Cork

So i spent my first night in Ireland in a town called Cork and it was amazing, this is what I have come to excpect of the Irish, the kindness, and jovial sense of humor. I checked into my hotel and received a ton of information from the receptionist, a talkative young English lady named Samantha who was extremly helpful and informative.  I asked her where I could go to find the great live music and she gave me the name of four pubs to check out but assured me it would be hard to find something on a Tuesday night.  After eating at one of the finest establishments in all of Ireland, McDonalds, which by the way, it occured to me, I have eaten at McDonalds in every single country I have visited not that I have been to all that many.  The only one I am not sure about is Mexico, but for sure Taiwan, Denmark, Germany, UK, and now Ireland I feel like I am missing some... but I digress. 

After my two course meal of a Big Mac, Fries and a coke I set about asking all the locals where the best place would be and every single one told me to try a place called Sin-e (pronounced shin-ay).  I got to Sin-e about 9 and it was a ghost town. I decide to stay for a pint but wasn't expecting much.  Twenty minutes later, the pub starts to fill up and people start walking in with Instruments and start a "Trad session".  8-10 musicians, some playing the fiddle, others playing a flute looking thing, some playing the Bodrhan (the Irish drum pronounced bow-ron), others playing guitar, the Tin whistle and other imstruments that I don't currently know the name of.

One person would start and then everyone else would all jump in playing each part note for note it was incredible. The thing that is amazing about it is all these people haven't always played with eachother. Below is the video I took with my iphone it's unfortunately really dark but you will get the idea.

I also met some of the nicest people, Shannon and Bec from Australia, Paddy and his sister Kate from Galway but living in Cork and a few people from the states; which was in its own way kinda weird to see poeple from Califonia, Colorado and Pennsylvania.

Next Stop Killarney