Aron Islands

Hopefully Jen's face is smiling.

The Aron Islands are 3 small islands off the coast of Ireland. It was a 45 minute bus ride from Galway and then a 30ish minute ferry ride (from hell). The boat had every one going ughhhhhh and a lot of people saw their breakfast for a second time. For 28 of the 30 minutes the only thing I thought was- breathe breathe breathe. But the turbulent ride was well worth it. I hired (rented) a bike for the day and set off to explore the forts (dating before Christ) and really old churches on the main island. At my first stop, a tower, I met up with another solo rider, Chris. He is from Australia and just finished getting his Master's degree in architecture. We spent the rest of the day, exploring and at times taking the less traveled way. I put it that way because you can't get lost on an island that is only a meter long. The islands are almost magical though, because everything is so old and quiant. I was fortunate enough to choose a day that was sunny for all but 5 minutes. So we rode from about 11am to 5pm. The island also has a small seal colony, which we watched as they lounged around. It also boasts that on the island is the world's smallest church. It was small, but I cannot believe it to be the smallest. Chris commented that a place in Scotland made the exact same claim about a different church. The fort is built along frightfully high cliffs that drop straight into the sea. Even getting near the edge made me tremble; the thought of falling to my death was too scary for me to risk getting an award winning photo. The land is divided into fairly small fields. The fields were orginally larger, but if a man had 2 sons his land would be split in 2 by the building of a new stone wall. The ferry ride back was much much better. Instead of getting sea sick, I fell asleep.
That night Crystal, Derval (an Irish woman who we roomed with), Annie (a 58 year old woman from Norway staying in our room) and I headed down to the docks for more live music and then a drink at the pub. In the summer it does not get dark until around 10 or 10:30pm, so it is difficult for me to judge the time and seems to all the sudden be midnight.