Anybody want to go abroad??????

The title is in reference to my first visit to the Aran Islands many many moons ago when I was 15 or 16 and Dad announced he was bringing us all abroad the following day..... This was during the last recession so boy were we excited!!!!!!

Until that is... we discovered that he was taking us for a family day out ..... to the Aran Islands off the coast of Co. Galway......To make things worse we lived in Co. Galway at the time!!!! Not too long of a trip so!! But we did go... had a great day... got the weather...got sunburnt on the boat and still have the memories!!

Last week we decided to 'go abroad' again..... the Aran Islands are a group of three inhabited islands off the coast of Galway, and consists of the largest one Inis Mór, Inis Meáin & Inis Oirr... We drove to Ros a Mhil to get the ferry across rather than get the closer ferry from Doolin...No, I knew the reputation of the 'Happy Hooker' and while it is a much shorter crossing it is generally choppy and I don't do choppy or motion sickness very well..... Even those swings/roundabouts in playgrounds make me feel queasy..... No, I'm a 'terra ferma' gal now!!

The day started on a bum note.....on finding out we had over an hour to wait for the next ferry we went to the nearest restaurant for lunch.... Both Elena and Alex opted for pizza but on hearing it would take 20 minutes we told the waitress that No, we had a ferry to catch so could not wait that long and they ordered sausages and chips..... 30 mins later we were still waiting and when we eventually managed to get her attention again we told her we were really under pressure and would not have time to eat... Declan asked her to just wrap to go what was ready and that we needed to pay her and go straightaway...they kept us waiting 10 minutes longer leaving us only 10 minutes to get back, park the car and race to the ferry.. I usually complain in a very 'civilised' manner but when the chef came out of the kitchen to deliver yet another delayed foil tray and never even acknowledged me or said any word of apology I was mad, mad...mad... I let them know , refused some of the food that I deemed would not fare well in the rush to the ferry (namely my chowder!) and left.....thumbs down to 'An Port' restaurant..One word of apology from the chef and I would have been quite gracious!!

Anyway, we did make the ferry .. just...and maybe if we had known what was ahead we would have been thankful to the restaurant. The 45 minute crossing is illustrated by Alex below....

I don't like this!!

' I'm scared Mam'
'I want to get off'
Thank God I never had to do this in a currach...While Alex protested loudly at every rise and fall off the boat I suffered in silence and prayed the 45 minutes would pass quickly... Dad, this was waaaay worse than our trip to Clare Island long ago.... or our ferry crossing from Wales to Dún Laoghaire way back.. Every time the boat lurched back down it sounded like it was scraping the bottom of the seabed although I know it wasn't... After suffering all I could I made my way to the nearest toilet and suffice it to say I managed to divest myself of my entire breakfast in six attempts:( Was having flashbacks to the Summer of 1995 and the morning sickness that preceded the happy arrival of Darrelle the following spring:)

Felt a lot better then I must add:)

So did Alex, once we got close to shore

Darrelle, on the other hand started out happy, enjoyed poor Alex's terror...
..and ended up looking a little green around the gills....Mind you she did a lot better than me....

As for Elena, she quite enjoyed the whole journey..... Where has our scared little girl gone????

Let's play now Dad.... I'm okay

Land Ahoy!! Note the two hands.....

I mentioned to the guy at the end of the gangplank... that's surely not the right term... anyway the term escapes me now so went down the ramp! and informed the friendly face who was welcoming me that my ol' sea legs weren't good... He said what I thought was 'It'll be 'BADDER' on the way back'.. Ok bad grammer I know but that's what it sounded like... I mentally eschewed the idea of returning by air with Aer Arann,, not necessarily an improvement .... Failng that I began to comtemplate a resident's permit or visa...Declan then corrected my misconception and said 'He said it will be BETTER on the way back'.... So I chanced it and he was right.....

We had planned on renting bikes and cycling round the island but Elena refused to cycle and in hindsight she was right.... It was extremely windy and there are a lot of hills so we probably wouldn't have done very well.....
We opted instead to take a tour with the 'jarvey'... This was FUN and had the added bonus that we got a somewhat guided tour and learnt a little more about the island....

Mind you, if you click to enlarge the following photo Elena looks like it is anything but fun!! The small guys were tickled pink with the horse especially when they found out she was named Jessie, the same name as the little girl down the road that they play with..!

Ah... Island Life.... the pace is good..... Inis Mór has 800 inhabitants which is pretty amazing as island life can't be easy... while the other two islands have 200 and 300 inhabitants.... Of course a big source of revenue for the islanders is the tourist trade and especially the hundreds of students that visit every year to learn/improve their Irish... Yes ~ it is yet another Gaeltacht area.....

Unspoilt landscape...

The local Graveyard.... If you look to the back of the photo you will note the small Aer Arann plane that carries people to the other islands and back to the mainland...

This monument is in memory of all the islanders who were lost at sea..... and having travelled on the choppy Atlantic in a large ferry I can only imagine what it must have been like in a small currach.... A lot of them did not make it....

Thought this was funny.... the sign for the bus that will bring you to the plane

Tour over..... Bernard was a good guide and did not seem to mind the very giddy small boy who covered quite a lot of ground without ever leaving the cart! or the small inquisitive girl who asked a lot of questions and had quite opinionated comments.....

This is as close as she would stand to poor Jessie!!!

The Q for the homebound ferry! Would love to have done an overnight trip or even a few days..... Will definitely file it away for future planning....when I have forgotten about the 'turas go-dtí an t-oileán'

Guess who had a great day!!!

This video is entitled 'Business aboard the Jarvey'!!! Now it more than likely will be difficult to hear anything over the sound of the wind but I just thought it was so coincidental that while Declan got a call from someone who wished to make a reservation for a car (not uncommon when he is on holiday!).. the client who called him was Henrietta Knight, a lady whose life revolves around horses. She trains horses and was the trainer of Best Mate, (WHO?) and here we were 'ontour' on a horse and cart (very unusual for us!)