We hopped on and he took us to our hostel first. What a sweet place. Up the road from the village overlooking the ocean and rolling green hills with stone fences. The owner reminded me of the actor who played Belize in Angels in America. I enter the receptions and am greeted by a “Yes, Ms Arenas.” Wow, that obvious? I knew instantly I liked this place. We got our room and got back on the buggy for a trip around the island. We traveled up the street surrounded by stone fences (I love those!) and cottages. Reminded us of the village in Romania. Heavy rain came and we stopped for a bit until it slowed down. The man told us about the stone fences. They were once when families lived here to separate their property but since then people have emigrated and they are left behind. The primary economy is tourism and was once fishing. There is hardly ever snow anymore. He said it has changed because of global warming. When he was young there was more snow.
We arrived at Dun Aonghasa. He dropped us off and said he would wait for us. It usually takes and hour or two. What was this place? He mentioned the cliffs before so maybe it was a walk up to them. We stopped at the café and another really heavy downpour came just in time. The café was crowded. Someone offered to share their table with our clan. This man was 4th generation Inis Mor-ian. We had some wonderful fresh baked brown bread. I could taste a lot of corn meal. It was yummy. We had a bag of food for lunch and we ate. We even finished this vegan tart from London that we have been trucking around. One of the things that almost went in the trash at the airport! It was divine. The café itself was warm and welcoming.
The rain stopped and the sun came out. We headed up the hill. Everyone kept warning us about the children. Wow, what are we getting into here? We hiked up a rocky hill and reached one part of the monument. The views were breathtaking. In one direction we saw the green rolling hills and cottages and the other was the ocean with cliffs. This was the place I have always wanted to see. We went inside the monument and it was so windy. We could barely hold ourselves up. The children loved it. They could fly. We went to the edge carefully. Oh my gosh! Byron layed on his belly and looked down at the ocean over the cliff. Wow. I can’t even explain what it was like. It was almost the inverse of the fjord in Norway. In Norway we looked up at these magnificent vast cliffs. Here, we were looking down. If we stood up, got distracted and one blow of the wind, we go into the water, far far down. I was in awe of it all. Wow. I have never seen anything like this ever. After taking it all in we went up to the next part. Even better and even windier. So what was this place? Dun Aonghasa is a semicircular Celtic fort. It was built by ancient Celtic tribespeople around 2000 b.c.
We walked back and found the man with the horse and buggy. We got on and he took us along the coastal side of the island. We stopped where the seals make an appearance at low tide. Unfortunately the tide was high but will be low tonight or early tomorrow. The children are excited about the seals because of the movie Roan Inish. We returned to our hostel and walked a bit. Kids picked blackberries. I am here writing this and the children are outside playing cars. The views from our window are lovely. What a great place.
The children went to bed well. Byron bought the dinner at the hostel. I went in and checked on him. The dinner was prepared by the owner. It was in a small dining room with a fire going in the fireplace and classical music playing. Nice. I decided to order dinner as well as most of it was vegan. Byron was already eating with a woman from the bay Area originally but now living in the UK. Fun conversation. The dessert was amazing. A wine glass with a syrup and cooked pear. Yum!
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