Sunday was quite possibly the best day of this trip so far, and we just though it deserved its own blog post to fully do it justice. We don’t want to hype this post up too much, but it truly was a remarkable event! We took a day trip to the Aran Islands, a small set of rocky islands in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Ireland; there are only about 800 people who live on the islands permanently, but it has become famous for its huge rocky cliffs and its handmade woolen (super warm) sweaters! The islands are also famous for inspiring Lady Gregory, the famous playwright and Irish nationalist. She is undoubtedly one of the most fascinating figures of twentieth century Ireland, and y’all should read more about her life story. Several people in our group purchased wool sweaters, and the story or “myth” behind them is rather interesting. Supposedly, the ladies of the Aran islands would make unique sweater patterns to help identify the bodies of sailors lost at sea. Let me start by setting the scene: when we left Galway at 9:00 that morning, we were experiencing severe, hurricane-like winds and rains, to the point where our professors were doubting whether or not we should even attempt the ferry ride over to the islands.  Supposedly there was a great chance that the weather would become so bad that a ferry would not be able to return to the mainland that afternoon, meaning we would be stranded on this island for quite possibly several days. However, our youthful optimism and adventuresome spirit (what Frederick Jackson Turner may call a “frontier spirit” of rugged individualism) was enough to convince our professors that we were up for the journey, so we took the rough and turbulent hour-long ferry ride to the island, and as soon as we stepped off the boat we were nearly carried away by the gusts of wind blowing across the island. I would also like to point out that even though we were faced with improbably defiant winds, Julie and I still managed to take a nap on the way to the Aran Islands.  It was seriously the strongest wind I have ever felt in my life, and usually wind puts me in a pretty bad mood but for some reason it only fueled my excitement for our day’s adventure. We had been told that renting bikes was the best way to ride around and see the island, and so despite the rough weather (and perhaps our common sense) a group of us decided to rent them anyways and it was the best decision we could have made! Initially, we were considering hiring a horse and buggy for the day, but the bikes proved much more enjoyable! We headed off down the dirt paths, riding alongside fields of horses and cows on one side and the peaceful ocean shore on the other side- a quintessential Irish experience. Along the way, I met a friendly horse that came up to the fence to greet our group. She was a pretty horse and enjoyed our company. Julie and I also saw what could have been one of the largest cows in Ireland. If you remember from our last post, Julie recently had a fairly traumatic encounter with a cow, so this mega cow could have spelled disaster. Fortunately, we rode on past unscathed. We rode for about an hour (we think it was only supposed to take 30 minutes but the wind was SO terrible that it  took us forever!) before reaching our destination, the bottom of the huge Dun Aonghasa cliff where we parked our bikes and hiked the rest of the way up to the top of the cliff. For those of you who don’t know, Dun Aonghasa is a Neolithic fort built around 1100 B.C. Once we reached the top, our day’s battle with the wind and rain and tiring hills became SO worth it for the incredible view around us. We were literally on top of a huge rock formation, staring over the side where it dropped off hundreds of feet into churning ocean waters below. The wind seemed even stronger up there, almost physically blowing us around at times, but we felt protected having Dr. Aeisi up there with us! He gets really scared about his “kids” accidentally falling over the edge so he never let us get too close without calling us back! The view really was awe-inspiring. From the top of the fort, we could see over much of the island and vast expanses of water before us.

The ride back into town was one hundred million times better because it was more downhill, the wind finally calmed down, and the sun started peeking through. I imagined that I was in my dream life, riding my bike through the fields to the local one-room schoolhouse every morning so I could teach my little class of students on my black chalkboard. Also on the way back, our horse friend remembered us and offered us a friendly greeting as we rode past!

It was truly a wonderful day, and once again these pictures can’t even begin to do it justice:

We officially found the largest cow in the world. You can't tell from this picture, but it was SO BIG.

Thomas made a new friend along the way!