I spent most of Saturday and Sunday on the Aran Islands; more specifically, on the largest of the Galway Bay islands, Inishmore (known locally by its more proper name, Árainn). It was a great weekend with beautiful sights, great craic, and hanging out with many of the American friends I’ve made so far. In addition to everything great about the Aran Islands, I also experienced my absolute favorite thing in Ireland thus far…but that deserves its own blog post. I said I would have plenty of pictures, and we’ll get to those. I suppose I should do a quick run-through of our weekend.
On Saturday morning, we woke up and ambled down the Eyre Square to pick up our bus to the ferry. The bus drove us in the direction of my Connemara tour last weekend to a small town called Rossaveal. We boarded a very large ferry and made the mistake of sitting on the bottom level, close to the front. I don’t think anyone in our group actually puked, but I think we all got a touch of seasickness.
We landed on the only real village on Inishmore, Kilronan at 11 am. Our first goal was to find our hostel, but we were bombarded on the pier by all kinds of tourist opportunities. Bike rental, restaurants, the whole shebang. Almost the whole of their economy depends on tourists like us, so it made plenty of sense. Anyway, we heard a great deal from the bike rental place (if we came as a group, we could rent a bike for 6 euro). We dropped our stuff off at the hostel and hurried back to grab bicycles. With maps in hand, we started our trek across the island.
Actually, scratch that. First, my roommate Todd and I were starving, so we hit up this place for some tasty fish and chips. Don’t hate, you gotta get those carbs from somewhere. Despite the dish’s proliferation in Ireland, fish and chips aren’t a cheap meal. They are, however, absolutely delicious. Bellies full and ready to hit the road (but without the rest of our group), we decided to take the road that runs along the bay coast, from which you can see the “mainland” and Connemara. There’s a seal colony that lives here part of the year, but since we didn’t see any seals, I guess it’s not this part of the year. I was able to get some great pictures of the coast, though.
We were four miles from where we started when we reached the base of Dún Aengus, that aforementioned highlight of my time in Ireland so far (and thus worthy of its own post.) As a teaser, though, know that the first picture on this post was taken at Dún Aengus. So you know it’s gonna be good.
It was a hot, tiresome ride back to town after Dún Aengus. We enjoyed some dinner, then hit up a few of the pubs in Kilronan, to sample the local life. A few hundred yards out of town, I found a pub that was going to have some live music, so I got a group of us to go back later. We also stopped at a place called “The American Bar” which was, you guessed it, American themed.
Spending some time in a pub in Ireland can really give you a sense of the people in that town, and this was definitely true in Kilronan. The Aran Islands are a major place of preservation of the Irish culture and language, and all of the locals we saw in the American Bar were speaking Irish to each other. It’s pretty amazing that with all the pervasion of modern conveniences and culture, there’s a soft insistence on keeping the old language alive on the Aran Islands.
The next day, we had the whole day to spend on the island. Many of us were tired from all the bike-riding and sightseeing. In retrospect, perhaps two full days was a bit too long, but I had the chance to see another great spot: Dún Dúchatair. Since this spot’s similar to Dún Aengus, I’ll cover it in the next post, but needless to say, it was another thrill. My friend DJ and I went to see Dún Dúchatair, and afterward relaxed in the American Bar with a burger, watching some Gaelic football with some of the locals.
We left yesterday afternoon at 5 pm, taking the ferry back to Rossaveal and then catching a bus back to Galway. It was a fantastic trip (two weekends in a row, now) that had some unforgettable sights and moments. I’ll leave you with some pictures, but stick around for more stories and pictures from Dún Aengus and Dún Dúchatair.
