Okay, so it’s been a little while since I got back. Life got crazy – turns out, you can’t just disappear from normal life for two months without having a little (or a lot) of catch-up to do once you return. Added into the madness was the fact that I spent three solid weeks going off the grid (no Internet), and then jumped straight back into life as a full-time student. But now, here we go… finally finishing off those last few blog posts!
Day 4 of the Ireland trip took us to the Aran Islands. This whole day was definitely a highlight of the trip.
We started out the day on the coach, driving further down the Wild Atlantic Way. From there we caught a ferry that took us the rest of the way out to the islands.
Ferry ride, leaving the mainland:
The Aran Islands are located off the west coast, and we would spend our day on the largest of the islands, Inishmore.
Once we got off the ferry, at our guide’s recommendation, the majority of our group rented bikes for the day and pedalled off in pursuit of the sights at the other side of the island.
I ended up pedalling with three other friends, and we started by going to the furtherest end of the island.
There, we paid a few euros and got to climb up steps to see the prehistoric fort of Dún Aonghasa. The fort is perched right on the edge of a very high cliff, which you could walk right to the edge of.
View of the fort from afar (on our way biking there):
The fort up close:
In addition to amazing cliffside views, you could also view the entire island from that vantage point (the entire island is only 31km2).
View of the entire island:
Cliffside views to the left, from the fort:
Me & the cliffside views to the right, from the fort:
After the fort, we got ice creams at the local shop and then worked our way slowly back to the other end of the island. Along the way we stopped frequently, taking in the amazing views, a beach, Irish ponies grazing by the side of the road, and a seal colony.
Seal colony (the little rolls lying on the beach):
Picture of the many stone walls that were all over the island:
Biking along (pic of my friend Charlotte):
Back at the starting point, we ventured into the little section of restaurants on the island. There we found what were probably the best fish and chips I had on the whole trip (I suspected it was the Guinnesss-beer-batter that made them so especially delicious).
We finished the day at the beach, lying on the sand and wading into the ocean up to our ankles.
We got back on the last ferry of the night, and it began to rain literally two minutes after we boarded the boat. We spent the rest of the evening back in Galway, feeling thoroughly happy from our day of adventure and fresh air.
THE WANDERING YEARS 