like that is my biggest fear! But the driver recovered and we made it safely up the hill. We had to climb around some of the stone walls to get to the fort, pass some cows, and we got to the fort. It was so cool! Very beautiful! Then it was back to the village for some shopping before the ferry took us back to the mainland. I bought earrings while Franny bought a beautiful knit hat. I’m kicking myself that I didn't buy one as well!

On the ferry back I slept basically the entire way so I don’t know if it was as rough going back, I assume not though. We got to the dock and started looking for the same bus that brought us here. Well, the tour company changed buses on us (from a city bus to a coach bus) so it’s a good thing we asked before they left us there!

We met Mel and Gill in the square and they brought us to their favorite crepe restaurant for supper. I had a sausage, cheese and egg crepe and it was delicious! We have had such good food on this trip! As a thank you for them taking us in, I paid for supper.

After supper, we met up with Shelby and went out to a different pub for beers and music. Shelby and I bonded over Disney movies and our Claddagh rings. The thing about pub music in Ireland is that random people bring random instruments in and play whatever music they want, all jamming together. I preferred the music the first night but tonight a woman showed up and started dancing a jig, right in the middle of the pub! Everyone was so relaxed about it, it was so cool!

We missed the last bus so we walked towards the square in order to catch a taxi. On the way, we heard a helicopter circling so we decided to see what was going on. It was obviously a search and rescue helicopter and they were sweeping their search light across the bay. It was kinda freaky but there were no other emergency vehicles so we figured that they were just doing a training exercise.

We caught a taxi van back to their apartment where we showered and packed for our early bus back to Dublin. I got to sleep on the long couch this time!