If I were a Vegan, I would not live in Ireland.

Ok, so I'm going to tell you about our first real day in the Aran Islands. This was on the 20th of August. The Aran Islands are located off the western coast of Ireland in County Galway. They are very very secluded and very very different from the US but very very cool. The day after we got there we had basically the whole day to do whatever in the world we wanted to do, which was heaven. Well at least for me. Marina was sick (and had a little bit of culture shock) so she chose to sleep the entire day, but I, of course, got right out there. Our B&B was owned by this family that we found slightly nerve wracking because we felt like we were always intruding and were always in the way. They did make breakfast for us in the morning though and were very helpful, if a little high strung. A full Irish breakfast, by the way consist of eggs, sausage, bacon, black and white pudding (basically...sausage that looks wierd and tastes a little funny), and usually tea or coffee. All of which being a bit different than the usual US variety. And since we don't drink tea or coffee, I think the lady of the B&B thought we were like, crazy. Anyway, so after breakfast, I walked the 20 min scenic route to the village and rented a bike. The whole rest of the day I just biked all over the western side of the island and oh my gosh it was amazing. I don't think I've ever been anywhere that was more consistently beautiful. Though part of it, I'm sure, was that it was just a kind of beauty that I'm really not used to. It was like the misty, foggy, romantic, misterious type of beautiful. Think the moors of Wuthering Heights. Or for you non booky types, think maybe "Waking Ned Devine" or even better, "Secret of Roan Inish." So anyway, I bike along, and of course go down all the random paths that most the tourists could care less about and of course find all the cool stuff that they never find. Like, how much cooler is it to bike up this random famer path where only the towns people really go and meet up with a famer leading his cattle into a different plot of land and just chatting with him for a while. Oh, and by theh way, when I talk about plots of land, this is how it is. The entire Island is like low rolling hills with huge amounts of GREEN GREEN grass. Also, it's all separated into little tiny plots of land that are bounded simply by rock walls. I dunno, hard to explain it so it sounds as amazing and cool as it is. Anyway, so other than all the random paths I went down, along the "main" road I first found this gooorgeous dock where I took a bazillion pictures of this cute little boat that was floating in the very romantic fog. Next up I stumbled upon this old cemetary that looked to be just about to topple of the edge of this cliff and down into the sea. I wandered around and took a bunch of pictures in there too (I actually love cemetaries) and found that within it was like the oldest church still standing or something. I don't know exactly because the info was really vague, but it was built in like the 4th century or something and was really small and just in the middle of this little cemetary on a cliff. Then I came to the end of the path (the sea) and decided to turn left and go down this path which led to a little beach. Now, once you get to the beach, the path ends, but there are still a bunch of rolling hills to the left and beyond that, on a diff but really close little island I knew there was a light house. So I ditched the bike for a little while and hiked through underbrush that was just about as high as I was til I reached another beach opposite the first. This one had no one at all on it however and was humongous. See, unlike a normal beach where you have a little sand and then a lot of water. This beach had this huge expanse of sand enclosed by the grassy hills and just at the end toward the part that opened up into the sea there began to be actual water. Well, for some reason I thought there was a path at the complet opposite side of the beach wherer I could walk easier to the tip of the island and look across at the lighthouse (i was VERY set on seeing this lighthouse). So I proceeded to treck across the sand. Now, the sand was very wet and very deep and would swallow my foot with each step. It was an interesting experience because about halfway across the space, there came a time when if I looked behind me, there was a huge way to walk before there was real land and if I looked in front of me it was just as long. Basically I was stranded. At about this time, the sky grew dark and ominous and it began to rain. And I've got to say I really just stopped right there for a second and laughed to myself and thougth "WHAT in the WORLD am I doing RIGHT HERE on a random island in off the secluded western coast of IRELAND???" It was a fabulous moment. And you'll have to remain in suspense until my next entry because poor Marina just arrived from Paris! To be continued.