I set my alarm for 830. At 730 the girls were up and ready to shower and start their days. At 830 I got out of bed, got myself ready, and was down for breakfast at 9. Some of the girls wanted to try to go to this market that is only an under 10 minute walk away so they left and the plan was to meet at the bus station at 1010. After having 3 pieces of toast (with butter!!). I, along with 4 of the other girls, realized that there was no way in hell that we wouldn't be hungry again until we got back from the cliffs (at about 330). Therefore, we decided to walk down the street to Subway. Yes, they have subways EVERYWHERE in Ireland. We ran there got our sandwiches and headed to the bus station.

Our bus to the cliffs took a little under 2 hours. When we got there it was raining a bit and very windy. The forecast that I looked up the night before said mid-low 40s with 30-35mph winds; hence my reluctance to leave Galway. As we started walking up to the tower it started POURING rain. I, having my laptop with me, took my bag off of my back and switched it to my front and zipped it up in my raincoat. I was also super nervous about my camera getting wet so I tucked that away in my scarf under the raincoat at the base of my neck (you might see in the pictures). We were told that the walk up the hill to the tower was 15 minutes. Kill me. We ended up making it in about 8. I think they were lying to us. By the time we got to the top the rain had significantly slowed so I was able to take a few pictures with my camera. We walked around for a bit, saw some huge cows and headed back down to the visitor's building which, by the way, is extremely environmentally friendly and actually recently was issue an award :) We were only there for about an hour when it was time to get back on the bus to head back. Not sure if I mentioned it earlier but these buses are freeeezing. On the way back, after buying some wool socks in an attempt to help my wet tennis shoes dry faster, I realized that the heat was on enough that if I put my bare feet on the side heaters they would be slightly above body temperature. This was an excellent discovery. The trip back was somewhat more comfortable.

The irish countryside is beautiful. I didn't mind paying the 20 euro to go out to the cliffs for only an hour because it was somewhat a 2 for 1 deal with the "free" tour of the land. When we got back we dropped off our purchases and headed to the market I had yet to go to. Nothing really caught my eye except for the healthy equivalent of our rice crispy treats with chocolate covering it. Well… maybe not healthy. But it had oats in it!! :p After that I did a little more shopping, got a few souvenirs for people and then headed back to the hostel to shower and get ready for the night's events. Our entire hostel (3 floors) had 3 showers for all of the women and 2 bathrooms. All were on the first floor near the main entrance. The door to the bathroom also didn't close properly. The mixture of very hot water and cold ambient air was something I really don't have to experience again.It must just be an American thing but if I saw someone getting dressed in the bathroom I wouldn't leave the door open so people can see them as I exited the room… apparently the pasta hasn't chunked me up too much because I got a whistle from a friendly hostel-mate while in my bra. Getting seconds at dinner? Absolutely.

We went out to get some dinner in the first place with heat. We drew many smiley faces on the comment card. I, once again, ordered the Guinness stew. This time I think it was beef. It was pretty black peppery but pretty damn good. After we returned to the hostel for everyone to pregame a bit before going out. It was supposed to be a crazy drunken night for most everyone. I personally don't like taking 3-hour bus rides hung-over. We drank this fancy (not really) Irish cider called Bulmans.. pretty sure. Definitely would choose this over beer any day. We went out to a bar we were told had live irish music. After getting a bit turned around we entered the bar to find 4 fairly old guys playing their hearts out. It was an older crowd and, being 9 younger girls, decided we wouldn't ruin their night with our drunken carousing.We went to this other place we heard had some good music and walked in to find a 6 person bench wide-open. We grabbed it quickly and took shifts going up to the bar to order drinks. A few of the girls and I got "Baby Guinness" shots which consisted of Tia Maria with a thin layer of bailey's on top. Not too bad. However, I would rather have dumped it into a cup of coffee than taken it straight. It was awfully sweet. I Irished up my night with a classy vodka soda and went back to the table to listen to the band. A few of the girls headed up to the bar and, after about 10 minutes, I started to wonder where the heck they went. I went up to the bar to find them in deep, drunken conversation with a few Irish men. One was buying them a certain drink that was a shot of brandy mixed with a blue raspberry-vodka creation. The first sip was alright. The second, less so. I wasn't willing to take a third. I decided to order a pear flavored Bulman's. That same guy throws down 5 euro, buys my drink, says, "my work is done" and throws on his coat and leaves the bar. Very strange.

We ended up meeting two guys our age who were from Galway who sat down and played drinking games with us. When the bar was about to close they invited us next door to a club. Most of the girls were down for dancing so we went with them. After finding out there was a 10 euro cover charge (it was about 130am at this point) we headed to another bar and danced to a DJ a bit. I remembered why I try not to bring a purse or wear three jackets when I go out. It was very difficult to dance and have a good time when I took up the normal personal space of two-three people. After a bit we decided to head home since we had another early morning. Megan and I decided to get some food at a Supermac's that was near our hostel. I made sure everyone knew the rest of the way home and we went to get some fries. Hers were taco, mine were garlic cheese. Both were scrumptious. We also had entertainment in the form of a drunken brawl between two guys along with the "costumes" some girls were wearing. Very interesting.