the emerald isle!

here is my ireland post! okay so we left the centre at about 630 on thursday morning. we took a train out to stanstead for my first ryanair flight. the flight was a little bumpy, but cheap. we landed at the dublin airport and headed to our hostel. our hostel was so nice! it was called the bunkhouse and it just opened in december so it was really clean and nice. the people there were super friendly. anyway, there were 8 of us that went (me, meg, soj, liz, betsy, alysia, emily, and ann). after we checked in we headed out for a walk around dublin. dublin is really nice because everything is within walking distance. so we didnt have to pay for transportation really. we walked down to temple bar and ate lunch at a cute little pub. heres a picture, it was called quays irish restaurant. here is me, meg, soj and betsy after out "irish feast"temple bar is a really fun area and we had a good time hanging out there. everyone in ireland was super nice to us, always asking us if we were lost and asking to take pictures from us. im not going to lie, it was a nice change from the british attitude! after that we walked to dublin castle but we didnt go in. then we headed to st.patrick's cathedral. it is one of my favorite cathedrals ive seen over here! it was really pretty on the inside. after that we went to the guinness storehouse. it was the guinness factory for a really long time but they dont run it anymore and it turned into dublins number one tourist attraction. it was not quite as cool for us non-beer drinkers but it was still really cool. we were so tired after that we just went back to the hostel and hung out there til we fell asleep. the next day was our railtour out to the west coast. it was soooo much fun! we woke up really again and got on our 7 oclock train to limerick. there we switched to a bus and drove the city. our tour guide was kindof a dud, not nearly as cool as derrick from belize. were pretty sure he was drunk the whole time, as mostly everyone in ireland is. but our first stop was at bunratty castle and folk village. it is a castle that was built not too long ago, like the 1600s i think. we had a different guy there tell us about it, he was pretty funny. here is all of us up on top. then we went and walked around the folk village. ill put pictures of in on facebook because it takes too long to post them on here. but its set up like this is the place, they just have a little village set up the way it would have been in the 1700s. it was really open to visitors though and you could walk in all the rooms and they had fires burning in all the houses. it was really fun. they had roosters, pigs, and sheep just hanging out too. heres a pretty picture from a little pond they had there. it was way fun to walk around and i bought some good souviners there for some of you. then we got back on the bus and drove through the amazing irish countryside. it is gorgeous, it really rivals englands. then we stopped in doolin and at a pub there. it was good too. emily and i topped of our chicken with a piece of fudge cake and ice cream. delightful. after that we climbed back on the bus and headed to... the cliffs of moher!!! ah, pictures do not do them justice! they are amazing. it was soooooooo windy and we pretty much just laughed the whole time. the coast really is breathtaking. we walked around them for a little bit then drove a little further to this "beach" of limestone rocks. our guide said in the spring wildflowers sprout up out of them. unfortunately we were not there in spring. they were still really cool though. that was our last stop before we drove to galway to catch our train back to dublin. it was a really long time but so much fun! saturday we took things easy, we slept in a little bit, mostly due to our fire alarm waking us up at 4 am. here is us after we checked out. then we checked out and just went to trinity college and back to temple bar for lunch again. i found this statue at trinity!we got back to the centre at about 10 only to find out that the hot water is broken. not fun. church today was great! i am really excited for you guys to come to my ward, they are awesome. sacrament is always really good, its fun to hear from converts. its a nice change! and i am suffering through the piano playing thing. ginger would be proud. dinner tonight was really good, roast and mashed potatoes! definitely one of the best weve had so far. now i need to catch up on all my homework so i can call you guys later. i really bought a lot of stuff in ireland so im going to try to send it this week. i think thats about all i have to say. oh ya, i had a dream last night that i was in london but i could come home for sunday dinner if i wanted to. all i could think about was moms rolls and cooking. and then i woke up. stupid dreams.