back from the coast

Ah, such a weekend, so much fun in the west of ireland!!! i mean i love dublin but really you can't beat going out to the west and staying in a town where the cows and sheep outnumber the people...i'm not even joking.
So friday we got up nice and early and walked over to Newman house where we were catching the bus at 9 and around 1 we stopped in a town called Ballyvaughan and stayed there around an hour for lunch, we ate in a pub, i can't remember the name but it was tasty! and the town was so little and cute hehe! then we headed to the Aillwee caves for a guided tour at 3. it was realllly cool but a little scary b/c the pathways were really dark and the space to move in wasn't so big, but we saw where prehistoric bears used to live! and there were waterfalls in there and just so much pretty! then at one point the tourguide had all the lights off (they had a few lamps in there) to show us that our eyes could never adjust b/c no light can get in at all, then she joked around and said 'so everybody has their flashlights, right? ok great let's get going' and i kind of laughed but some of the girls were like 'OH MY GOD I DON'T HAVE MY FLASHLIGHT!!!!!' and then i laughed harder b/c they were dead serious. baaahaha. after the tour a bunch of us decided to trek up the huge mountain that was on top of the caves...again, so beautiful, i took many pictures do'nt you worry! kat and i wanted to get all the way to the top, but everytime we thought we got tot he top, there was like another little mountain to climb so we only got about 3/4 of the way up then had to turn back to catch the bus, but it was awesome and i was imagining people having to climb up there hundreds of years ago and i was wondering if mountain ponies could really climb up there b/c it was quite treacherous.
then we drove to Doolin and checked into our hostel, which was so nice..4 girls to a room and our own bathroom and shower in there..and there are so many girls in the IES program (only 7 boys) that we took up their one entire building! crazyyyy! so in my room was me, jess, susan, and kat - room o' fun! then we walked through Doolin (one road. no kidding) on our way to McDermotts with all the IES people for dinner. and on the way there i saw the CUTEST (!!!) little donkey and i was going to pet it b/c it was right near the road, so i put my hand out so he could smell it, and kat like, karate chopped my hand away from the donkey and scared the crap out of him and me, and i asked her why on earth she did that and she said, 'meghan...donkeys smell their own poo and you had your hand near his mouth.' there you have it.
dinner was awesome, mostly b/c we didn't have to pay for it, and we ended up hanging out there for about 4 hours b/c they had traditional irish music which was cool and we had a good time hanging out and such.
next morning it was off to the Cliffs of Moher...and really i can't even explain how incredible that was for me. look up some pics of the Cliffs online and you'll know what i mean..just absolutely gorgeous, but scary at the same time! kat and i hiked all the way out almost til the end and she kept getting close tot he edge to try and take pictures and i was freaking out b/c it's really windy and people have gotten blown off the clifs before! i knooooow, crazy! and there was one part of the path that was literally...2 feet from the drop. but i got awesome pictures and it all just took my breath away! but i'll tell you what it says on our itinerary about the cliffs: "sections of the cliff often give way so please be extraordinarily careful and do NOT stand beside the cliff edge. Fatalities have occurred here." wheeeee!
back to doolin for lunch and jess, susan, kat and i went to Mario's (italian restuarant) and it was so very delicious!!!! yum. then back to the bus to go to our walk/hike of the Burren.
so...ok the burren is, again, gorgeous...it looks like a bunch of slabs of rock going up this hill, and there are old stone fences everywhere and i really enjoyed walkinga round, but i didn't enjoy our tourguide..so much. megan (ies leader woman) told us that he has a history of not being nice to the girls on the tour, and i found it painfully obvious that it's true. he made so many snide comments about women and the only people he asked questions too were women (granted there were only 7 guys but still.) then at one point he came over to me and was like 'so your claddagh ring is pointed out, huh?' and he said it in a really mean way like 'wow you're a loser' and i just kind of said 'yeah...thanks for pointing it out to everybody!' and he said some mean things to some other girls as well. so he wasn't cool but walking around up there was. yay burren! and that was right by the ocean so i gave a little wave across the Atlantic to you all :)
back to Doolin and once again the 4 of us had dinner at a pub, this time it was McGann's..best hamburger i've ever had, hands down. i only ordered it b/c another girl from the program was in there and said it was awesome, they don't serve it with a bun or anything, just the burger with sauce and onions on it..wow good stuff. so we ate there then went over to O'Connors b/c everyone else was there drinking..so i have officially been to every pub in Doolin!!! hahah! yay! hung out there for a while, had fun, met some other american students who were studying at trinity, small world! so that was fun, back to hostel, fell asleep, 2 awful awful nights sleep in a row, then this morning we packed it up and went to Galway! but only for about 3 hours, which was plenty of time for me to see some awesome Galway sights! another really nice town, but some fun stuff theeeere! a really nice wool sweater for my dad, really nice scarf for meee..then the longest bus ride EVER back to dublin, but i'm back and i'm ready to sleep even though it's only 9pm. damn. but i have to make some phonecalls (maybe one of them is to YOU?!)
night night all
oh p.s.: lisa you got it right! and of course i will pay you in men, what other payment is there really? whee!

"(So,when kiss Spring comes
we'll kiss each kiss other on kiss the kiss
lips because tic clocks toc don't make
a toctic difference
to kisskiss you and to
kiss me)" - there are so many tictoc...