Inis Mor Island

Typically, Wednesday afternoons, I'm faced with the decision of whether to stay in Galway for the weekend, or to make last-second travel plans. It's a tough call! A weekend in Galway usually means late nights in pubs, drinking Guinness, listening to locals playing fiddles and flutes, grocery shopping at the market saturday morning, running along the bay, reading... But it's hard for me to justify staying when I can pretty much do all of those things no matter where I go. Time is running out fast(it's scary how fast), and I want to explore Ireland as thoroughly as possible while I'm here.

So, more often than not, I'll be traveling. Last week, my friend Miranda and I decided to collaborate our plans and head off to the Aran Islands. Anna and I met Miranda at a hostel in Glendalough during our first few days in Ireland. She's a 19-year-old Australian who decided to follow in her mother's footsteps and backpack abroad for one year in hopes of "finding herself" before starting college. She's great...very spunky and possibly one of the most talkative people I have ever known. She can tell you anything about Australian history, politics, pop culture and wildlife...she's also an expert on Japanese horror films. If there's a silence to fill, she'll fill it! Anyway, she took a bus to Galway on Thursday and came out with us to a pub called Bierhaus. Friday morning, Abby(fellow badger), Abby(UW-Green Bay), Miranda and I hopped on the bus that took us to the ferry bound for Inis Mor Island!

We spent the rest of Friday exploring the cratery, cliffy, moonlike shoreline; playing fetch with the local sheepdogs; getting lost(literally) in a maze of 2,000 year old stone walls; conversing with other travelers at the hostel; and cooking stir-fry using every spice on the shelf of free food. We topped off the night by watching a horribly depressing movie about the Holocaust(The Pianist). Not sure how that made its way into our fun-filled, care-free day. :) It was really a good movie though.

Saturday we woke up and made a beeline for the bike rentals. 10 euros for a full day of biking seemed unbeatable! We discovered pretty quickly that we got what we paid for: four beaten-up pink mountain bikes, with rock-hard seats and gears that only functioned 50% of the time. By the end of our day, 2 of the bikes had flat tires. haha...but OF COURSE we didn't complain once. ;) Really though, it was hard to be anything but completely euphoric all day. We had perfect weather (perfect=anything that's not pouring rain and 30mph winds), and vistas of the ocean, seals, fishing villages, the stone walls, goats, sheep and cheery Irish farmers hard at work. Every half hour or so we were passed by a tour bus full of glassy-eyed tourists taking pictures through the windows. Renting the bikes was a good decision! We made it to the other end of the island, ate our lunch by the water, and then headed back. Exhaustion set in so we bummed around for a couple of hours, made dinner and then went out for a pint at the pub next door.

Our last day was spent hiking out to Dunaengus, a massive fort built into the side of a cliff. The fort was cool, but the cliffs were what really impressed us. We spent a half hour just lying on our stomachs, peering over the edge down to the waves crashing against the cliff-side.

It was an amazing weekend. I'm so glad to have made it there during the off-season--being able to wander off and discover stone ruins without seeing anyone else for hours was unbelievable. We could take pictures without waiting for people to walk by, and turn a piece of pasture behind a 2 foot wall into a lady's restroom worry-free! I'm tempted to say this was my favorite weekend so far...but I won't! Because every place, person, experience has been memorable in its own way....I can't pick favorites.

Pictures from the weekend are on flickr....http://www.flickr.com/photos/cberg2