I got my tickets, saw a parade, walked around town, and went to a great pub for 4 fiddlers playing traditional music.
Mustard. The name of the restaurant. It looked nice - I was hoping to get a seat outside, which was right next to the river... but they said they had none left - totally understandable. I saw some 2 person tables near windows and figured they'd probably stick me in one of those. No. They figured since I'm all by myself I wouldn't mind being stuck in the dark corner by the water wheel (which all the kids in the restaurant insisted on running up to and then screaming that it wasn't working... parents did nothing even though they were six inches away from me being obnoxious). Ok, so maybe they want to give the good seats to people who will give them more money - fine. I can understand that even. But I ordered, a soup and sandwich combo and a coffee afterwards. Usually takes maybe half hour to 45 min to get and eat that right? No. 1 hour and 45 minutes. RIDICULOUS. I had to flag my waitress down to even get her to get a menu for me, order my meal and order my coffee. 15 - 20 minutes waiting in between each thing. After waiting 30 minutes for my bill I went up and got it myself. No tip whatsoever. It's like they plunked me down in the darkest corner they could find and then ignored me the rest of the time I was there. Terrible service - food was ok, but TERRIBLE service.
Besides that... I had a great day! The first thing I saw when I got into town was the parade, The Wild Hunt. It was great. It was also the EPITOME of steam punk style. Steampunk is this strange combination of 1800s wear and weird mechanics:
Fantastic! Here's some clips of it (just a few short ones, the whole thing was quite long):After that I walked around town for a while and to the south into Claddagh (yes, just like the ring. It was actually first forged here! Hence the name!). It wasn't too impresive but I wandered out onto the piers and open quays. There are a lot of swans in Galway...
Later on I went to a pub called Tig Cóilí. I got in at 7 and the music started around 8:15 (had to get a decent seat you know). Then four fiddlers showed up - just them. The first thing that popped into my head was "what the heck? there's no rhythm section?!" But after they started playing I realized they didn't need it. Some of them would harmonize, others would play chords, and each played a slightly different variation which lent itself beautifully to creating this great rich and dense texture of sound. The stomping of feat provided percussion and the switching of bowing sound like strumming - what more would you need?What better way than to end the day with rainbow?
I think I might take a day tour to the Aran islands on Tuesday. I don't have anything scheduled until 20:00 (8pm) and they are one of the last few strongholds of the Irish language and ancient traditions. I'll see if I can catch a session!
1800's borg
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