Week 2/Trip 3

Well I was going to have this post up yesterday. Well I was going to post one on Friday and then one yesterday, but it was a long and week and I was super tired, so I'm just combining the two posts into this one :)

As far as my week went there really isn't much to report on. I'm still trying to figure out if I'm in this Journalism class, there's been a lot of confusion. They have two people with the same name in the directory so I've been contacting the wrong person! So I registered for the class, but I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to take it yet, but I'd rather play it safe than sorry!

As for my other classes they're alright. There's a couple were the teachers are so boring its hard to not start daydreaming.  lol One teachers talks like shes talking to herself and so half the time I can't follow her stream of thought, and she'll ask the class a question and I'll stare at and just think "what does this question have to do with what you were just talking about?"  One of my other teachers just likes to talk. It's supposed to be a discussion based class, but so far I don't see so much discussion as I do summary of the million things we have to read each week.

I did start Archery club this week! That was fun. I managed to hit the target everytime- not directly in the middle of course. And of course we were only about 10 meters away from the target. Every week we'll move back further, so I guess we'll see how I do then! lol Half of the people there were being stupid.
We were supposed to wear arm guards in case we didn't release it right and the bow came back and hit us in the arm:

Granted they didn't look like this but this was about the position they were supposed to look like, and instead people were putting them on the top half of their arm, but were getting hit on the bottom of their arm. So they were getting welts and bruises from continually hitting themselves, and yet they didn't have enough sense to move their arm guard so they wouldn't hurt themselves anymore.

*sigh* people these days.

Anyways on to the fun part! My trip to the Aran Islands. Well we only went to one: Inis Oirr which is the eastern islands. There's two more. the middle island and the big island (that's literally what their called in English).

We basically walked around the whole Island, and it was a lot of walking! I probably walked about 3 hours uphill so it was really tiring, but it was fun since we got to see a lot of cool things. The only downside was that it was really cloudy and misty out.

The first thing we walked by was the Cnoc Raithni. It's a monument that was discovered in 1885 when a storm revealed it. It dates back to the Bronze Age 1500 B.C. and was built as a burial mound. Irish legend holds that the Firbolg (no clue who those are) were the earliest inhabitants of this island, having fled ot the island to escape invaders.

This is one of the most significant sites on Aran as it confirms, at least Inisheer, during the Bronze Age, say around 1500 B.C

Following gales in 1855 a dry-stone wall was noted, encircling a low mound. In the lowest level, toward the southeast, two potter urns were found inverted over cremated human bones, together with a small bronze pin or awl. Thirty yards away some fragments of smaller highly decorated urns were found, also containing burnt bones. The urns were deposited in the National Museum, Dublin.

At a higher level in the north-west quadrant, enclosed by a dry-built wall, upwards of twenty-four stone lined graves were discovered, each lying east-west and covered by a stone slab. These, perhaps, denote a re-use of a pagan burial place in the Early Christian Period.

The revetment wall was repaired by the Board of Works about 1896.

After the burial ground we continued on the path (well its really a street but I'm calling it a path anyways) to see Teampall Chaomhan. Which is a graveyard that contains a buried church and a tombstone.

Caomhan the patron saint of the island was a disciple of St. Enda. The church ruins date back to the 10-14th century and is annually cleared of blown sand by the locals. the entrance to the graveyard which is a mass of shells was a kitchen of early Christian or Medieval date.

The patron, St. Caomahan, was brother to the great St. Kevin, and it is not without interest that the ground plan of the church is so similar to that of Trinity Church at Kevin's Glendalough. To a 10th century church (present chancel) was added, a century or so later, a wider nave. the lintelled doorway of the old church was re-inserted in the west gable, being replaced by a chancel arch.  The head of the chancel arch, the pointed doorway in the south wall of the nave, and the sacristy or priest's residence are of late Medieval date. North east of the church, now covered by several fee of blown sand, is the grave or 'leaba' of St. Caomahan.

 This is Caomhan's grave

In the graveyard around the church the oldest date I saw was 1892, and I believe the earliest date I saw was 2001.

After we visted the church we continued on to walk to the plassy wreck, but on our way to the plassy wreck we saw many stone walls:

 The stone walls are how they used to divide up the farmland. What I don't understand is how they managed to create them the way they did! I mean look at the wall the stones aren't even flat, and there really isn't anything else holding them together except stone!

We also passed a small airport:

 This is probably the smallest terminal you've ever seen right?

We also saw boats. Which isn't surprising because it's an island. lol But this boats are important because they're traditional Irish boats, in which the locals (before the time of the ferry) used to have to row across the Atlantic ocean to the mainland in. Now it's a half hour trip from the island to the mainland, and that's on a ferry. Imagine if you were rowing how long that would take! They also used to take animals back and forth on them.

We also passed a lake which was of course gorgeous like everything else is. The lake has shown pollen samples which confirm that the island was covered in forest trees thousands of years ago. Makes me wonder what happened to them? I have a hard time seeing people cutting down an entire forest thats on an Island. what would they do? Throw them in the ocean?

Our next stop was the Plassy Wreck. In 1960 the Plassy was blown up on the Finnish rock in a wild storm. No lives were lost as the islanders saved all on board from harm. Pretty awesome if I say so myself. Wish I could have seen all those people coming together like that.
In 1978 they finally built a lighthouse. If only they had built it much earlier!

 It really was not fun walking on all these rocks in order to get close to the ship

 Inside the boat. No I didn't go in the boat, that probably would have been dangerous, I just stuck my arm and camera in a whole and took a picture

After the wreck we continued walking to O'Brien's Castle. Which was a very long walk uphill which was not fun. lol I was so tired after walking so long.

I'm putting this picture on first, because it looks a lot more impressive from far away. Anyways the castle is a three story tower house built by the O'Brien family who owned the island up to 1585. It is built within Dun Formna which dates back to the stone age. On leaving the castle turn right for the water tanks and the signal tower. (which i did not walk to because it was more uphill walking.) This was built in 184-05 and dominates the island. The old national school is also here built in 1885.

 You can walk into the castle, I'm standing in front of the doorway, but it looks really small from the inside.Then again it is a ruin so it's not like I'm seeing the total affect of what it looked like.

After the castle we got a couple of hours to walk wherever we wanted. So my roommate and I got something to eat and then we went down to the little beach thats there. I must tell you a story about these poor crabs, because it angered me, and you should be angered too!

So this crab is pretty adorable. Of course it had pinched someone... but that's not the point, that's how we discovered it. Anyways this stray dog picked it up out the little pool of water and then dropped it here. I'm assuming it may have gotten pinched on the nose. So after the dog drops it, we all get excited and take pictures. But then this one family started going to far. The father of this family picked it up and started terrorizing his smallest kids with. Eventually the older kids took it and did the same thing, and the parents discovered another one.
Well the older kids started throwing the crab around. Like literally throwing it like you would a ball, and the kids ended up throwing it in the direction of the stray dog who was hungry, and killed it. I'm pretty sure its this crab in the picture who ended up dead, but it may have been the other one they discovered.
But it really made me mad. Just because it's a crab doesn't mean anyone has the right to treat it like. How would you like if someone bigger than you started throwing you around and you ended up dead? I should have said something despite being intimated by the fact that parents were there. :/

But other than the day was pretty fun and I enjoyed myself immensely :)