Aran Islands

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I spent the last week and half between Galway and the Aran Islands, mostly on Inis Mor, the largest island. I had only planned on staying maybe three days, but liked it so much I stayed longer. There wasn't tons to do, but it was a nice quiet village (especially when the day-tripping tourists left) with a nice hostel. The hostel had a good kitchen and there was a market near by. I cooked a lot when it was too windy and rainy to go out...we watched DVDs in the nice common room and ate hot choloclate chip cookies. I had to cream the butter with my hands as there was no hand mixer to be found.

I like beaches and islands, even if they are kind of cold and windblown. It's a pretty rough place weather wise, especially in the winter I hear. Only the die hard locals stay in the winter. One guy from Dublin said they don't really respect you if you don't stay through the winter, like some sort of initiation or something. But I had a few days of sunshine. That's partly why I stayed so long, to wait for good weather, so I could go out walking and biking. I biked around the island and saw Dun Aengus and the main ruin attractions. The pubs had live music quite a few nights of the week. You will be in this super loud pub and then some woman will start singing a traditional a cappella song and the whole bar gets 'ssshhhh-ed'...and then it will be silent while she finishes her song. You only get ssshhh-ed on certain songs. They still speak Gaelic out there, and a lot of Irish children are sent to take language lessons on the island.

I made some friends so it was nice to spend the week with some familiar faces, sharing meals and going out to the pubs. I'm not much of a drinker, but they don't mind if you have one Guinness and then spend the rest of the time drinking water. The first night I was there I finally had to leave a full drink in front of me so people would quit buying me pints....props to the nice boys at the Aran Bike Shop. There are a quite a few Aussies, Polish folks and other Europeans working on the island...and one American although it was kind of a miracle for her to get a work visa. Some program because she had just come out of school. Honestly I would have probably enjoyed spending the summer doing seasonal work if it wasn't so hard to come by a visa for an american...but the pay isn't great and most people are required to work seven days a week. It think it's more for the experience of it. But off to Paris tomorrow, where I can hope they aren't to terribly mean to me. Part of me is actually kind of dreading it...though the food should make up for the attitude.

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Photos

Windblown
I tried at least four photos and this was the least windblown one...