So THIS is Ireland: The Aran Islands

When you think of Ireland--what do you think of? Leprechauns and shamrocks and gold? What about the landscape? I think of rolling green hills, stone-stacked walls, and cloudy skies. Today felt like the Ireland I have imagined in my head over the years.

Our entire day was spent at the Aran Islands' largest island, called Inis Mór. Yes, it is a tourism island, but it doesn't feel touristy like many attractions here in the United States. Well,

at least the way we went about it.

Our morning began in a bit of a frenzy. The plan was to leave at 9:00am to pick up our pre-paid tickets. Then a coach departing at 9:30am to take us to the port of our ferry. Then a ferry departing at 10:30am to take us to the Aran Islands.

It's 8:47am. I am cleaned up and spreading Irish soft cheese onto my Irish bagel and Preston still hadn't gotten out of bed.

"Uh, Preston? Are you going to hop in the shower soon?"

"Yeaup," he responds groggily, and he closes Reddit on his phone. Reddit is his morning ritual to wake up.

I'm patient. I figure that he is a guy and will be done quickly. However, 9:00am passes and I start to get concerned.

"Preston, we should be leaving."

"We'll be fine," he says with his usual laid-back disposition. "It doesn't leave until 10:30am."

Then I realize that Preston is having a Preston moment. He's forgotten parts of the plan. I'm not angry at him, by any means, although I have not had my morning Irish cappuccino.

We end up booking it to the ticket office where there is a huge line. We are the last ones and end up holding the coach 10 minutes past its scheduled departure time. We squeeze onto the double decker bus and manage to find awkward seats on the top level, in the back, between three other people.

Sounds like the beginning of a bad day in traveling as a couple. But this was probably our favorite day.

The ferry was not as I imagined it would be. It wasn't some rickety open barge. It was a big boat that, when in motion, you couldn't even tell it was moving until you looked out the window. No danger of being seasick!

We arrive at the pier. There are bikes that cost only €10 to rent for the entire day. In Newport, that is the hourly rate. We take our 21 speed bikes and head out. At least, I try. It is a little difficult for me to get started on my bike because it is too tall

for a 5'3" person. My tippy toes barely reach the ground, and that is if I lean my bike over to the side. It's rough on the crotch area, but it works.

First priorities include Kaitlin's cappuccino, waters, and a sack lunch for the road.

We bike down part of the coast and then make a turn at a sign with an arrow. The road starts out with so much gravel that we have to walk the majority of it because our rear wheels keep wanting to skid out. Finally, the road smooths out enough to where we can actually ride our bikes.

I was happy to have a mountain bike with gears in steep terrain.

Oh my goodness. We sweat through our 5 layers of clothing pedaling to the highest point in the road and...there it is. Now this is Ireland.

Everything is green. There are stones everywhere: in the ground, in the distance, formed into walls, and made into old houses and sheds. There is livestock: cattle, sheep, horses, mules. The other end of the island juts out so that is looks like we are floating in the sky over the ocean.

We have barely biked two kilometers and we've already stopped more than six times to take pictures.

It is so different than anything I have ever seen in my life. It's like a fairytale! As I'm curving through the winding dirt roads, I feel like I should have a basket of bread and eggs that I'm taking to market.

Then the stoney dirt road ends and we come to a paved road. The whole time we have not seen a single person until now.

In travel, you know how they say that sometimes the best moments are the ones that don't go according to plan? This was one of those moments.

Turns out there was a paved road all along. We had started the trail the wrong way and taken residential roads (hence all the old stone buildings and livestock). Happy mistake because the

route we took was absolutely beautiful. Not that the designated paved road along the coast wasn't beautiful, but our route was like stepping back in time.

Best mistake ever.

From here we were on the tourist route. We came to a rest point before the main attraction, and ate our lunch comprised of a baguette, Charleville white cheddar cheese, and dried mangos. Cheap and easy.

The hike up to Dun Aonghasa was supposed to take 20 minutes. We hiked it in half that time. Old natural stone steps led the way up to these stone formations along the cliff. An astonishing cliff view where plenty of selfies were taken! We

attempted to have some French girls take our picture in front of the cliff. It seems like whenever you ask someone to take your picture that they are oblivious to the fact that you want the main attraction in the background....

It began getting late. We needed to get back in time for our ferry departure at 5:00pm so that we would not have to unintentionally stay the night on the island. More sweating through 5 layers of clothing for a mostly uphill, but paved, bike ride. We made our final stop at Aran Sweater Market to conclude our day on Inis Mór.

It was a very big day for Preston and me. Turns out, we really aren't city people. But we already knew this. Sure Dublin and Galway have been a blast, but we always have our best times out in nature. After all, some of our best travel memories have been camping in Santa Barbara, playing in the snow of rural Utah, or hiking down into the Grand Canyon.

Luckily, we have planned more nature themed activities for the rest of our time in Ireland.

Tonight is our last night in Galway. I'm going to miss this apartment. I wish we could take it with us, but it wont fit in our Mini 2-door MANUAL SHIFT Volkswagon that we rented for tomorrow. But that will be another story all in itself.

Hopefully we can make it out of the parking lot.