Ireland: Shower Me in Guiness

Dear Mom,
I am moving to Ireland.
See you at Christmas!
Amelia

WARNING: This post is disgustingly long and sorry I'm not sorry.

Ireland is one of my favorite places in the whole world. I had never been before but it felt like home. We caught a flight early on Friday morning and flew into Dublin then a 3 hour bus to Galway We flew in to Dublin and then took a 3 hour bus straight to Galway. It was love at first site. Galway was so quaint and beautiful and is a college town so the nightlife was all pubs and live music. The first night we went to a pub that was right across the street from our hostel and saw a band who played a mix of new and traditional Irish music. They even played Galway girl (from P.S. I Love You).
On Saturday, we took a tour of the Irish countryside which is just as gorgeous (if not more) than it is depicted in pictures and movies. It literally took my breathe away. The first place went to was the Ailwee Caves. They are estimated to be a few million of years old and we took a tour through them. Ofcourse, it was pitch black and I managed to wander off the path and into a puddle a foot deep. Even in the pitch black, after hearing the splash, someone went "That has got to be Amelia". Haha, it's so hard to be me sometimes. The next thing we went to was the Cliffs of Moher which is the most incredible thing I have ever seen. They are the number one tourist attraction in Ireland for a reason. There were gates up but you could have easily climbed over and gone to the edge which was very dangerous because it is easy to slip and fall. Of course, I had to cross the barricade and get a little closer, I am a risk taker after all.It was windy and muddy, don't worry though, if the fear of falling to my death didn't stop me from getting any closer to the edge, the fear of ruining my favorite pair of boots stopped me dead in my tracks After stopping in the gift shop, which strangely enough was designed by the same person who designed the Telletubbie house (random usless fact), we headed back on to the bus and saw some other really cool sites including a magic fertility well (keep me far away from that please), an old Irish Castle, and some limestone over 40,00 years old. We climbed down between the crevasses of the limestone and took some incredible pictures.
That night we got all dressed up and went out to a few local pubs. The first one was really crowded and I met some Irish guys who were out for their buddy's bachelor party. They were nice enough until the guy I was talking to stopped and out of nowhere said "I'm sorry I don't usually say this but you have really nice boobies. You should be on the Hills." Are you serious dude? That's your best pick up line? I guess I made a face that showed what I was thinking because my friend Lisa who overheard laughed so hard that she sprayed an entire mouthful of Guiness all over my fucking face. There was a good 10 seconds where no one involved said anything until Alex, one of the boys on the program, turned around to see what happened and the look on his face literally made me laugh until I had tears. We then made an immediate decision to leave the bar and surprisingly the guy who made the boobie comment tried to stop me from leaving even as I had second hand Guiness dripping down my face. We made it outside and Alex took his shirt and cleaned me up a bit before we made our way to the next pub. Lisa then gave me a beer to make up for the whole spit-beer-in-my-face-thing. Little did I know that the beer she handed me she had actually snuck in in her purse and was contraband in the the bar. I did not realize this until a bouncer came up and tried to kick me out. The first and only time I have ever been asked to leave a bar and it's in Ireland. Ain't that just fan-fucking-tastic. Well I was able to talk my way out of it and he allowed me to stay. Thanks Lisa, this girl spit beer in my face in one bar and almost got me kicked out of the other one all in the span of like 15 min. Haha, I still love her though. She apologized and bought me a beer or two so it was all good (although I did make her stay at least 5 feet away from me for the rest of the night- just to be safe).
Sunday, we took the bus back to Dublin and took a bus tour around the city and the Guiness factory. The Guiness factory was alright but the coolest thing by far was the 360 degree view of Dublin you got at the top of the factory in their Gravity Bar. We enjoyed our free pint of beer and meet some Irish/English/Dutch guys who like to hang around the bar there and finish up pints of Guiness left behind by tourists who like the view more than the beer. Gross but they reassured us that they critique the person very closely before deciding to finish their leftovers. Good to know, I guess. They reminded me a lot of my friends back in the States and it was refreshing because unlike the Italian men, they were not trying to make out with me before they even knew my name. We exchanged numbers and met up later at a local bar for some where we listened to traditional live Irish music. I learned that the Irish and English sense of humor is very sarcastic and witty and they had me laughing the whole night. The next day the group departed and Britta and I were left on our own because we didn't leave until Tuesday. We milled around the city, saw an old historic prison, and caught a movie (in ENGLISH-yes!). The best part of the day by far was going back to the hostel because we met a guy from Maine trying to go pro in soccer in Irlenad, a Hungarian who has every season of Friends on DVD, and 2 Norweigan guys who looked unnaturally tan considering it is 20 degrees in their country at the moment. Britta was finally able to forge some solid ground between the different cultures and we were all able to agree on 2 things: 1.) Friends is hilarious and 2.) The 1996 Bulls were awesome. I don't think anyone can argue with these facts of life. Then we headed to the airport and spent the night sleeping on couches in the airport McDonalds before our early morning flight left and I made it on time to my 2 o'clock class that same day. Ahhh, I love my life.