Q: That was such a long time ago, if it was so beautiful, why haven't you written about it yet?
A: I've been lazy. Actually, it is partially because I love the pictures so much and I don't think my words will be able to do it justice at all. Even the pictures don't really do it justice. ... Aaand partially because I'm lazy, yep.
We drove up the coast all day Thursday (well, for a good portion of the day), stopped at Blarney Woolen Mills for lunch and in Galway to buy breakfast goods, and got to Ros a Mhíl (Rossaveel) with time to spare before the 6pm ferry. The crossing was chilly, but calm and we got to Inis Oírr in about an hour and explored the rocky cliffs just outside the hostel before dinner. There is one hotel, one B&B, and one hostel on the island, it being the smallest of the Aran Islands. We ate dinner at the hotel (the only restaurant; there's another place that does lunch-y meals and tea and coffee, but not dinner) and slept at the Hostel Brú. We stopped on the way back to the hostel to look at the sky and the strange light out on the eastern horizon. Trying to figure out what it might be, we guessed some kind of building, but where? It was too big to be on the nearest island. We sat on a rock on the coast and star-gazed and chatted and eventually realized as the light rose and got smaller and whiter that it was, in fact, the moon. See how much we have advanced with our college educations?
Not wanting to waste any opportunities for some beautiful pictures, I got up a little early on Saturday and did some exploring to catch the morning light. It was well worth it for this picture:
and for the discovery of the cemetery on a hill with a ruined chapel looking as though it were in a grave, waiting to be covered with soil, though it had, in fact, been uncovered. I returned to the hostel, ate second breakfast and went with the rest of the class to an original house (three rooms and a loft) and had a little talk by a native about life there (before it became a tourist attraction). In the shop next door, I discovered the MacDara CD I spent ages trying to find in the U.S. and ending up ordering from an Australian company. MacDara is from the Aran Islands (Inis Oírr to be exact), so it makes a lot of sense they would have his CD there. And for cheaper (though not by much when you look at the exchange rate, which is awful, by the way). I would embed his music in here if I could so you could listen as you read. This is the best I can do. My favorite song is An Dún Aengus.
Next up, we set off to do some exploring, intending to grab some lunch and meet up with Jenny (the goth, who would be our teacher the last week of class) who promised to take us to the Holy Well at 2pm. We climbed on a ruined lookout tower (there were no signs saying we couldn't) and looked out over the little town and the green fields. There are low rock walls dividing up the land of the whole island, but rather than denoting land boundaries, they were simply the islanders' way to get the rocks out of the way to make the land arable and good for pastures. Amanda and I took a path that we thought would just go around the ruin, but it kept going away towards a farther shore. We snacked on blackberries, growing thick along all the paths there. There were no turn-offs and we refused to go back. We met a horse with an honest-to-God mustachios. The path deposited us suddenly at the edge of a rocky beach. We explored it. The tide was out and I found some neat little tide pools. We decided there wasn't much point in trying to get back to where we could have lunch at that point, so we set off to follow the coast around to the Holy Well and hopefully meet up with Jenny and the rest there (Amanda had gone there on her own early morning walk). Small though the island may be, it was nevertheless larger than we expected.
Rocky, sweeping coastline passed and at last we spotted another road. It took us inward, but as it kept going, we realized it would not take us to the coast we wanted for the Holy Well. We ate some more blackberries and peered over some walls, deciding which looked easiest to climb. We figured since the fields didn't belong to anyone, no one could mind if we cut through them. Unless there were cows in them. (So we checked before each wall we scaled.) By the time we got to another (hopefully correct) road, we were sunburnt and getting tired. I feel I should mention the theme songs for this whole trek (in my head, anyway), as they are not, in fact, MacDara. One is "All this Beauty" by The Weepies because every corner we turned would cause me to think, "Oh! This is so beautiful! I can't take all this beauty!" and "Eireann Mo Ghrá Chroí" by DeDannan because the lyrics go like this:
Eireann mo ghrá chroí, you're the only land for me
You're the fairest that my eyes can ever behold!
You're the land St. Patrick blessed,
You're the bright star of the west.
You're far dearer than silver or gold.
The road did not take us to the Well, though we're pretty sure we were close to it. It led us back into town, which we took as a sign to eat lunch. It was then about 3 something in the afternoon. Then we set out again and met some of the returning pilgrims, including Jenny, who made sure we were on the right road. On our left was a rocky cliff topped by a wall and the cliff fell into rocky grass and to our right the grass turned completely to rock and led down to the water. At last we found the Well and drank from its life-giving waters. Supposedly the well was supposed to promote fertility. Next, I took Amanda to the cemetery and then we kept walking, hoping to see the shipwreck before dinner. It is an old rusty metal wreck and the Cliff of Moher can be seen across the water behind it. The sun was setting and once again I found myself wishing there was some way to capture the constantly beautiful land, now glided with the gold of the sinking sun, but the pictures mostly turned out with glare and shadow.
After another tasty hotel dinner, we were feeling pretty tired, but did not want to leave without having stopped at the pub. There are actually two pubs, one in the hotel and one next to our hostel (some people had lunch there, actually). The atmosphere was friendly and it wasn't long
before two musicians set up in a corner. Everyone knew each other and were happy to welcome the Americans. A little boy made up a dance, but scampered off, embarrassed, after a few steps. Those of us who wanted to get up for the sunrise didn't stay very late, but returned to the hostel and fell promptly into exhausted sleep.
Getting up ridiculously early was worth it. We returned for
breakfast and caught the 8am ferry back to the mainland (can you call Ireland a mainland?). We got back to shore half-frozen and crawled onto the bus for the long drive home. We stopped in a nice hotel in Galway for a proper breakfast. The way home took us by the Burren, a rocky land, mostly barren but for small and often rare plants in the cracks of the rocks. We paused at a cliffside for a brief break to stretch our legs, get some air, and take some pictures. Margaret (our teacher) was a sport and let the boys hoist her up on their shoulders for a group shot. Some of the girls terrified her by going close to the cliff edge and others she threatened to fail if they did not climb down from the low cliffs that rose up on the inland side of the road. But we all got back on the bus whole. We stopped in a town (in)famous for its love festival which was going on that weekend. There was music in the pub on the main square (both the pub and the square were filled with people and half-drunk or empty glasses) and Joanne and I attempted a waltz, but the older folks populating the dance floor were much better than us. We were back on the road soon, but not before a couple of unsettling conversations with drunks, one of whom proposed we (being Americans, and obviously capable of going anywhere in our country at any moment) meet up with him in San Fransico in the spring. Needless to say, we turned him down. The rest of the drive passed in dozing, another pit stop at Blarney Woolen Mills, and finally we were dropped off a block from Leeside, tired and happy.
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