Here in Ireland...

I made it! The flights were quite long. Getting to Minneapolis was okay, but there were some delays on getting on the plane to Amsterdam. Once onboard, all was fine though. It was an 8 hour flight, and although they served dinner, breakfast, various snacks, I couldn't sleep. We landed in Amsterdam, and it was a short wait to board the plane (couple of hours, than another hour and a half to get...) to Ireland.

We landed in Dublin. Once I got out of the airport, I could start to see just how busy this city is. I decided to take a taxi to my hostel; I figured that having had no sleep and not knowing the streets wouldn't make it the best time to bus it!

Globetrotters hostel is quite decent, right in the middle of town, and near to call shops, phone vendors, Tesco's, Spar's and lots of other useful stores. After I recovered a bit, I went out and got a pre-pay cell phone, pretty cheap to do here. I stayed awake as long as I could, then called it a night.

(my drunk roomates wandered in around 2 in the morning)

I woke up in the morning, and it actually felt like morning. Other than the first day, I haven't felt any jet lag. They serve a "full Irish breakfast" here, toast, beans, sausage, hasbrowns, bacon, cereal, fruit salad and orange juice. It was great! I decided to find the Irish Traditional Music Archives that day, on the south side of the Liffey, by Merrion Square.

Its a bit of a walk to the square, and through a maze of busy streets. I haven't quite figured out the traffic lights, and sometimes it seems like the Irish haven't either. They seem to just walk out into traffic, regardless of honking cars.

Merrion Square is something else. Its a big garden, surrounded in paths and old trees covered in moss and vines. Since I was early getting to the ITMA, I walked about a bit and took some pictures. (when I figure out how, I'll post some up!). There's lots of flowers, and some of the trees actually seem tropical. It was great to get out of the streets and the noise for a few moments.

At last, the ITMA opened at 10am. Its located in what was a big row house. The public reading room is on the second floor, and it's full of books covering every subject regarding traditional music. It's loosely broken into Irish music in Ireland, and Irish music abroad. You could be weeks going the books, but there's also a collection of 700 CDs. That's not counting the material they haven't yet digitized, such as cylinders, 45s and 78s. There's tons of material in storage as well, and all of it available to the public. I completely lost track of time, and only emerged five hours later. I'll have to go back.

The curator tipped me onto a session happening at the Cobblestone pub last night, as well as some good ones in the next few days. I walked to the Cobblestone; its a bit of a stretch, but manageable. I stepped inside, and right away I ran into a man I saw at the archives. He plays button accordion, and the session was already under way, along with bouzouki, fiddle and concertina. I asked if I could sit in, and he said sure. They played some great tunes, a few I knew, and all at a nice, comfortable speed. Later, we were joined by a couple more fiddle players, a piper, and another two flute players. The tunes were all great, and though I've heard most of them before, I haven't had the chance to really learn all of them. All in all it was a great night.