2024, animals, Nature, Stories, Travel, Uncategorized

April 30, 2024: Inis Orr

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Today’s post comes to us from our Krista!

We decided to take the Doolin Ferry to Inis Oirr (Inisheer). We were all pretty excited about this trip. It was a cold, windy, damp day on the western shore of Ireland, near the Cliffs of Moher. We boarded the ferry in Doolin, a place that I will always remember fondly.  

We had paid for a round-trip excursion to Inis Oirr (Gaelic) or Inisheer (English). The ferry took us straight to Inisheer. On the way back, we would be treated to a longer ride along the base of the Cliffs of Moher.  

When we arrived at Inisheer, we were greeted by carriage drivers who were determined to get us to accept a ride in their carriage. Martin greeted us. Martin was an old, tough-looking seaman. He spoke both Gaelic and English and was cheerful about explaining things as well as he could in English. His horse’s name was Jack. Martin was liberal with the crop, and Jack seemed to be used to it and it didn’t seem to have much of an effect on him. He plodded along like he had done this at least twice daily for years. Martin and Jack took us to the edge of the island, where there was a shipwreck. I think we were supposed to be impressed with this. It just looked like an old, rusted wreck, with no interpretation to explain what had happened or how old it was. The ancient stone walls were far more interesting to all of us.  

Martin seemed to want to get as many of these trips as he could. He returned us to the village at the harbor. It was raining and I was really soaked already. My rainwear just didn’t cut it. We asked Martin about the stone walls or fences. He said they repair them as needed, but they really didn’t need much repair. I think those walls are extremely old, perhaps more than 1500 years old. Some may be from the Stone Age. They were everywhere.  

We went into the Ostan Inis Oirr (Hotel Inisheer) for a hot drink. I talked to a man who worked on the ferry. I asked him about the Gaelic language. He said a lot of Gaelic actually comes from the French, which does make sense. He said many of the names for vegetables are actually French. It was an interesting conversation.  

We went shopping for more gifts. I really only wanted to be warm and dry. I was drenched and cold. I bought a sweatshirt from the Hotel Inisheer and put it on. I looked for a raincoat, but I didn’t find anything. There were more Aran sweaters here, of course, but I didn’t need one. 

It was raining steadily, so we went back to the ferry. The next leg of our journey would include include a trip past the base of the Cliffs of Moher. It was stunning but hard to see due to fog, mist, and rain. There were puffins floating around in the sea and flying around past the boat.  

Martin and Jack 

Puffins (blurry photo) 

Seastack (very blurry photo)

It was a cold, wet ride. It was interesting but our views weren’t great and we were wet and cold. I tried to go out on the lower front deck to take some photos but it was very hard to stand up and keep my balance.  

I noticed a door that went directly out to the sea as I was out on the deck. It was closed with a simple sliding latch. I was surprised when I looked at it. I stayed toward the wall of the ferry as I went back inside. I said to another woman, “I hope that latch holds!”  

Describe your experiences with someone who spoke a different language from yours. How did you communicate with them?  

29 thoughts on “April 30, 2024: Inis Orr”

        3. …or perhaps there is. If you translate the entire phrase, Google Translate comes up with “submarine” but if you input “hovercraft” and translate it to Irish, you get a translation (but it’s not one of the words above).

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  2. Oh, thanks for writing about this, Krista – I almost feel cold and wet, though, reading about it! : ) How many of you were on the Ferry?

    On our France trip when we were in the little village, several people we would be talking with spoke very little English, so I would pull out my pocket LaRousse (dictionary) and try to dredge up my college French, try to put together a sentence… Luckily there was always someone nearby who DID speak English and could translate… I truly loved to hear them speaking in French, though – would like to just sit back and listen.

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    1. I’m really not sure how many were on the ferry. We had four women in our party. The ferry seemed over half full. Someone in Doolin commented that it was brand new and had cost over a million (dollars).

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  3. It’s rare, it seems, to find persons in Europe who don’t speak at least a little English. I don’t recall any particular struggles but I do remember riding in a compartment on a train in Italy with a family that included two small rambunctious children. We mostly smiled at each other and admired their children. In one B & B in western Scotland we sat in the living room having tea while members of the family sat in the kitchen listening to a Gaelic radio broadcast and speaking among themselves in Gaelic. Signage in western Scotland and also Wales was often bilingual. Sometimes in Scotland people would be speaking English, but with a burr so thick it might as well have been another language. That took some ear training.

    When we were in Edinburgh, Robin helped some Japanese visitors with directions even though we were tourists there ourselves.

    Montreal and Quebec were similar to Europe in that the locals often spoke French among themselves but were willing and able to communicate with us in English.

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    1. That wasn’t my experience in Montreal and Quebec. I was traveling with two male friends – we were just all friends. We were high school classmates and had just graduated. We decided to do this long trip together – up through the UP of Michigan, across eastern Canada, Montreal and Quebec, down through the eastern seaboard states. By the time we got to Montreal, we were tired, grubby, and in need of a bed and a shower. I found myself asking for a room for myself and my two friends in my terrible French. No one offered to help me by speaking English. I got some arched eyebrows, silence, and a room key.

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    3. In Sicily we took a trip up Mount Etna. Our guide had a heavy accent but you could understand him. At one point I was having a little trouble with getting enough air at that altitude so I stayed back for about 10 minutes to catch my breath and the guide (Antonio) stood with me. (It was a gorgeous view.) I realized pretty fast that Antonio did not actually speak English; even the simplest questions stumped him. Fascinating that he could do his tour guide schtick in English without really speaking English. He is actually one of the reasons that I decided to teach myself some Italian; if I ever run into that situation again, I want to be able to converse at least a little bit!

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  5. My German relatives who live south of Bremen all speak English. Our son is pretty proficient in German and it was handy to have him with us on our trip.

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  6. Better Late Than Never, Baboons, from JacAnon,

    Yesterday I came home from Iowa with a nasty cold. I have been sleeping most of the day.

    Twenty years ago in Italy we had our pockets picked on a bus. Suddenly, no one in Italy spoke English. We tried reporting this to the Italian police in Rome, where English was common. But as soon as I said “pick-pocket” no one spoke English. The pick-pockets did not get much and left our credit cards. They only wanted the cash. We had most of our cash in the hotel safe, so it did not become a crisis.

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  8. I’m a seasoned communicator in foreign languages I don’t speak. Smiles and gestures go a long way toward eliciting friendly responses and helpful attitudes.

    Even in China where I knew not one word of any the languages spoken in the various regions we visited, I was able to communicate with street vendors sufficiently to complete several transactions for food and folk art. I was able to decline a haircut in a local park in Beijing, and enjoy a dance lesson in another.

    Almost anywhere I’ve traveled I have run into local people eager to practice their English language skills. I’ve heard many Americans say that hasn’t been their experience in France, but that hasn’t been my experience. I learned early on, during my year in Switzerland, that misunderstandings and mistakes can be the source of much hilarity; you just need to learn to laugh at yourself.

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