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The two things I cannot leave Galway, after living here for 6 months, without doing are visiting the Aran Islands, and seeing the Cliffs of Moher. Since it’s not getting any closer to summer weather, Ally and I decided to just do it. We caught the last ferry to Inishmore, the biggest of the 3 Aran Islands at population of 700, on Thursday evening and checked into the Kilronan Hostel, a stone’s throw from the pier. Dave, our kooky host from Cork, checked us in and because he booked us into a room with a male whose name led Dave to believe he was female, Ally and I got an ensuite room to ourselves! Which pretty much enabled us to go completely crazy. It was after 8PM by the time we settled in and headed out to scope our surroundings. Well that took all of 5 minutes, in which we walked the pitch-black loop from our hostel to the “main drag”, which consisted of a restaurant, an “American Bar” and a Spar supermarket/Cash Point/Newsagent/Off-license, which was long closed for the day.
So having given up the idea of a crazy night on the town, we settled into the cozy hostel
lounge with an Irish dvd, About Adam, in which Kate Hudson plays an Irish lass. Accent: not too bad. Movie plot: a bit weird. Anyway, Dave rounded up all us hostellers to take over the American Bar, which boasted a pool table. So we ditched Miz Hudson and stormed the place, where a dozen locals sat at the bar and a couple of the tables, and Jane Eyre was playing on the wall-mounted televisions. Dave continued to entertain us, as any true Irish host should, with his witty banter and digs on Australians. We quickly made friends with the regulars, whose average ages most likely exceeded the two of ours combined. First was Terry, from Dublin and married to a Japanese “lady” living in the islands. He insisted we were from Hawaii, after Ally told him 3 or 4 times that we’re from California. After a few minutes of circular conversation with Terry, Ally turned to me and said, “It’s like talking to Pop Pop.” Medical mystery solved: Our Pop Pop doesn’t have dementia, he just has a drinking problem!
We enjoyed the rest of the night over our frothy pints of Guinness, dominating the touch screen juke box
and cheering on the Hong Kong Wong sisters as they slaughtered their various opponents on the pool table. Which had orange and red balls. Which are bigger and accompanied by smaller pockets than in America, according to Dave. We ended up talking to some other local at the bar who was an actual island native, before we absconded the bar when he turned to accept another Guinness with the slickness.
Friday morning we pulled ourselves out of our bunks to greet a brisk, clear day for our bike ride. After a way yum Irish breakfast and surprisingly decent coffee at the wee coffee shop adjacent the Spar supermarket/Cash Point/Newsagent/Off-license, we picked up our bikes (a steal at 10euro/each for the day!) and headed toward the cliffs of Dun Aengus. I couldn’t believe our luck with the weather, considering the day before was so shocking there was even hail when we were waiting to board the bus to the ferry. Definitely lucked out. The residents we met along the way were all lovely, and we cycled alongside horse-traps shuttling the less physically-inclined to the same destination. The cliffs themselves were stunning and an unclear day would not have done them
justice. We cycled back along the coast, as the man who rented us our bikes recommended and by the time we reached the “town” the sun was strong enough to produce a sweat!
After returning our bikes we settled in for fish and chips on outdoor picnic tables which, despite being in the sun, turned out to be not so warm when not cycling. The fish was mackerel (the cheapest), which I definitely would not select for fish and chips in the future. Chips were yum though. From there we headed back to the scene of our breakfast for a pot of tea to warm our bones and then caught the last ferry back to the mainland. All in all, we considered our Aran Island excursion quite the success.
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