Ireland Day Eight: An Aran Island Adventure

This was our last real day of the trip

 with places to go and people to see.

 We spent the day on the Aran Islands, specifically Inishmore. 

It was the perfect way to end an amazing trip!

 The Aran Islands are such an intriguing place.

 To get there we took a ferry from Galway.

 I was really worried that I would get sea sick

 since apparently even people not prone to motion sickness

 (while I am extremely prone to it)

 have gotten sick on it before,

 but we lucked out with decent weather 

and I didn’t get sick one bit. 

I just sat in the back on the outside

and talked with Anna (a senior chaperone) 

the whole time and didn’t feel sick one bit.

 The village where the ferry dropped us off at was Kilronan.

 It is the largest of the fourteen villages on the island.

 There are a total of 800 people that live on the island.

 Some highlights of our bus tour include

 the high school (it was not very large)

 and the old people’s home.  

We also saw stone monuments placed to remember the dead,

 as well as several traditionally thatched houses.

 Much of the island is what they call a limestone lunar landscape.

 At one point we stopped at a rocky part of the coastline 

(well, it’s probably all rocky) 

where we got the chance to walk around the rocks near the ocean.

 I would have loved to just run around the rocks on a warmer day,

 with bare feet of course. 

I can’t imagine what it would be like to grow up on the Aran Islands,

 or really any island. 

I think it would be really fun as a young child, 

exploring the island and having the ocean play such an important part in every day life, 

but I think after awhile it might become suddenly very small and restrictive. 

Then again, maybe it would always stay exciting.

 We also saw some seals from afar.

 I want to say they were cute,

 but they were really just sitting there in the water; 

I bet up close they were cute. 

Next we saw our main attraction of the day:  Dún Aonghasa.

 It is a Late Bronze Age fort located next to extremely high sea cliffs. 

It seems like a very interesting place to build a fort and settlement.

 I guess the Late Bronze Age children learned very quickly

 not to go near the 300-foot cliffs. 

We got to though,

 but we approached on our stomachs to look over the edge. 

It was definitely one of those once-in-a- lifetime experiences.

 The view was absolutely amazing, 

I’m not sure words do it justice so here are a bunch of pictures:

There were also a lot of shops near the entrance and museum for the fort. 

Since the Aran Islands are known for their wool knitting

 I got lots of yarn in order to knit a scarf and possibly a hat too.

 Isn’t it beautiful yarn?

 I better start deciding what pattern to make them

…and finish my current yellow scarf

 (If only I didn’t have so much homework!)  

I also got this tea towel for my mom

 that shows the different Aran stitches. 

I think it’s so cool that each stitch is so meaningful for them.

After the Aran Islands we enjoyed our last night out in the pubs in Galway. 

So much fun!

Highlight of Today:

I think my cultural anthropology 

(I’m taking a class about it this semester)

 radar definitely started going off on the Aran Islands. 

They are much more touristy now,

 but I can definitely see why people like Synge were so interested in visiting there. 

The islands have a very unique and distinct culture and way of life.