Our class took our field trip to Inis Oirr, the smallest of the three Aran Islands off the coast of Galway this past Thursday. We left at 10:30 Thursday morning and got back around 3:30 yesterday afternoon! It was a great trip and I'm going to just highlight a few of the pictures that I took because there are way too many to include them all! (check facebook for more pictures!)
Anywho, the bus headed out from Cork at 10:30 Thursday morning. It was partly sunny in cork and looked like a great weather weekend was ahead of us....... We stopped for lunch in Bunratty actually at the Blarney Woolen Mills! I had a chicken and cheese panini..yum yum especially when it's paid for! Then, we had a little time to shop around the store again and I picked up my Tin whistle! hahahaha...I am going to be an expert by the time I leave. Elena and I also got this three cd pack of Irish Pub songs! Good stuff! As we were leaving Bunratty, the rain began....and it didn't stop!
The rest of the ride up took extremely long as we ran into traffic in Galway city. However it was pretty beautiful scenery the whole way. The ferry port to the Aran Islands is actually west of the city of Galway up the coast a little more at the town of Spiddal, so I was a little confused on the way there when we started going west! Take a look at a map and you'll understand why I was confused because to me it would make more sense to take a ferry from the coast directly east of the islands but we came from the north! Anyways, the ferry ride was something to remember! It was a very rocky ride to say the least and a bunch of us went up on top of the deck and got soaking wet from waves splashing on us and the wind and rain whipping around!! NEvertheless it was absolutely awesome! hahaha!
We got to the island at about 7:45-8ish...and it was raining, very windy, and dark! Sooo we scurried up to our hostel (which was actually right on the coast - just like everything else on the island! surprise!) Our teacher, Margaret, was literally jogging the whole way! hahaha and just picture a very small petite woman with curly hair leading 34 college students in the rain and wind in the dark! hahaha it was pretty hilarious! When we got to the hostel, we dropped our stuff off and then scurried over to the only restaurant on the island for dinner (amazing vegetable soup, roast chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, vegetables, and then bailey's cheesecake for dessert! amazing). After dinner, we all went back to our private hostel (hahaha...by the way the entire island knew we were coming and we literally took over the hostel...margaret and our bus driver didn't even stay in the hostel with us!) and just hung out in the common room area...some of us playing cards, banana grams, and watching a little tv. Then we all crashed from the long day of travel and rain!
-Inis Oirr is the name
-It is the smallest and "most beautiful" of the three Aran Islands.
-It has a population of approximately 250-300 (hard to tell exactly because quite a few of the houses are holiday homes I guess
-4 square miles of rock walls...haha
-approximately 5 miles around i believe - and there is definitely not a single path that goes around the whole thing!
-There is a fairy to and from the island twice a day 8:00 am and 6:30 pm
After the walk, Margaret (our teacher), had us walk to this old house (just like the ones at Bunratty folk park except legit!) where Darra talked to us. Darra is a true island dweller that still lives on the island today, and you can tell...hahaha...no offense to him but it looked like he had just rolled out of bed - hair going every which way, wearing a sweater and wool pants, crooked teeth (just like all the irish! haha). The house, which is now used as a show n tell museum thing, was actually his uncle's house! He used to visit that very house when he was little for family gatherings and such! It was soo cool to talk to him about everything in the house and about life in general growing up on the island. He actually lived on the middle island Inis mann. He told us how he went to school on Inis Moor growing up, and he couldn't visit his home during the term ever because there was no transportation. So, he and his friends would literally be able to see their houses from school but could not visit them! How crazy is that? I could probably go on forever talking about him but to sum it up, it was definitely a way to remember how easy I had it growing up!
After that, we had the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted until dinner at 7! Margaret is very laid back! Ashley, Amy, Elena, and I decided to take a walk as far as we could while seeing the shipwreck Margaret had told us about! And we weren't disappointed! The shipwreck was soo random yet very cool! I'll let the pictures do the talking:
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| Cliffs of Moher from afar! |
After running into a few more dead ends (aka Rock walls)...we headed towards the highest point of the island where the ruins of O'brien's castle awaited! It was quite spectacular to take a look out from the top of the castle and think about someone "owning" and living there! After that, we headed back to the hostel because it had started to rain and I taught the girls Up and down the river which they loved!
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| Walls everywhere! |
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| Every house on the island! |
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| The crew! (Amy, Ashley, Me, Elena) |
Dinner was superb again...soup, chicken curry, chocolate cake! After dinner, we all headed to the one main pub on the island. Sean (our bus driver who I got to know pretty well) brought his guitar and (with the help of my singing) led everybody in a fun music session! I sat right next to him and he kept on asking me to sing because I was the only one that did sing....haha! So, I requested the one pub song I knew the words with and we sang it loud and clear! Then, we all requested various other american songs such as Leaving on a Jet Plane, American Pie, etc. and he played them all and we sang (or tried!). After that a few Irish musicians came in and Sean joined them. Then, he asked me to come sing Garth Brooks with him because I had requested the Dance so we did another duet! It was a great experience to say the least! Something I will never forget!Saturday morning was of course the most beautiful of the three days...right when we are leaving. However, the ferry ride back was superb and a time to reflect on what I had just done! Elena and I started getting a little seasick so we went out on the deck again with a few others for most of the ride and it was beautiful! As we were heading away from the island and the sun was shining bright over the cliffs of moher, all I could say was "God is Good...All the time....All the time..God is Good" And that was definitely not the first time I have muttered that these past four weeks!
We were treated to a nice breakfast on the way back home in Galway too which sealed a great trip! Then, last night, watched a movie with a few peeps! It was a pretty amazing three days!
Today, I definitely played the keyboard at St. Vincent's church which was great! Apparently I'm on for next week as well, so I have to make it to practice on Wednesday...haha! And now, I'm just catching up with Jordan on his trips the last couple days as we watch the X Factor on tv. It's a pretty rough life here in Ireland! It should be a pretty interesting week finishing up my papers for this class and figuring out classes for the regular semester which starts next Monday! However, I think the stress will be eased a bit by the fact that I have some awesome visitors coming on Saturday night! Connie, Kelly, and Alyssa are arriving Saturday night so I look forward to that as well. We are booking our hostel for Valencia Spain tonight! WOW! Whenever I get down, I think I just need to think about what I've done and what I'm going to do...what a great opportunity for all of us to be here! We all have no idea how much this experience is changing us, yet I think we all know that it is changing us for the better! Now when one thinks of it that way, how can you get down? I need to remember this! hahaha!
Alright all for now! Hope you had fun reading! This may have been the longest post yet! I'll check in later this week...GO PACK GO! Super excited for watching the opening game tonight on skype! Peace!
dont ever let me see you wearing your packer shirt in a picture here again. you are in ireland. wear a rugby shirt or something.
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