Ireland Trip - Day Four
Another fun day. Frankly, they were all awesomely fun days. I'd gladly trade today for any of them. Woke up and didn't have to worry about breakfast - one of the nicest things about staying at a bed & breakfast. We just walked a few yards over to the dining area.


We both had traditional Irish breakfast foods. Max had the "full Irish" breakfast, which always consists of an egg, tomato, toast, bacon (but not real american bacon - this is more like ham), sausage links, white pudding (sausage round), black pudding (white pudding but cooked in pig's blood to give it its color *shudder*).


I had the "vegetarian" dish of eggs, bean, hashbrown and tomato. And then added a side of bacon, rendering it completely "non-vegetarian."
After breakfast we walked down to the pier in Doolin. Our plan was to take a ferry to one of the nearby Aran Islands. Of the three - Inishmore, Inishmaan and Inisheer - Inisheer was the closest and the only one which fit our schedule, so we went there. The whole point is that the islands are one of the few places where things haven't changed - like a Mackinac Island type of thing. The locals speak Gaelic, no one drives, and there are tons of Celtic and Early Christian ruins and historical sites. And horse shit everywhere. (no pics of horse shit - thought that'd be gross...)

Our ferry - "Jack B"

Inisheer


The first thing we did was rent bikes to tour around. The island is small, and the ferry people gave us a map highlighting ten or so places to check out so we figured the best thing to do was to get bikes in order to see everything.

As soon as I got on my bike, I realized that taking a spinning class is quite different than bicycling outdoors. Now of course I know how to ride a bike but it had been awhile. Last time I actually rode on a bike was probably the summer after my freshman year in college. But things were a bit different back then. My first problem was that I was carrying a black purse/bag. Back in the day, I also had a black purse/bag (sadly, I'm a creature of habit) that I would just hang off the right handlebar and pray it wouldn't get caught in the spokes. It was a very cute bag but worst case, I'd just buy another one from Urban Outfitters. However, that day on Inisheer, I happened to be carrying a rather nice leather bag and I had absolutely no intention of ruining it on a bike so after stumbling around quite a bit, I gave up and wore it on my back. Like a backpack.

Yes, I rode around all day on the island with a fucking fin. Probably not what kate spade had in mind.


After I resolved the purse thing, I discovered other problems with biking. Mainly starting and stopping. See, neither are issues in a spinning class. And, when I was younger, I'm pretty sure I just started on the seat, but I guess that's not how you do it. Because what happens is, if you're seated and your feet can touch the ground when you start, your knees will practically hit your chin once you get going. After several minutes of awkward riding, Max adjusted the seat for me so that it was properly fitted but then my feet could barely touch the ground. Ouch - talk about uncomfortable. Turns out, you have to start by sort of standing up on the pedals. Hmm. Next problem - stopping. At first I'd just stop by hitting the brakes, which would make me fall over. Then Max showed me how you're supposed to sort of stand up and drag your toe. Complicated. Anyway, I eventually sort of got the hang of it - usually I'd slow down and then put my feet down and I'd shoot forward off the seat a bit but managed to stay upright. And then there was the horse shit. Turns out that rule of skiing - the more afraid you are of skiing into a tree (1 of 2 on the mountainside), the more likely you'll veer straight toward it - applies to horse shit too. Except there was a lot more than just 1 or 2 piles on the island. Max found me biking so hysterical that he took more pictures of me making an ass of myself, than the landscape.




Anyway, Inisheer was fun to bike around. As usual, we got lost, and at one point had to just walk the bikes for about 20 minutes over all these bumpy rocks along the coast before finally finding a path to bike, but it was really fun overall. The sites were somewhat interesting - some were hard to find, and others were completely not worth the effort. But we had a fun time nonetheless.

Gaelic












This horse somehow reminded me of Pig...


We both had traditional Irish breakfast foods. Max had the "full Irish" breakfast, which always consists of an egg, tomato, toast, bacon (but not real american bacon - this is more like ham), sausage links, white pudding (sausage round), black pudding (white pudding but cooked in pig's blood to give it its color *shudder*).


I had the "vegetarian" dish of eggs, bean, hashbrown and tomato. And then added a side of bacon, rendering it completely "non-vegetarian."
After breakfast we walked down to the pier in Doolin. Our plan was to take a ferry to one of the nearby Aran Islands. Of the three - Inishmore, Inishmaan and Inisheer - Inisheer was the closest and the only one which fit our schedule, so we went there. The whole point is that the islands are one of the few places where things haven't changed - like a Mackinac Island type of thing. The locals speak Gaelic, no one drives, and there are tons of Celtic and Early Christian ruins and historical sites. And horse shit everywhere. (no pics of horse shit - thought that'd be gross...)

Our ferry - "Jack B"

Inisheer


The first thing we did was rent bikes to tour around. The island is small, and the ferry people gave us a map highlighting ten or so places to check out so we figured the best thing to do was to get bikes in order to see everything.

As soon as I got on my bike, I realized that taking a spinning class is quite different than bicycling outdoors. Now of course I know how to ride a bike but it had been awhile. Last time I actually rode on a bike was probably the summer after my freshman year in college. But things were a bit different back then. My first problem was that I was carrying a black purse/bag. Back in the day, I also had a black purse/bag (sadly, I'm a creature of habit) that I would just hang off the right handlebar and pray it wouldn't get caught in the spokes. It was a very cute bag but worst case, I'd just buy another one from Urban Outfitters. However, that day on Inisheer, I happened to be carrying a rather nice leather bag and I had absolutely no intention of ruining it on a bike so after stumbling around quite a bit, I gave up and wore it on my back. Like a backpack.

Yes, I rode around all day on the island with a fucking fin. Probably not what kate spade had in mind.


After I resolved the purse thing, I discovered other problems with biking. Mainly starting and stopping. See, neither are issues in a spinning class. And, when I was younger, I'm pretty sure I just started on the seat, but I guess that's not how you do it. Because what happens is, if you're seated and your feet can touch the ground when you start, your knees will practically hit your chin once you get going. After several minutes of awkward riding, Max adjusted the seat for me so that it was properly fitted but then my feet could barely touch the ground. Ouch - talk about uncomfortable. Turns out, you have to start by sort of standing up on the pedals. Hmm. Next problem - stopping. At first I'd just stop by hitting the brakes, which would make me fall over. Then Max showed me how you're supposed to sort of stand up and drag your toe. Complicated. Anyway, I eventually sort of got the hang of it - usually I'd slow down and then put my feet down and I'd shoot forward off the seat a bit but managed to stay upright. And then there was the horse shit. Turns out that rule of skiing - the more afraid you are of skiing into a tree (1 of 2 on the mountainside), the more likely you'll veer straight toward it - applies to horse shit too. Except there was a lot more than just 1 or 2 piles on the island. Max found me biking so hysterical that he took more pictures of me making an ass of myself, than the landscape.




Anyway, Inisheer was fun to bike around. As usual, we got lost, and at one point had to just walk the bikes for about 20 minutes over all these bumpy rocks along the coast before finally finding a path to bike, but it was really fun overall. The sites were somewhat interesting - some were hard to find, and others were completely not worth the effort. But we had a fun time nonetheless.

Gaelic












This horse somehow reminded me of Pig...
5 Comments:
Woke up and didn't have to worry about breakfast? Perhaps my memory is failing me, but I have a vague recollection of making you an omelette sandwhich this morning with lettuce, tomato, mayo, and grilled ham on toasted rosemary sourdough bread that beat the hell out of any breakfast we were served in Ireland. In fact, I'm kind of having a tough time remembering the last time you woke up and had to worry about breakfast... but then, as I said, my mind is failing me a bit in my later years.
LOL. That was good sandwich.
What are we having this morning? :)
OMG SARIT!!!!
You are giving me SOOOO many memories reading through this. When I was going to uni in cork I also went to the islands for a long weekend. One of my top ten favorite places in the world. Holy cow.
-aj :)
Oh, I SOOO love reading your trip blogs! Doolin looks incredible. And I about fell out of my seat laughing at the fin...you're definitely braver than me getting on the bike. I'm a terrible biker. I peaked at biking at around age 12. Oh well. Looks like you had a great trip!
aj - Ireland was every bit as awesome as you said it'd be! I'm jealous you got to be there for more than 7 days!
lala - "i peaked at biking at around age 12" - hahah. Yeah, it was much harder than I thought it would be. Glad you're enjoying the trip recaps!
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