A step back in time

---

This morning, Siobhan made us a wonderful breakfast. Taur Beg is the largest B&B we have stayed in to date. She gave us a menu so we could choose our breakfast for a change. Since I was looking for such a change, I had French toast for breakfast….it was delicious! After packing our day trip bags, we set out for Rossaveel. Rossaveel is a small port near Galway where the ferries to the Aran Islands depart. We arrived at the port around 9:30 for our 10:30 ferry. We boarded the boat early and found ourselves a nice table to sip some tea during the ride. This ferry company is owned by the villagers of Innishmore, which is a small island off the west coast of Ireland. The island has approximately 800 residents and is famous for its ring fort. The ferry ride was about 45 minutes and we were all able to catch a quick nap during the trip. When we landed at Kilronan and were immediately in the middle of a busy port. We decided to go into the Tourist Information center to figure out how to see the island. We decided on a minibus tour with a local, Tomas. Tomas had a little red van and was in need of a little deodorant, but was a wonderful guide for the island. He had Irish wit, and did not hide that in the winter when there were no tourists he spent his well-earned money in the local pub! Tomas was born and raised on the island and he showed us all the sights of this island which is 9 miles long b 2 miles wide. We saw the seal colony, the Seven Churches ruins, and finally spent most of the tour at the famous ring fort, Dun Aenghus. The ring fort sits at the highest point of the Island. We peaked into the visitors’ center and then started the climb. At the top the views were amazing. The dramatic cliffs had eroded away and half of the fort had been swallowed by the sea. My new nickname is National Geographic because of the amount of pictures I take…and in that spirit I decided to try to get of better view of the cliffs. Since there were no railings on the edge, I was able to lie down and hang my head over for some very dramatic shots. Amy and Eileen were having no part of it, but it was well worth it! We spent some time viewing the fort…in fact Amy spent some time viewing the local blokes sunbathing as well and then we headed down. At the bottom of the hill, there were some shops and a small restaurant. This island is famous for its hand knitted woolen goods. Amy picked up a smart hat and before we knew it, it was time to meet Tomas. Tomas took us back to the main town on the island. We shopped and walked around before it was time to catch our return ferry. Once back on the mainland, we headed straight for the B&B. After a short refreshing nap, we headed out to Galway for dinner and craic (the Irish word for fun). We had a wonderful dinner at McSwiggen’s complete with some decadent desserts. After dinner, we decided to try to find some music. Eileen led us on a wonderful pub crawl and we found some great pubs and music. Amy had decided to wear her Galway dress out this evening and it proved that it still had its magical powers. She claims that whenever she wears this dress, she always attracts a loser or three. In the first pub, we were listening to the music with Guinness in hand, when all of the sudden Amy has a new best friend. We call him Mr. Kosovo. He barely spoke English….or at least the amount of drink he had made him barely speak English. He was very lovey dovey with Amy and she even had her picture taken with him. After a few minutes of laughing so hard my eyes were tearing up, I decided to save her and pull her off to the restroom. When we returned, he had moved on to some other poor lass. We made several other stops on the music tour of Galway and thoroughly enjoyed the music. One of the many great things about Galway is that there is even music in the streets so as you go from pub to pub you can stop and see a wide variety of street performers too—everything from a man playing a disoreedo (spelled phonetically here), actors doing improv comedy, acoustic guitar trios, and even a man breathing fire. We headed back to the B&B around 12am. We all wished we had booked more time in Galway,

---