Off to Inis Mor!

Thursday, October 21

It's been another great day! It was a gloomy, cloudy start, but we decided to brave it and head to the ferry to tour Inishmoor (Inis Mor), the largest of the Aran Islands. We walked down to the bay to catch the ferry shuttle bus (after another yummy breakfast at Amber Hill, and dropping off a bag of laundry). It was crowded, but there were two seats up front (across the aisle from each other). After the icky bus ride to Galway, I decided to get some Dramamine, just in case I needed something a bit stronger than ginger, so I was ready!

The trip was about 45 minutes long, winding around Galway Bay, through several towns and rural areas, including Connemara, I believe. As we went, I saw fewer and fewer signs with any English on them.

We arrived at the ferry port, loaded onto the boat, and found some seats. A lot of older folks on board -- a couple of tour groups, I think. The ferry ride was fairly uneventful, a good sign, considering the rain last night, and the overcast skies both made me worry about water travel... my Dramamine did make me a bit sleepy, though.

Once we left the ferry it was a short walk from the pier to the village of Kilronan, where we decided to get on a mini-coach tourbus. It turned out to be a great way to see the island, that's for sure, but the tour guide was no Desmond :(.


We stopped at the bottom of a steep hill that turned out to be the tallest point of the island. It had a circle fort at the top called Du'n Echla, and there was a signal tower/light house next to it. Well, there were ruins of these buildings there, I should say It was a brisk, steep walk up the hill, but the views were AWESOME! We wandered around, and then headed back down to the mini-coach, and then we drove to another fort area. Well, we actually stopped at a little set of shops and the visitor's center where we went through to get to the actual fort. This fort was called Du'n Aonghasa, and it was 2500 years old! The ruins stood on 300-ft cliffs, so we had another climb to the top. We got some coffee (meh) and some scones (yum!) and off we went! Great views once again, and we even saw a leprechaun's house on the way up!

The walk was great, though a bit rocky. It's a lot like the Burren, rocky, with some grass and vegetation in and around the rocks. And Cliffs!! with NO railings!! Ack it was scary! After spending a long time up there, we wandered down the hill again and did some shopping. We had to wait a while for one of our tourbusmates to come back to the meeting spot -- he was off buying some sweaters. Once we were all there, we loaded back up and went to the ruins of Seven Churches -- amazingly old! 7th or 8th century, I believe. Lots of tombstones and carvings.

We then drove down to the end of the island "as close as we could get to the States". There were two small islands off that coast, but were uninhabited (there's an automatic lighthouse on one now). We saw many thatch cottages, including one from a 1930's movie "Man of Aran" -- sounds interesting. We drove past the Seal Colony, but since the tide was high there were no seals :(... We then headed back to the village and our tour was over.

A bit chilly and hungry, we decided to get some tea and food, and went to the American Bar (where everyone was speaking Gaelic!) for some potato & leek soup and brown bread. So yummy! Refreshed, we shopped some more. Brian bought me a cute little black sheep (since we've decided we're the black sheep of the family), which I promptly named Desmond! I keep adding to his name, too... so far it's Desmond Seamus Patrick... who knows where it will end :)! Now Phil the Squirrel has a friend!

We headed back to the pier, and after nearly being run over by a swarm of old people in a tour group, we loaded up , sat down, and fell asleep. We then got on the bus back to Galway, and it was PACKED! The heat was cranked, and I felt like I was BAKING, so we got off as soon as we could to get some fresh air. We walked to Salthill to find some dinner, and decided to go back to Lohan's (where we ate the first night), and I had a pint of Guinness. It was lovely! Brian added a shot of Jameson's to his (ew! -- the bartender hadn't even tried that before!) Dinner was good, but dessert was DIVINE!! Bailey's Cheesecake! It was like mousse, so yummy! We walked back to the B&B and worked on some details for our Dublin trip (we had to research train v. bus -- bus won out!), and got our laundry back. Yay for clean underwear!!

Now, it's time for bed. No alarms set tonight, we're just waking up whenever. We're going to Galway tomorrow to check it out in the daylight, and possibly get our tattoos! there are some historical sites, too, and hopefully some music to be heard.

G'Night ALL!