Aran Islands

Walking on the edge....or sitting

YAY! We went to the Aran Islands this Saturday! The whole group of us included 10 International students:

Barbara from Austria
Bernard (Barbara's brother) from Austria
Christian from Germany
Daniela from Rome, Italy
Maud from Holland
Maaike from Holland
Sophie from Austria
Thomas from Belgium
Tommaso from Milan, Italy
and me from good old Wisconsin

This trip was sooo much fun and I can't wait to visit it again with my family and Heather. You guys are going to love it! Well, I thought I would use this entry to tell you a little about the Islands. First of all, getting there was super easy and we are really lucky to be located in Galway because the city has tons of tourist offices that offer buses and ferries to the Islands. We decided to go with the company called Aran Direct and it was an excellent deal; only 22 euro per person which included a coach bus to and from Galway and a ferry to and from the Island. The bus leaves from Eyre Square in Galway at about 9:30am and arrives to the docks at 10:30am. The ferry rides takes about an hour and returns to pick you up from the Islands at 5:00pm. Once we arrived at Inishmore (the largest and most touristed Aran Island) it was a pretty cold day and since we only had a few hours before our ferry returned we decided to rent a minibus which cost 8 euro per person. The other option that's available is renting a bicycle for 10 euro, but it was cold and we had no idea where we were going so the bus sounded pretty awesome to us! On a nice day; however, biking around the island could be pretty fun. The first place we stopped was Dun Aonghasa (Dún Aengus); the largest and oldest fort on Inishmore. It is thought to have been constructed around 1000 BC and was built on the cliffs overlooking the ocean near an 80 meter (262 foot) drop. You cannot take a bus directly to the fort; however, and you must walk for about 20 minutes on foot. This hike really isn't that bad though, and there are lots of beautiful things to see and some very friendly cows along the way . After hiking back down we stopped at a little restaurant to get some sandwiches, soup, hot chocolate, Guinness, etc. and wait for our bus driver to come pick us up and continue the tour at 2pm. The second part of the tour consisted of a drive along the coastline and a stop at Na Seacht Teampaill (The Seven Churches). This is an ancient monastic site with two surviving churches 9of the original seven) and several out buildings. Within the ruins there was a cemetery containing grave sites of some of the local inhabitants...it was a little weird walking all over their graves . After the tour ended we went to a local pub with a warm fireplace and drank coffee with Bailey's and of course, Guinness to warm up a little. Then, we went to explore the beach before the ferry came to take us back to the mainland. After arriving at home we went to a restaurant called Riordan and ate some pretty delicious potatoes with cheese and ham. Then, Daniela and I kept up our newest tradition of eating desserts at the local restaurant and for the first time I tried profiteroles which is this awesome pastry filled with whipped cream and then drizzled with chocolate sauce...yum! After dinner we all went to Thomas' house and met his very friendly Irish roommate Eoin (pronounced Owen) and played a Belgian drinking game with dice called "Pigeon." We've found you can save a lot of money by shopping for beer at the discount store Lidl and buying Excelsior (only 3.60 euro for four cans!) which reminds me a lot of PBR. Later that night we headed to the King's Head pub for a concert and then home to pass out until 2pm the next day!

Alright guys, that's all on my trip to the Aran Islands! I hope everyone back home is doing well...especially my parents after getting that phone bill, sorry! Hopefully now everyone will download this awesome new program my friends from Europe have taught me about called Skype. This way I can talk to all of you for free instead of for $1.30 per minute! All you need is a headset and a minimal amount of computer know-how. I'm very proud of my Mom and Dad because they've already got an account started, and thanks to my wonderful friend Heather for helping my boyfriend do the same thing! I'd also like to say a BIG THANK YOU to Mike and Kathrine for sending some financial help to me here in Ireland. The gift is very much appreciated and I cannot thank you enough! This present will help me a lot in affording my upcoming trip with Heather to London, Malmö, Sweden, and Copenhagen, Denmark. Also, thank you Mea for the Valentine's card. It's very nice to get mail from people back home!!! On a sad note, my thoughts have been with Chuck Buscher and his family during his short fight with Leukemia, and I was very sad to learn that he passed on Feb. 14th. I've been learning a lot about Irish folklore in a class I'm taking at the University, and one particularly interesting belief the Irish hold is that the spirits of our loved ones watch over us in the form of swans. The day after I heard about Chuck's passing I walked over the Corrib river bridge and saw two swans swimming together and I couldn't help thinking that they were Papa and Chuck checking in on me in Ireland.

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