We wake up to a beautiful sunny day on the island. Our plans are for breakfast and a bike ride around the island. We see the people at breakfast that were at dinner. It’s the Germans’ last days. Their bags are packed. The conversation is very funny as it gets more silly a false history of Inis Mor develops from dragons to carrier pigeons. There was one species of lizard in Ireland which developed into talking about dragons on the island. James asked how did the cars get to the island? well of course, there is a car factory on the other side of the island where cars are made of peat and stone. The drive trains are all made form the long whale bone. The three reasons for the rock walls were given by Dublin man who knew everything true and false. 1. animals 2. mark property 3. clear the fields of stones. All true. James and Dublin man spoke about using carrier pigeons for internet to carry messages in binary to other islands. Since last night I had been trying to figure out who Dublin man resembles. Maybe Kevin Spacey? So the German travelers say to Dublin man, “have people said you look like Robin Williams?” “Yees, yees all tuh time.” “So we can say that we spent time with Robin Williams on the island! “ Canadian woman who also assists Joel with the hostel says, “yes that will be the hostels claim to fame. I ate breakfast with him this morning.” He does look like him. Especially when he smiles.
James and get ready and bike to lighthouse. The ride was amazing. We made it only partially up the hill to the lighthouse. We parked our bikes and hiked the remainder. There was a path bordered with stone walls which reminded me of a labyrinth. On the hill we could see both sides of the island surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea. We head to town and get a picnic lunch at Spar. Bread, hummus and ginger cookies. We proceeded to bike to southern tip of island seeing cows come home. We turn on a path and explore it riding uphill on rocks and grass. I felt like I was in an exterra race. What a feeling to rush up these hills! We stop and realize the path is no longer. We turn around and ride down the bumpy, slippery hills. Past a beach we park our bikes and see what is around the corner. We stop at the tip of the island and have a romantic picnic on the flat rocks seeing the waves crash against the rocks on the other island. We can see the other island, the houses and windmills.
The clouds are coming in so we decide to move along. James really wants to see the other side of the island. The surf is rising and we can’t walk further without getting wet. We turn around. The clouds are dark and we see rain in the distance at the lighthouse. We pass a fisherman who asks where we are from. James and he make jokes about swimming between our countries and we move along. “Ay, tis a very long way.” He gets on his bike and carries his fish on hooks, no fishing rod. James and I find our bikes and ride back in a short burst of rain. The rain made us move faster. We reluctantly return the bikes to the bike hire. We enjoyed having the bikes a lot. We dropped by the Aran sweater shop at my request. It happened to be pouring rain so it was a nice stop. Again like last time I was here, I went over and over in my head trying to justify as a vegan buying the beautiful wool handmade sweaters. We watched the video on how they were made. It was fairly humane. Nothing made in China, no sweatshops. Okay so if there were a pair of lined woolen gloves I was going for it. My hands were always freezing and none of our gloves worked. I saw a sweater I wanted to get someone as a gift but it was 175 euros and with the dollar doing so poorly that would translate into over $200. Again when it came down to it I just couldn’t buy the wool. I loved these sweaters. But there were no lined gloves and the sheep are still exploited. So we move on.
We hiked over to a pub that served a vegan pasta dinner. We arrived at 5:30 and they did not open until 6. It was cold and I wanted pasta so we waited in the restaurant and had drinks. The dinner was amazing-penne with roasted vegetables. After dinner we walked back to the hostel. On the way we called the kids. It is always good to hear their voices. They were happy to be with their friends. We officially checked out at the hostel. Joel offers breakfast tray since leaving early. Sad to leave. James and I reflected on our trip to the island. We grew very attached to it here. We would like to return again with the children.
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