Aran Islands but more importantly, Border Collies

Saturday, 3.1.2014:

We woke up early to start off the day in the Aran Island. One thing ESN didn't think about was having an early wake up call right after a pub crawl. A lot of people in the group were struggling in the morning. Thankfully most of the people I was traveling with were just fine. After grabbing some free breakfast at the hostel we hopped on the bus to drive over to the dock in order to catch a ferry to the biggest Aran Island, Inishmore. Although I was exhausted, the scenery on the drive over was stunning. Sometimes I get a little mad that there is a glare on windows because I am missing out on some great photos. Once at the dock we boarded the "ferry" to the island. The ferry was essential a giant bus boat - it didn't really fit the classic vision when one thinks of an American ferry. On the ferry everyone grabbed a seat, away from the coffin and spare mattress that was in there. Both caused a little alarm to us. The coffin because we unsure if there was actually a corpse in it, and the mattress because we all have a little fear of bed bugs. Although the trip on the ferry was very rough and cold, everyone fell asleep for a solid 45 minutes. Upon arrival at the Aran Island, everyone rented a bike in order to explore the big island. I personally find riding a bike in a foreign country to be fun with a mixture of stress. That stress is doubled in Ireland since everything on the roads and bikes is backwards....including the break system. Our first stop of the day was the sweater shop. If you were unaware. The Aran Islands are known for their famous wool sweaters. They are hand knit and intricately made. They also have a lifetime uncompared to any other sweater. I've wanted one since first semester freshman year when a friend showed me this beautiful one her parents gave her. I decided to splurge a little to get one for myself. Once my sweater was paid for all of us headed us the hill to get some food from the grocery store.

Shelia

While munching away at our food we played around with this border collie we had met. Shawn decided to name her Sheila. She reminded me an awful lot of Koadie and it was really pleasant to be around a playful dog. When lunch was finished we hopped on our bikes and were off to the famous Dún Aonghasa view of the big island. Thankfully the ESN leaders were with us so they knew how to get to this view. We were riding along and enjoying the view when all of a sudden the road we were on was just gone. There was legitimately a chunk of the road just gone. A local who was on the road with us informed us that the big storms about three weeks ago had destroyed the road and apparently multiple sections of the road were equally as destroyed. We had to carry our bikes across the rumble in order to continue on our journey. Once on the other side we climbed off the road, down to the sea to get some pictures. Also, to play with the puppies we spotted on the beach. After pictures were taken and the puppies were played with we continued on our way. The rest of the ride was extremely gorgeous. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll save you from reading my awkward sentences and phrases and just show you a bunch of pictures of the journey to the view:

Every time I get to do an outdoor activity and see the gorgeous sites of Ireland, it reminds me why this country is the perfect country for me to study abroad in. The one snag of the whole bike ride was when my bike chain slipped while I was trying to change gears. When this happened I accidentally sliced open my foot and it was bleeding. One of the leaders had to fix my bike since I couldn't get the chain to return to the right position. Once the bike was fixed we continued on the way to the view. Again I'll save you my wording and you can just look at the view: 

I even had a chance to look over the edge - I had never felt so much wind at once. After the hanging out at the view a couple people stopped off to get some wool gloves since it was getting colder. The ride back to the dock was fun up until it started to pour. There were buckets of rain coming down, when we got back to the dock I looked like a wet dog. Once back, Catie, Ellie and I stopped in a shop to get something to eat. We ran into Wendy and Erica and enjoyed our shakes (yes, shakes after riding through the cold rain). While we sipped away some Irish guys who had a little too much to drink attempted to talk with us. We asked them to sing Galway girl but they strictly refused. Once our food was finished we said goodbye to the mildly intoxicated people and walked to the ferry. We rode the ferry back then hopped on the bus to take us all the way back to the hostel. When I was back at the hostel I ran to take a shower since my appearance was quite gruesome from the rain. Once everyone was showered we went to the kitchen to get some pasta our group leaders had made for us. The pasta was subpar but at least it was food. After dinner, a couple of us ran to the local grocery store to grab some drinks so we could join everyone in pre-drinks. Pre-drinks was really fun.

After pre-drinks we went to a dance club near by. While there a couple of us played some more games. Eventually we got up and danced a little but the music wasn't that great so we called it a night after a couple of hours.

Cheers,
Jenny