Taking the rain with me to Amsterdam

Hey hey :) Finally got into a hostel that has free internet! Yesss which means...pictures finally!! Some of them at least...at least I can catch up with ones from Scotland.

Galway turned out to be my favorite place so far! I had an absolute blast there and met a lot of great people. There were a lot of Americans there on spring break and what not but it didn't matter because they were still awesome. Yesterday was a really long day (because right now it seems like weeks ago!) but one of the best yet. I went on a tour to the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher....they're on the west coast of Ireland and south of Galway. I was iffy about taking a bus tour because they say you drive too quickly through the sights but this was a great one. We drove through little Irish towns for awhile and then stopped for a few coastal pictures as well before heading to the Burren. The weather has been really bad in Ireland for a week or so (apparantly the worst they've seen in a year) so the tourguide was on edge with how much we were really going to get to see. LOTS of wind and rain/hail so it didn't make for the best weather for outdoor activities. But we got to the Burren in just enough time to do about an hour and 1/2 walking tour up the mountain. It's a limestone mountain and very rugged. The views were absolutely amazing though!! You could see all the way to Galway Bay and the surrounding Burren mountains. We slid down this limestone slide and all...really fun and the rain held out the entire time so we could enjoy the hike. Of course it poured right as we got back into the bus, making us nervous that we would miss the Cliffs of Moher but we headed up there anyways. Apparantly the day before, the winds were so bad (reached about 90 mph), they tore off the windshield of a coach bus and it flew into a girl, breaking both her legs!! The windshield was still lying there in the grass because the wind was still too dangerous to move it. So they were being super cautious with us....unfortunately. I would have been pissed if we had missed it. But we got up there and they weren't kidding about the winds!! Seriously, at times I couldn't even put one foot in front of the other. It was blowing peoples hats off all over the place and glasses too. Oh man, I wish I could have photographed wind because words just can't explain how crazy this experience was! But the Cliffs were amazing and the wind just added to the fun :) Got some great pictures of them and also of the O'Brien castle. We stopped at a pub on the way back and had some bailey's and coffee to warm up...deelissssh :) Also stopped at a few more picture spots...couple churches and castles along the coast. The tour was totally worth the money and I'm so glad I did it. Jen and Leigh (the two girls I met on the bus to Galway) did the Aran Islands and they experienced the same kind of crazy weather. Of course it was beautiful when I left Ireland today....go figure. We all went out last night and met a few more people...Emily who was in my room went out with us (another NJer!) and we met a couple Germans at the pub. It was such a fun night and so sad to say bye this morning to everyone at our hostel. I get used to being in one city and hanging out with the people I meet and then you have to move along....hard to do sometimes, especially when it was such a good time. I find myself getting homesick the first night in every new city but I think it also might be a "homesickness" for the city I just left! Plus Í'm usually traveling for awhile the days I come into a new city so it just leaves a lot of alone time to think about the great times....haha.

SO on that note...I got into Amsterdam late tonight after a bus back to Dublin from Galway, a bus to the airport, a flight to Eindhoven, Holland and then another bus to Amsterdam! I hadn't booked a hostel for Amsterdam yet because I didn't get on the internet late last night so I popped into an internet cafe and found one close by. It's in a great part of the city...apparantly right near all the bars and night-life (haha but not in the Red Light District). From what I've seen of Amsterdam so far, which isn't much because I was exhausted when I got here, it's pretty interesting :) Haha I'll have to bring back some of the pamphlets they were passing out here though....it's a COMPLETELY different culture than the U.S. (which isn't new news for anyone, I know). So I'm looking forward to looking around tomorrow. I met Steven and Kate in the common area today and they asked if I wanted to do this train ride to this little Dutch town that's right outside the city tomorrow morning. I thought it would be a great chance to see some of the countryside before I headed into the heart of Amsterdam, haha.