A day that begins with music ends with music

24 hours in cork proved to be just the right amount of time, and it was time to head to Galway, which will be my home base for a couple days.  The 3.5 hour train ride was again uneventful.  I was happy that the first hour+ had Internet access, the advantage of being on the updated part of the tracks that head back to Dublin.  Sadly, the second half of the voyage was Internet less, and I was left to entertain myself, watch out world!!!  But how bad can life be when you're jamming to the cranberries (did somebody just say zombies), and contemplating deep thoughts on an iPad.  

I've been doing an overly great job at staying completely uninformed about my destination until I arrive.  The only thing i knew about Dublin, was that its where the planes flew into.   The only thing i knew about Cork, was that blarney was nearby, and as for Galway,  i knew the cliffs of moher were relatively near.  The story of the cliffs will come another day.  Today however is all about a huge yearly event that happens on this fateful week when I'm blindly headed into town and will have to actually switch rooms because I couldn't get the same room for two nights in a row.  Yes that is the incredible drawing power of the Galway races, horse races that is. 


Think Kentucky derby: hats, fancy attire, and oh yes alcohol.  With the hour I arrived in town, I couldn't make it to the track until the 4th out of 7 races and stayed to watch the remaining 3.  It's amazing how an entire crowd can rally around a simple idea for about 2 minutes with the most boisterous noise you'll ever hear during the last 15 seconds as the horses are on the straight away home.  I got to talk to a few people about their betting strategies, but never found he mojo to place a bet myself.  Watching these folks was all the entertainment I needed.  That said, it would have been nice to win, as others did, with the horse with 10-1 odds :(

The evening closes off with a couple musical hilarities.  First there was a side show band at the horse park behind the main stadium, so i stopped to watch.  As the guy started to sing folsom prison blues by johnny cash it was incredible to watch as nearly an entire audience of irish folk broke out into song and dance.  Who knew Johnny was so popular abroad?  A few more songs and it was time to head back by bus.  I was in the back of the bus and a group of college age blokes break out into song.  The first one I couldn't understand at all.  Turns out it was the Irish national anthem in Irish.  Go figure, why I couldn't understand it.  The rest was pretty amusing renditions of common pop songs and random stuff.