To Aran and Back and Things in Between

I was hoping to return one day to the Aran Islands, but I didn't realize it would happen before leaving in Decemeber. Nevertheless, I ended up on the biggest of the three islands with Luke and Elizabeth over the weekend. Inishmore is the "touristy island."

It uses a well-crafted rural image to sell me its beauty, rather than letting me experience island life at its best. It has a very small population and I definitely saw more tourists than locals over the course of the weekend. Still, it was a gorgeous island. There's a certain silence you can only find on the west of Ireland that was definitely present on Inishmore. Even with the tourists, the island isn't polluted with the noisy sounds of modern life...there were cars, but I saw more ponies and traps, more bikes. It was a nice getaway.

We arrived mid-evening on Friday after a seven-hour journey from Cork. We left after I got out of Irish class, where my professor, Ciran, told me how to order a Guinness in Irish. He said to try out some of my new phrases because the islanders would appreciate it. We checked into a sweet B&B just inland from a beach. Unlike on Inishmaan, we were in charge of our own dinner, so we ended up at the only restaurant open on the island. It was O'Malley's at Bayview, and it served up Italian and French cuisines. Funny.

We were going to go to the pub, but were too tired and instead just crashed for the evening in our room. We woke up for a 9 AM breakfast, napped again (we were clearly exhausted), and ended up trekking out on the island at about noon. We commenced what Luke would later tell us was a 3-6 hour journey, round trip. Elizabeth and I didn't know this at the start and were thrilled to just have a nice walk across the island. Two and half hours, the passing of several pony and traps, and the passing of several bikes later, Luke informed us we were in this for the long haul. It was a gorgeous walk, but we didn't have any food and hardly any water, so we were really wearing down. We passed an aray of animals and beautiful scenes...beaches, cliffsides, ruins, etc. We finally reached the craftt village at the base of the fort we were heading toward, where we got food and where a local offered us a ride back. Thank goodness!

We hiked up to the Dun Aongasa, a fort built about 3000 years ago on the cliffs of Inishmore. I probably would have learned more except I was frustrated by having to pay to see cliffs on an Aran Island. Inishmaan felt so far away at that moment; it certainly was the island still not infiltrated by capitalism and modernity...and it was not gaining profit on my trek west. Inishmore was taking advantage of my touristy curiosities.

We still saw a breathtaking cliffside, pictured at the top of this blog. The fort had 5 meter walls and was surprisingly sturdy after 3000 years of being battered by the Atlantic. We spent about a half hour just looking out at the water, in awe of just how far vertically we were from it (around 300 feet). We then headed down much happier than earlier, and retreated to a bus back to the village.

We ended up in a touristy gift shop where I didn't purchase anything. We then explored an abandoned house and abandoned church near our B&B, which was kind of exciting in a creepy way. We then relaxed and moved to splurge on a big dinner at O'Malleys. Satiated, we went to the pub, which was crowded with locals and tourists alike.

We borrowed stools from a table occupied by two men, one in his late 40s and the other in his late 70s. Both had lived on Inishmore all of their lives and had come to the pub in search of many pints of Guinness and to gawk at the tourists. I ended up talking with Paddy, the older of the two, about New England; he travels to the states every December to play traditional Irish music, apparently. We discussed Rhode Island and Massachusetts predominantly.

He was an adorable chap that let me test out some Irish phrases. Even in the short week I had of Irish classes, I learned that there are many different dialects and ideas about how one should pronounce things. My teacher is from Belfast, and he speaks differently than Luke's teacher from Cork, and Paddy spoke West province Irish. This made for interesting moments of confusion, espcially on my part, but Paddy was patient.

We were excited about the pub, Ti Joe Watty's, because we had heard of its reputation for having really great live traditional music. We, of course, were there on the night that they had the man playing covers of American hits (R.E.M., Oasis, Queen...some U2). It was good music that I still enjoyed, but I definitely didn't travel so far to hear what I listen to on my iPod.

We woke up for an 8:30 breakfast the next morning and were on the ferry by noon, headed back to Galway to catch a bus to go to Cork. It was raining, which is becoming more typical as the fall season sets in here. We made it back to the city at 6:45, where the rain had ceased and the air was warm. It was another long day of travel and odd mealtimes, but we made it through. Even though Inishmore was no Inishmaan, it was still a wonderful weekend getaway; and experience with good laughs and lessons. I realized on our way out of Galway that it would probably be the last time I would see the west of Ireland this semester, which was kind of sad to think about. My time is winding down here; I'm already halfway through my program. Every second counts...

In between my last blog and this one, I have continued with development and preparing for Debate in Dublin. I have a debate partner, Liam, who I will begin competing with October 31 (Halloween!) in a novice competition, then moving onto Intervarsity over the weekend. I'm learning the nuances of British Parliamentary style debating, which is very interesting and fun, but I will need to work on it some more to become truly comfortable.

I should see some of my writing in the next issue of the campus magazine, Motley, and the Scoop08 will be launching November 4.

I have given up the notion of being able to trampoline...I am going to keep my schedule down to debate, journalism, and class, to maximize travel and social time. I kind of like that so that I don't work myself too hard.

I have every weekend through December booked with travel. This upcoming weekend, Elizabeth and I will be going on a student heritage weekend trip to Kerry. We're going to a lot of places tourists don't normally go, and we'll be traveling with Irish students from Cork and Kerry, so that's exciting. In following weekends, I have at least two trips to Dublin, a trip to London, and possibly some travel in West Cork. It's going to be a great craic (pronounced "crack," this is the Irish slang for "fun").

On top of this, I'm excited for the Rockies in the World Series! I've been waiting for this for 14 years and of course, they achieve the miracle when I can't watch the games. I am so excited, though, I have even gotten some new Irish friends to cheer on the Rox (and they hate baseball). It's job (Irish slang for success! A job well done...)!

So, no matter where in Ireland I may be...the Rockies will always be in my heart!

Go team! JOB!
I miss you all, too, by the way...
;-)

~MJ


PS When I was in Inishmore, news broke that Al Gore and his crack team of environmentalists won the Nobel Prize. Go Al! The above picture is in your honor, from the heart of Inishmore.

More of my pictures (of that amazing cliffside and other such Inishmore madness--including Paddy) on www.picasaweb.google.com/omaryjean