Laura in Galway!

If you're not sick of me after all those videos... Laura came to visit me last weekend!! She got here Friday evening, so we had a quiet night in with some pasta and some Robin Hood =) Saturday we planned to go to the Aran Islands, so we got up early and walked downtown to pick up the bus, which took us into Connemara to pick up the ferry. There are three Aran Islands: Inis Mor, Inis Meain, and Inis Oirr. Inis Mor (which means "Big Island") is, of course, the biggest, as well as the most touristy, as far as they go, and that's the one we went to. It has several forts and other historical buildings, as well as just tons of gorgeous scenery and a seal colony! It takes something like 40 minutes to get there by ferry, and it was a bit rough, so, sadly, I got sick on the way there (I was certainly not the ony one), but we got there soon enough and the rest of the day went well! We rented bikes (very shiny silver things they were too... basically shouted "tourist" to anyone within 10 yards of us) and set out along the left side of the island toward Arkin Castle, which was not all that impressive once we got there, but it was a nice short ride with very nice scenery. We also made a dog friend, who kept offering me a piece of plastic he had found on the beach, and who ran along back with us for almost a mile until we met another biking group coming towards us, and he ran off with them instead. We got some lunch at a hotel near the pier before setting off again in the opposite direction, stopping in at Spar for a drink and a snack for later, and a fellow biking tourist (an Irish one) suggested we take a certain road, which turned out to be an excellent suggestion! It took us right down the island along the coast, through lovely fields and past beaches, and we found the seal colony! Mike was there with a friend of his too (they had gone Friday and stayed over), and we ran into them a few times, which was fun!

A few miles of biking took us to the base of a hill, where we abandoned the bikes to walk up to Dun Aonghasa (Dun Angus, Angus's Fort) - the best Euro I've ever spent! Although the walk up nearly killed me after all that biking (I'm no Olympian, as you know), we finally reached the top, where a great breeze was blowing. It's a ring fort built right on the cliff, so when you go in through the walls to the inner circle you find yourself in an open space where you can walk right up to the cliff and sit yourself down to look over the edge (see the pictures). I could have stayed there all day... it was oddly soothing to lie on the edge of that cliff, with the waves crashing far below, and that wonderful breeze blowing. But, no rest for the bikers: we had to head back to make sure we made it to the ferry on time. As it turns out, there were many slight inclines on the way that we hadn't noticed, but they turned into excellent downhill slopes on the ride back! Consequently it took us much less time to get back, leaving us some time to pick up some postcards at the visitors' center and to walk on the beach. I did not got sick on the ferry back, you'll be glad to hear, and our bus back to Galway was a double-decker, and we sat on the top level! Hoorah! We got home, made tacos, and crashed with some more Robin Hood after a full and exhausting day.

Sunday we slept in (yay!) before heading out for brunch at Mister Waffle, followed by a stroll down the Salthill Promenade along the beach to go to the aquarium. We were obviously the oldest ones there not accompanied by small children, but we had a grand time with the fishes and marine life! We got there just in time for a tour of the touch-pools, and (after a terrified looking boy had given it back) Laura held a big spider crab! Our favorite place was the tank with the rays and the dogfish. They kept popping their heads out at us! We petted them, and the dogfish was sandpapery (because, Laura knew, they're members of the shark family). The wings of the rays were very smooth. I was slightly mesmerized by the big slowmoving conger eels, although they freak Laura out. They're apparently pretty common in the waters around Galway, and it would DEFINITELY freak me out to see one while swimming! We went out to hear some music that night, wrapping up a lovely weekend, and she left Monday morning to spend a couple hours in Dublin (she was there all last semester) before heading up to Belfast. Yay visiting! API is going to Dublin this weekend, so more fun to come!