On Day Four of the Ireland adventure, we went to Inis Oirr (inish ear), one of the Aran Islands off the coast of Ireland. We had to take a ferry out to the island (about an hour-long journey), and we were captained by Captain Robert, who will be discussed more later. Inis Oirr is a small island, about three kilometers by three kilometers, so it was easy for us to walk around. It is an incredibly interesting and beautiful island, giving a strong Lord of the Rings or The Last Jedi vibe. The island had many houses and several small businesses near the dock, but it appeared to be sparsely populated; we saw about four men and one woman that were not tourists during our entire time on the island. Another interesting bit of information is that, unlike the rest of Ireland, Gaelic is still the primary language of the people of Inis Oirr. While walking around the island, we saw two ruined towers and an old (no longer used) church that was over a thousand years old. We walked from one end of the island to the other, and there we hung around by the ocean for a while. The ocean is a truly magnificent and humbling thing. It is incredibly vast and powerful, and it was awesome to look out across it and see the Cliffs of Moher to the left and blue as far as the eye could see to the right. From the ocean we walked to a wrecked ship and then back to the dock. We had a little bit of time before it was time for the ferry to leave, but it was not enough time to go to any of the other sites, so we sat down near the dock and talked. A short while later, we saw Captain Robert approaching us. He said that he was waiting for the time to board the ferry as well (he said that he is too old to get on the boat without the gangplank). We (meaning mostly me) talked to Captain Robert for about an hour. He looks like the most stereotypical sea captain you could imagine: short, a little round, missing teeth, and a big grizzly beard with just the chin shaved. He told us that the first time he had sailed was around 61 years ago. He had served in the UK's version of the Merchant Marines, and then had worked on ferries for the past 30 years with a brief break for international sailing again in the mid-90's. He also knew a lot about poetry, reciting a lot of it for us, singing us a song, and talking about some of the stuff that he had written. Eventually, we made our way back to Galway. We decided to go get food and began looking for a good, reasonably priced restaurant. However, an online menu that was different from the real menu led us to a very expensive, fancy restaurant. We ended up getting appetizers and calling it good. The food was awesome, but not really filling. We then decided to buy some beer at a store to save a little money. I purchased a Beamish (good, but not as good as Guinness) and then we all split a small bottle of Jameson (also very good). We took this stuff back to our room and hung around and talked and drank for a few hours and went to sleep, ending probably my favorite day of the trip.
On the last full day in Ireland, we attended Mass at Galway Cathedral in the morning. It was a lightly attended Mass, mostly of elderly Irish men and women. Breakfast followed Mass, and then a journey back to Dublin via a bus. After arriving and getting settled into our Airbnb, we headed back into the city to see some of the bones of St. Valentine. While winding through a bunch of narrow streets to find the Whitefriar Street Church, we happened upon a large music store. Upon entering the store, my eyes were met by one of the most beautiful sights I had ever seen; it was the biggest music store I had ever seen, filled with hundreds of instruments (many of which I had never seen in a store before), and all were available for me to play. I played a Gibson Explorer electric guitar, an upright bass (which sounded excellent but was slightly out of my price range at 6500 euros), a violin bass guitar, a mandolin, and a harp. The upright bass and harp were a lot of fun to try and figure out, and I could have spent a lot of time playing them if there were not other places to go. Nick and I each ended up buying cheap tin whistles (a traditional Irish instrument that is similar to a recorder--listen to "Devil's Dance Floor" by Flogging Molly or the beginning of "Concerning Hobbits" to hear it) for five euros. After some more walking, we found the church we were looking for. It is a perfect example of a common occurrence in many European cities: on the outside it was very unassuming and easy to miss, but on the inside it was magnificent. I do not have pictures of the inside of the church, but it was much bigger than it looked from the outside, and the art and ornamentation of the church was incredible. Besides the beauty of the church, there were also the bones of St. Valentine that we came there to see. However, it was not just St. Valentine that was represented there. Pope St. Pius X, St. Albert of Sicily, and St. Jude all had relics at this church as well. Judging from its location and how it looked on the outside, I would never have thought to go in it. Food was next on the list, followed by a fairly early return to our room and beds; we had to be up at three for our flight to Rome.
At three in the morning we arose and silently prepared to depart. When we met our taxi driver who was to bring us to the airport, we found out from him that we had been staying in one of the roughest parts of Dublin (we never would have guessed from the look of the town or the kind family we were staying with), and that we "could have gotten any drugs or hitmen that we wanted." We were all alive and undrugged, so we did not care, but we were curious if he was telling the truth. Checking in, security, and getting to our gate at the airport all went smoothly. However, we were delayed forty-five minutes by a late flight with passengers that needed to be on the plane to Rome. Normally this would not have been a big deal, however, we were supposed to meet all the other Rome students at the airport and bus over to the campus; the forty-five minute delay was going to make that incredibly difficult to be on time for. We were all a little nervous, but things went smoothly and we found Dr. Lombardo (the head of the UMary Rome Program in Rome) waiting for us at the airport. We then found out that the group flight that had most of the students had been delayed through some ridiculous weather and other events at JFK airport in New York. This led to the three of us having lunch with Dr. Lombardo while we waited for the rest of the group. It was a very enjoyable meal, and it was good to get to know Dr. Lombardo a little bit. With the arrival of the rest of the group about an hour later, we departed for campus. Once there, we moved into rooms, filled out paperwork, received a tour of the campus, and went out to eat at a pizza place. After a Divine Mercy Chaplet, we went to bed.
While the trip to Ireland was a blast, and I would highly recommend a visit to that beautiful country, it was good to see friends, and it was reassuring to be on the campus and know that the real adventure could finally begin.
No comments:
Post a Comment