June 23rd, 2001
DAY THREE: Inishmore, Aran Islands
HOSTEL: The Artist's Lodge (099 61457)

Galway in the morning was really pretty and had a nice oceanic smell to it...I awoke to a really sore back from my very bad cushioned bed (which I thankfully switched out of in the middle of the night into Keri's nice "firm" bed). Thankfully the shower was warm, though I felt like I was at Emerson again. The shower had this thing where you had to push a button to get it to work, and the water kept shutting off every 15 sec. or so...needless to say you have to time things like washing hair and body so you don't run out of water at a bad time or something. Keri had a cold shower because all the other girls got in there before her and stole all the hot stuff so she was miserable (then again I would be too, I look forward to hot showers as they wake me up). Breakfast consisted of toast and OJ. It was pretty discouraging considering the size of food we had the day before. Anyway, we threw on the backpacks and headed out to Eyre Square to lie in the grass before we got on the bus, to take us to the boat, which would then take us out to the stupid island. A very long process as we found out. Keri called the mom (though it was like 4:00 in the morning over there) and she was happy. For the first time I was really warming up to the idea that we were all alone and doing this by ourselves, and it felt good. So the bus came and parked out by our hostel (everything in the city is pretty close) and took us an hour and a half out to the middle of nowhere where our boat was waiting. Once there, we got on a nice stylish boat for a ride over to Inishmore, the largest of the Aran Islands. An hour and a half passed and finally we arrived on the island. Unfortunately, as soon as we got off the boat immediately it starts to rain, which was just our luck. Thankfully it only lasted a half hour and wasn't too bad. Our first designated task was to try to secure us a nice place to stay. We soon found out that every bed and breakfast we found was "full". I put quotes around it because we know for a fact that some of them had spots, but the sight of two young college kids in their prime made them want to suck in the loss for a night. Lesson learned that day. So needless to say, we decided we would settle for a hostel, and then some of them were full. Basically put, it was a mess. We took a break, grabbed some lunch (well not really a lunch, but a small snack) of scombs and Orange Juice. After lunch we headed out determined to find a place to spend the night. After much searching we finally we met this girl who had been living at the Artist's Lodge and highly recommended it. So, without other option and a numb back and legs from carrying around our bags we opted for the Artists Lodge, which was 7 pounds, a night I believe. It was this lady's house or psudo home of sorts complete with a kitchen and den and all the normal house stuff. Quite cozy might I add, and quite a far cry from the other hostels we'd stayed at. But anyway we dropped off our main packs and put all our other gear in the smaller day pack (for me this was 2 large cameras, nothing else...sigh) and headed out. Since biking seemed the popular mode of transportation out there, we hitched up on some bikes (they were pretty cheap I believe, something like 8 pounds?) and headed off. The big touristy spot were these cliffs out on the other side of the islands (or so we overheard from all the other read up tourists) so we drove around on the main road for what seems like ever....over long hurting hills, bumps, etc...after awhile we got tired (well you can't say we exactly ate up before the trip!) and found a nice pub to go into. If you can sit back and try to imagine your typical slightly overweight, drunken' Irishman, this place was full of them filling up their glasses with pints of Guinness. It was too funny, so we weren't exactly the normal visitors there, but it worked and was quite amusing. We kept going and finally 4 miles later we finally got to the cliffs. We were both so out of shape, but for the sights we were to see it was worth it. Dun Aengus as they're called, are these picturesque 300 ft. cliffs that are quite amazing to say the least. You can walk right up to the edge, hang your head over and see the ocean crashing down below. No fences were there, so you're at your own risk! The best part was that all the tourists had pretty much left and it was just Keri and I there as the sun was setting. In the midst of this we decided we were hungry, and thought it'd be a good idea to get a bite or something, but unfortunately things move with the tourists and everything was closed for the night by the time we got back. Even stupid "American Bar" didn't have any food so we scraped together some cookies we found in our backpack from the plane ride over and rationed them out. Thankfully when we got back to the hostel there was a kid there who made some curry, so we didn't starve after all. That night we slept very contentedly in nice comfortable beds (despite a bad snoring man on the bottom bunk of my bed...Keri kept going "ahem" and he'd stop for a couple minutes and then start all over again!) and were out like a light.

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