With Monday being a bank holiday, it made the week fly by! Tuesday was Greg's birthday but he woke up really sick we spent the night at home. Wednesday he was all better so we went out to celebrate. The night began with sushi and sake. Then we moved onto Goat in Boots and tried to buy him the most disgusting drinks on the menu. Thursday was play night. I went to a pub for dinner after work where Jill and Mel met me before the show. Then we wandered across the street to see Dealer's Choice. Another amazing play. After the show we went back to the flat to pack because we were going Ireland in the morning.

In the morning we got up and early to catch our train. We took that to somewhere in Wales where we got out and switched to our ferry/cruise. We wandered the boat before deciding on some a table in the lounge. We were conveniently located right near the Blackjack table. As soon as that happened the boys darted to the table. I eventually made my way over and tried out gambling, however I am not very good. Jordan seems to always make money though so I am going to make him teach me. Our cruise docked in the early evening.

We took a bus into Dublin and went to check into our hostel/haunted house. We booked our Dublin room kind of last minute, so the only thing we could find was a 4 person room. We had 6 of us so we sent two of the boys to wander why we checked in. We checked in and went and met the guys for dinner. After dinner we went back to the hostel to get ready for the night. Luckily the security was very lax and sneaking people in was no big deal. We got ready and went out to Temple Bar. It was really cool and played lots of good music. We stayed there all night. Back at the hostel we blew up the air mattress we borught and Jill and I got to sleep on that lovely bed.

The next morning we had prev. rented a car to drive to the West Coast. The guys went to pick up our people carrier and the girls went to the store to pick up stuff for lunches. We went to a train station to wait for the boys. Getting a car ended up turning into a big ordeal. Something with insurance came up and instead of getting a minivan they picked us up an hour and a half later in a small car. We managed to squeeze all 6 of us and our luggage in this thing and began our trip to Doolin.

We crossed the country why jamming out to some strategically chosen CDs: 2Pac, Pearl Jam, the Chilli Peppers, Will Smith and the Red Hot Chilli Pipers (pure bagpipes).We all got to know each way to well in a 5 hour car ride. There were some random stops along the way. We stopped at a pub, a pier and a castle. We finally made it to Doolin. It is a small town which consists of:-

Lots of B&Bs

-Cows

-3 pubs

-a Craft store

-farms

All the things to do there are outdoorsy and it was too late for that so we started our Doolin pub crawl.T he first one we had dinner at, where we all got the most amazing seafood chowder ever!We borrowed a deck of cards and played kinds for awhile. The live music came so we stayed for the first few songs before moving to the next pub.

The next place we went to they were celebrating a kid's 21st. The pub was open to everyone so we tried to get a table and keep to ourselves and not intrude on their party. The party got rowdier and these girls started dancing on our table nad we decided we should join in the fun. We danced with everyone and eventually worked our way onto the table. As Jill was climbing up she managed to kick a beer onto a girl at the next table. The girl was not very happy and proceeded to throw bottle at Jill, so we got out of there really quick.

We made it to the final bar of the night. They had more live music. We got up and joined in again. We closed it down and went back to the hostel. Jill, Greg and I decided we weren't tired so we went for a walk. About a half of block away from out hostel was some farmland. We decided to lie on the road in between the farms to look at the stars. It was one of the clearest views I have ever seen. The only problem is cars would randomly come, so even though they were really far away you would get scared and run to the side of the road. I managed to run so fast I fell into thorn bushes, twice. We made it back to the hostel and passed out.

The next morning we wanted to go see the Cliffs of Moher. Karl who ran the hostel showed us a way to go where we wouldn't have to pay and where they were no guards to stop us from doing whatever we wanted. The Cliffs look out onto the ocean from about 700 feet up. Apparently a few tourists literally blow off the cliffs every year. We would all creep up to the edge and as we got closer sink closer and closer to the ground. Eventually you would be crawling towards the ledge. When we got close enough we would get up and run back to safety. We hiked 2 miles or so along the cliff before heading back to the car.

After the cliffs we went back into town. We wandered in and out of the craft and music shops. Then we grabbed a final bowl of seafood chowder and hopped in the car to head back to Dublin. For the second half of the trip I was exiled to the back seat, so it was pretty uneventful. When leaving a gas station we turned the wrong way and Jordan had to pull a U-turn. When turning we hit a curb and got a flat. We left the guys to change it while we cheered them on for motivation.They had some difficulties and eventually the scary, old Irish garage worker from across the street came to help. After our minor delay we were back on our way.

We got back to Dublin pretty late and the weather sucked, so we went to a pub a few doors down from our hostel. They had live music in the beginning.Then when that closed the basement turned into a 'club.' We stayed there and danced all night. When we got back to the room someone had the bright idea of going to Burger King. We made our way over there, and every person who was just at the same bar as us had the same idea. Jill made sure to grab us some crowns and we devoured our overpriced BK.

Everyone was pretty exhausted from the night before so we slept in. After we got up and moving we went to the Guinness Factory first.It was seven floors and the top floor was a gravity bar.It was a circular bar of all windows so you could look out over Dublin. By the time we left Guinness we had time to grab a quick lunch before we had to drop off the car and catch our flight. We made it to the airport where I had the scariest RyanAir flight so far. Luckily we lived and made it back to London safe and sound._

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