West Coast of Ireland, the town of Doolin.

So today we are heading back to Dublin for one last night. Since we haven't checked out Guiness yet, we're heading over there after we check into our hostel. The plan after that is to hang out with another person that I once worked with from Ireland, in Ireland's oldest pub. So by the end of the week we'll have been top Ireland's highest, smallest, and oldest pubs...lol.

We are on the way back from Doolin now, where we actually had some clear weather to check out the Cliff's of Moher that I mentioned previously. It was windy and cold on the edge of the rocks but it was pretty cool to see a different view of the Atlantic for once. I think I got a few great pics that I'll be sure to post up at some point... I know I've slacked on posting any pics at all lately, but I'm sure that'll give me something to do later on down the road when I'm back in Oregon. I'm not into showing people unedited pictures too often, so I usually keep them to myself until they look good enough for me. I drove the first couple hours from there and it'll probably be the last time I get to haul ass on tiny, winding roads in a right hand drive car on the wrong side of the road, so I guess I'll have to make it back just to experience that again...lol.

Last night we went to a pub in Doolin that's fairly well known named Gus O'Connors Pub and we had some pretty amazing food and got to see some really good Irish music. The band was about 6 guys sitting around a table filled with beers and instruments. You could get the feel of the people there actually being regular Irish friends of the bar because they all knew the songs and would jump in and sing a song every once in a while. The best was some really old guy with a big white beard, one leg, a crutch, and a voice that could make anyone smile when he started singing. He sang some old ballads, some that he most likely made up himself, a few that other people knew...etc. He was definitely the highlight of the night as far as I was concerned. His story-telling in the form of song was amazing and funny all at once. A few others sang songs too but he made my night.

When we went to the pub in Galway a couple nights ago and watched some other live music, it's really cool to see a crowd shutup when they're supposed to, this also happened last night in Doolin. When a person just starts singing randomly, with no music at all, people start "shhh-ing" for people to shut up and the next thing you know, all you hear is the person's voice that's singing, while looking at everyone fully engulfed in the story that the singer is telling. A girl in Galway sang a song that was practically amazing with not a single instrument to accompany her, and the dude that did it in Doolin was cool but he was faced away from us so we could hardly hear as much, but still heard enough to get the gist of his song. Very cool stuff, it's one of those things that you don't really get at Irish festivals or Irish pubs across the USA... it was very cool, and we all thought the same. As Anthony put it, "Dude, we're in a pub on the coast of Ireland, drinking beer and watching a one-legged guy belt out some awesome music with a great band, cheers."