Ireland ~ Aran Islands - Inisheer & Lahinch (Day 15) 05Aug23

Awesome day on the north Atlantic for a ferry ride to the Aran Islands. Ok, I was inappropriately bundled for a keen sunny day ride. This is an extra subscription on the OAT Ireland tour, which all 15 of the tourists took. Maybe it was the great day (but we needed to book it 48 hrs prior anyway), maybe it was the Aran Islands, which are famous in a number of ways. We all had a blast with the boat ride not bad and the "queen of the isle" a great tour guide once landed on Inis Oire (Wild Life) or Inisheer in phonetic English, yeah that bit about Inisherin in the movie is made up, but it was cool; so many metaphors ~ where we went, life is very real. If you go to Ireland and are on the Atlantic, go to the Aran Islands. It was other-worldly yet up to date kindof. Kids all over Ireland want to get out here to learn Irish, which is nearly exclusively spoken (and taught) here. It is exceptional but I understand skeptics who want to acknowledge English is the "way" of the world and commerce. I applaud Ireland for allowing contracts and laws to be written in either English or Irish still... superb but challenging to find an Irish lawyer. We toured with the queen of the isle who ran the dock, the butane/propane gas depot, the bar & restaurant, the school, tourism, and likely more... she was awesome and another example of OAT capability to book the best personal experiences. We took a hand-built cabin around the island with narration and history offered in English... 'cause we were all 'mericans. Basically this is a rock off off Ireland and while gorgeous, revealed a very hard living experience, even today.

Why are there so many sub-divided lots? Ya know ~ many reasons, segregation of species, ownership, but most of all - no one wanted to carry the heavy rocks too far. This is unbelievably rocky ground and clearing it for any human use was brutal. We visited a wreck from which all sailors were saved by islanders, some grave and tombs of old Aran folk, and ruins/castles of old lords of the land and the ilk. We dodged Irish bikers and hikers but all's cool. The boats are still built here in the old style but only used for competition among oldness. races The Aran Islands are windswept, often cold, rocky pieces of shit from a human habitation standpoint ~ but Irish do it and love to come and camp and learn. WTF. It was gorgeous. We dined privately at the sole cafe on decent food but not locally sourced ('cause there is none).

My mom was a world-class knitter and I have a number of sweaters of Aran stiches I observed in the lobby of the queen's hood. Cool. I also have plenty of tartans that might evoke the opposite emotions in Ireland. We took the Xmas card pic (again) and then saw the jellyfish explosion aided by over fishing. We had a blast across the bay and soon enough landed again on the big island.

Back in Lahinch, we caught the surfers, the sunset, the golfers (dang, wicked rough), and bought some merch.