We spent four days and three nights in the Aran Islands. I had always wanted to visit the islands as a thing to "do", but I really had no idea what to expect. The more I read about them, the more I figured John would love them. I looked for a hotel, but the ones that still had availability looked pretty sad, so I decided to check for rentals. I found one that said it was "away" from the craziness of the town.
We grabbed a ferry Tuesday morning and quickly fell asleep for the 90 minute ride. Our AirBnB host had told me that I didn't really need to do anything but just get a bike once we arrived on island. However, we had luggage. She then said (using "ye" anytime she wrote anything to me ;-)) that I could hop on a tour bus, have them drop me off at the cottage and then have our bikes delivered. Sounded complicated, but we're pretty good at doing complicated ;-) However, once we landed, a bike guy, standing at the end of the dock, told us that if we rented from his company, they would deliver our luggage for us. SOLD! So we left our luggage (including my laptop) in a run-down warehouse where the guy scrawled "Cozy Cottage" on a ripped off piece of cardboard and laid it on top of one of our suitcases. In my mind, I saw all kinds of things happening to our things as a rogue breeze blew the hastily crafted label off of our luggage, but I was really trying to embrace the "low maintenance" mantra of our trip. We rented some bikes. I reached out to Sinead again to get directions to the cottage, and she told me to just head down the road for about 4.5 kilometers.
Thankfully, as we rounded a corner in the village, we came across a SPAR grocery store. Yes! Something familiar! John was unsure what exactly we would find to eat, but I grabbed some bread, turkey, cheese, Pringles and some Coke Zero, and we sat outside and ate. Man, the sun was shining, and it was just a little piece of heaven. At least it was if Irish is spoken in heaven, because literally everyone around us was speaking Irish (or Gaelic as it used to be called). It seriously doesn't even sound real!
We set off, but the bike map we'd grabbed from the rental place had a CAUTION in red font labelling the main road through the island. Instead, I decided we would take the EASY route, marked in green, around the island and backtrack a bit.
Holy hills. I don't know what part of "easy" that route was. I was huffing and puffing the entire way, and I wanted to throw a stick into the wheels of people cruising past us on their E-bikes. But we finally arrived. The place was better than the pictures, and I could tell it would be a lovely place for us for the next few days.
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| This was our honest-to-goodness view. |
John headed out running immediately while I settled in. To describe the cottage as "quiet" would be an understatement. The only sounds were the wind, the birds, and occasionally the waves on the beach. I don't think I've ever been anywhere with so little noise pollution. It was amazing. And I'm embarrassed to admit how many voice recordings I took of the birds.
Something we quickly discovered though is that when the ferry departs (around 3:30), everything closes. We realized this was a problem when we wanted to bike somewhere for food for dinner...and everywhere was closed. Like, locked up and dark. Even the SPAR. Thankfully we hadn't eaten all of our sandwich fixings, and Sinead had a couple of eggs and pasta in the kitchen.
I went out on the porch that night, and the sky was a carpet of stars. It was unbelievable.
For the next three days, John would head out running in the morning and then would bring me to the highlights later on. He was averaging ten miles a day running and five biking...and those are just averages! I loved every minute I had to blog and to read and to talk to Glo in Spain. And I think John loved all of his adventurous moments as well.
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| Kilmurvey Beach |
The only time it rained (and yes, John actually got sunburned the first day), we headed down to the local cafe (again only open from 11-4), Teach Nan Phaidi. It was packed with tourists wanting to get out of the rain, but we finagled a spot at a table. They were out of the Guinness Beef Stew that I'd had the day before, but they still had potatoes au gratin and beef lasagna. We ate enough for lunch and got enough for dinner that evening--the lady had come to know us with our frequent visits and packed everything up for us. We put it in my QRB (quick release basket).
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| It was a difficult choice! |
When we stepped out, the sun had come out as well and we did some sweater shopping (getting Aran sweaters from the actual women who hand-knit them). We then headed to the nearby fort...and when I say fort, I'm talking about one from 900 A.D. The end of the trail went to the cliffs, and they views were spectacular.
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| How many pictures did I take like this of him? |
John thought this rock over the cliffs looked like a diving board:
By the time we got back, ALL OF OUR FOOD WAS GONE! The local crows had had a very tasty dinner on us...and left only the half slice of chocolate cake!
That night, it was slim pickings for food, but we made it til the next morning when we biked back to SPAR and got every yogurt/fruit/bread product that we could. Yogurt has never tasted so good!
Anyway, it was a physically demanding island. It felt like every direction took us UPHILL, and maybe I'm just really out of shape, but I dreaded heading out at times. But it was good for me, and the views every time were spectacular. Would I go back? Absolutely, but I'd return more prepared for the spartan style of living ;-)
We took a horse and carriage tour while waiting for our departing ferry on Friday where I took my favorite photo of the trip. Martin, our tour guide and Hopper, his horse, took us to a cemetery on another "quiet" side of the island.
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