Dope Irish Places - the Aran Islands

The Aran Islands are a group of 3 small islands located at the mouth of the Galway Bay. The largest island is called Inis Mor - this is the one we visited. Irish is the main spoken language on all three islands. All schools are taught primarily in Irish and students only learn English as a secondary language as we would with Spanish, French or Italian, for example.

The largest island, Inis Mor has about 800 inhabitants. That's it. Only 800 for the whole island. Although it's so small, it still seemed big for us little people riding around on our bicycles. 

The entire day was an adventure for us. We woke up early to catch the bus that would take us to the Galway Bay, where we would catch a ferry. We were definitely expecting having a whole slew of people on the bus with us, but turns out because it was a Sunday, we got to have the whole bus to ourselves. Our tour guide who drove us to the bay grew up on the biggest island, Inis Mor, and gave us the basic overview of the islands before we got there. 

of course we had to do titanic poses on the ferry... duh.

Everything in the Republic of Ireland is written both in Irish and English, and most signs have the priority of English first. On our way to the bay by car, there was a certain point (around the area of Connemara) where all the signs were just in Irish. Kind of a mind fuck, not going to lie. I'm so used to seeing and understanding all of the signs at least so some extent. This was the first time that I truly felt like I was in a different country. I mean, I know that I'm in Ireland but for the most part, a lot of it is similar to the states - aside from the accents.

bicycle riding, hellz yeah.

When we got to the islands, there was really no other way to get around than bikes. Because I've grown up in Long Beach and rode bikes all the time, I was SO excited!! These islands were exactly what I pictured Ireland to be - roaring green pastures, next to the ocean with an occasional rain shower and cows grazing on the grass. It was absolutely amazing.

just one example of how beautiful it was there - pictures can't really describe it fully!

We found an area near the ocean front, so naturally we had to take ninja pictures. We took a couple superhero pictures as well, but the ninja had to be represented here mainly because well... I am a ninja. Duh. 

I try to be artsy sometimes. But don't these stones look so cool?! like.. a screensaver or something. 

Well, I guess that's all for now.. I might write down some more random thoughts or something in the next couple of days. Turns out I actually like blogging... what?!