Aran Islands

We just had our last Roberta trip :(  Eugene picked us up outside our apartments and we drove to the little town of Doolin where Mary Ellen and I had our adventure with Frank, Christy, and the cows.  All of us girls headed to Gus O'Connor's for a pint and to listen to the music.  Frank was at home watching his kid, but I was able to meet up with Christy (who was looking spiffy in the Secret Service jacket that Mary Ellen had sent him) and his friend Leo.  The music was excellent!  There was even a song that one of the local musicians had composed about Doolin.  We didn't stay until closing this because we had an early start the next morning, so we headed back to the hostel
around midnight and crashed.

The next morning we rushed to catch the ferry over to Inis Mhór, the largest of the Aran Islands.  Our ferry was named the Happy Hooker haha!  We pulled up to the dock and moved our bags into the hostel.  A few of us headed to the beach and played frisbee while we waited for the kitchen to clear so we could make lunch.  After grabbing a quick bite, we rented some bikes and started cycling along the coast of the island.  We made friends with some ponies and stopped at a few beaches on our way.  We even saw three seals swimming in the water!  We ended up at Dún Aonghasa an old fort perched on the edge of a cliff.  A few of us sat on the edge with our feet dangling off throwing rocks to see how big of a splash they would make.

On our last day at the island I went for a walk with my friends Lauren and Emily.  We found a beautiful, long stretch of beach and played frisbee there for a while despite the strong wind.  As we continued on our walk a few of the other SMC girls cycled by followed by a small black and white dog (whom we later named Toby).  Toby was super sweet and and he turned out to be a great frisbee player too!  I kept throwing the disc to him and he would jump up and catch it in the air then trot back to me with it in his mouth.  After a while Toby tried to change our game to tug-of-war, so we decided to continue our walk in order to protect my disc and Toby ran off in the other direction.  We reached a hill and headed up it to check out the temple ruins at the top.  Unfortunately as we crossed a small stone wall used to keep the cows away, one of the large boulders fell off and landed on Lauren's foot, breaking three of her toes.  However, because Lauren is an absolute champ, we continued on up to the top of the hill and got to see the ruins as well as a magnificent view of the island.

On the way home we made a quick stop to see the Cliffs of Moher.  It was an absolutely radiant day so the cliffs looked beautiful!

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit Inis Mhór.  It really gave me time to relax and spend time with my friends whom with I have spent the year traveling and exploring.  It was a truly perfect final end to our Roberta trips.