Aran Island

When we stopped by the Doolin ferry area a few days ago to get information the waves were 20 feet high and extremely powerful. So when we headed out this morning to catch the ferry from Doolin to the Aran Islands we hopped that the conditions were a bit calmer. Irish eyes must have been smiling down on us because the small port area and surrounding ocean was calm.

Our boat, The Happy Hooker, ferried us across the Atlantic Ocean to the island Inishmoor, the largest of the the three Aran Islands, taking about 1.5 hours. Once there we split up- those who wanted to hire a bike and trek out across the island, and those of us who wanted to view the passing island from the comfort of a minibus. I was in the second group seeing that I wasn't really wearing biking clothes or shoes and the chance of being caught in rain was not appealing to me. My uncle Brent, aunt Ellen, and cousin Ethan braved the elements though.

Our first stop was at Dun Aonghasa, a 500 BC fortress on the edge of a 350 foot cliff. The 1 km hike up wasn't too bad and the view from the top was amazing. What really is a shocker and would never happen in the USA is that there was not a single railing or fence. You could walk right up to the edge, sit down with your legs over and take a picture, like one crazy guy did. I opted to lay on my stomach but I did stick my head over and get a picture.

We then had a light lunch in a cafe before heading down to some shops and waited for our tour guide to come back. Back in the Kiloraun village we stopped in a wool mill shop that had tons of wool sweaters. I was tempted to buy a limish green knee length coat, but decided not to seeing that I already have a green coat. I wanted to buy this grass green sweater but they did not seem to have any other than the display one.

The ferry back was slower and more choppy but somehow I was able to fall asleep for 30 minutes. We plan to have hamburgers and potato salad, if my aunt and uncle can find the right stuff to make them, in order to celebrate the 4th of July.