The next morning we got up to take a ferry to the Aran Islands, per Sarah Quain's wise suggestion. Basically, it's one of hundreds of islands that pepper the Atlantic coast of Ireland. This particular island is one of 3 accessible by commercial boat. The ride to the island was sunny and rolling. Veronica and I both eyed the most perfect little golden lab (I think?) and shocking to none, I eventually asked the owners if we could pet their dog. Melted ❤️ we chatted a bit coming off the boats and said cheers while we made our separate ways.
We rented a bike to tour the island and made our way to see some seals that supposedly hung out on the rocks towards the middle of the island. Unfortunately, we didn't see any, but we did find a beautiful beach that wasn't yet filled with other tourists, so we rested from our hilly ride and ate some more biscuits. Eventually, a class field trip caught up with us, so we ditched the beach for higher ground.
From the beach, we made our way towards a castle on a cliffs ledge. Apparently you were supposed to pay to walk yourself the kilometer to the edge... We pretended to be absentminded tourists, which was successful. Didn't feel bad about it. The cliff edge wasn't quite as tall as the Cliffs of Moher, but I'm not sure that made it any less breath taking. We ate some snacks, peering over the ledge of a cliff that would make any parent nervous. How incredible.
On the way back down, we ran into our dog friends, another gay couple (what up!) who happened to be going to the same "wormhole" that we were looking for. They both had been to the island a few times before, so they offered to show us how to get to the spot. It turns out, we all had similar interests and worked in similar fields. Robert was in school for his masters in nursing and his partner was in social work. We finally made it to the wormhole! It's a DEEP pit, theoretically made by the unending battering of the Atlantic. The hole is in the shape of a perfect rectangle, corners cut to 90 degree angles. Apparently, every year, Red Bull hosts the national diving championships there every year, about 3 weeks after we were there. The boards are an addition 2 stories from where we stood, which is plenty damn high. After the wormhole, we started back towards the start. Robert and his partner (whose name I embarrassingly cannot remember) invited us into the cottage where they were staying, for a cup of tea. I love Ireland! The cottage was BEAUTIFUL and perfectly located. We got to share stories, laughs, and puppy belly rubs. It was incredible.
Once we decided to head back to the ferry, it started to rain quickly. Our hosts invited us back in, but veronica and I had been bitten by the adventure bug and we wanted to see what would happen. So we said thanks and sent our love, cycling through a mini downpour. It only lasted a few minutes, but it made both of us laugh to the end. We caught our ferry back and started towards Ennis for the night since all of the hostels were outrageous and we just needed a place to sleep for the night. (Limerick is not cool enough for expensive hostels!!!!!)
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