Aran Islands - Inishmaan

Planes, trains and automobiles... no... buses, ferries and feet, yes! Today we took the ferry to Inishmaan, one of the three Aran Islands off the West coast of Ireland in the North Atlantic. Who knew the ferry terminal was actually 30-45 min out of Galway and required a bus ride (Chuck made me ride in the top of a double decker bus - another story!) before the 45 minute ferry ride? After our two hour bus and ferry ride we arrived at Inishmaan, which is the middle island in size but the least populated and the least visited - so as you can imagine, Chuck chose that one to visit. Inishmore is the most visited and the most populated and has started catering to the tourists as much as a small island can. So back to Inishmaan... all you can see are rock walls going everywhere sectioning off the land into small parcels we think they use to move the cows and sheep around for grazing. It was sunny but windy and cold as there is nothing to protect you - the entire island is a pile of rocks. So we walk, and walk, and walk. We finally come upon one of the three or so ruins, Synge's Chair, which is supposed to be the spot the author and playwright JM Synge found inspiration in his summers on Inishmaan. A pile of rocks. Chuck liked it as it was right on the cliff looking across at Inishmore cliffs so he went down the rock piles to the edge - scarring the shit out of me. We came accross a local giving a tour to a group of Swiss tourists so we listed for a bit getting some history of the 130 people who still live on the rock pile, I mean island. And we walk, and walk, and walk. We pass what we think is the only pub on the island that doesn't look open and head on up to the ruins of a 7th century fort. A pile of rocks. We walk and walk, back to the pub and it is indeed open - yes! We see some people from Dublin who we talked to on the ferry and have a pint while chatting with them. Everyone on the island speaks Gaelic but the bartender spoke enough English to hook us up with the pints and a ham and cheese sandwhich. Thankfully as the return ferry did not come until 4:30 and we were tired of walking and hungy. We did not get back to Galway until 7:00 - a very long day. I thought it was interesting to see the islands and how people are still living but it was a long tour to see a pile of rocks. Chuck of course loved it - no people and a pile of rocks! We ate a quick dinner at Garvey's Pub and are crashing early - back to Dublin tomorrow.