This past week my two wonderful friends, Sean and Jaime, came to visit, and we spent the entire week traveling around Ireland; hopping from beautiful place to even more beautiful place.  We met them in Galway, where we didn't spend much time, but we met an aspiring musician in our hostel room who played his guitar for us.  The next morning we tried to rent a car, but discovered there is a strict age limit of 23 to rent a car in Ireland, so in record time we threw our bags together and rushed to the bus station to catch the only bus going to Doolin, where we had already booked our hostel for the evening.  Doolin was absolutely charming- everything you would expect in a small Irish town, and I believe I would say it was my favorite spot in Ireland so far.  After we each spent every cent of money we each had on our hostel and a picnic lunch, we decided we needed to walk to the Cliffs of Moher, where the nearest ATM was.  Our hostel owner gave us the advice to take a path that took us walking right along the cliffs, and I am so grateful that he did.  The scenery we saw on this walk was absolutely spectacular- I don't think pictures will ever be able to do it justice.  We had our lunch right on the edge of a huge drop off the cliffs into the ocean, saw dolphins playing in the waves from afar, made friends with some horses, and discovered giant caves all along this path.  By the time we reached the Cliffs of Moher tourist office, the room with the ATM was closed, so none of us were able to take out the money we were planning on using to take a bus back to Doolin.  Since the walk there along the cliffs had taken the better part of the day, we decided to start the long walk back by way of the road.  After going some ways we decided to be brave and started sticking out our thumbs as cars went past to see if we could hitch.  Fortunately, a friendly Irish man with a big van picked us up and brought us back to our hostel.  So now we can say we have hitchhiked in Ireland!  The next day we rented bikes so we could ride back to the ATM at the cliffs (the people here are so very trusting- the man gave us the bikes that day just taking our word that we were going to get money to pay for it later!).  We stopped frequently along the way every time someone saw a particularly large patch of black raspberries that we needed to stop and eat.  Jaime did an artsy photo shoot with her fancy new camera in some old church ruins and graveyard we found, then we rode our bikes closer to the ocean, until we had to leave our bikes and climb down rocks to reach the water.  The waves crashing against the rocks were massive, so naturally we all had to stand, fully clothed, right at the edge of the water and let the waves crash over us.  When we finally left the water to go return the bikes we were cold, soaked, and positively thrilled.  Every moment of the wet ride back was 100% worth it.  Standing in those waves with these people has to go on my list of life's best moments.
After Doolin we took the bus to Killarney, where we had plenty more adventures, but will have to be recounted in my next post- which will hopefully be very very soon!