I have been in Dublin, Ireland for 4 days now and I am really loving this city. I have been busking on the streets which is something I haven’t really done before. It is really amazing playing music like that because you are so free and there is no microphones, electricity, stages, cords involved. I have made enough money this way to pay for food and drinking in pubs. Today I sold my first album on the street while playing with a flute player from Israel whose name is Paul and he is a great musician and very wise man. The guy who bought the album was a construction worker on his way home from work and he just really liked our playing and wanted to buy my cd. What better and more honest way to be a musician than like this? This is just great. I am more excited everyday. There is so much going on here. I also got booked to play in a Starbucks coffeeshop in a few weeks which I am really looking forward to. I am trying to put an acoustic band together and get it going on the streets. I really think if I find the right musicians, we will be able to draw a great crowd and earn decent money. This will be a good platform for getting myself noticed among all the great musicians around here. I am also playing every night in open mics where my heroes like Damien Rice and other great modern Irish singer/songwriters like Fionn Regan and Glen Hansard have springed their careers. They have been in the exact same place/phase as I am now. And as you probably know, Glen Hansard just won an Oscar for best song so the sky is the limit.
I am staying in a hostel called Avalon and it is really great. I have met so many new friends and the guys who work here are really friendly and great people. I even performed here last night and got a free night to sleep here! At first I thought i’d get a flat but I really like living here and I don’t want to leave!
The funny thing is when I came here on monday evening I had been travelling all day and the weather was horrible. I was in a horrible mood and wanted to just leave right away and go to Italy or somewhere warm and quit music, haha. Luckily I met Joep who is an architecht from Amsterdam and he invited me to go get a pint of guinness and so we went and had too many. Next morning all my worries were cured and here I am suddenly falling in love with this great city. Dublin is my favourite city I have been to so far in my travels.
Last night I went drinking with Lily and Martha who were also from Holland. We had so much fun! Today we just got some lunch and walked around St.Stephen’s Green (a park) talking about life, love, movies, poetry, and everything else under the sun. If you guys are reading, I miss you already.
Tomorrow i’m going to Joep’s new apartment, we are going to cook (or he is), drink beer, trade some music and then hit the pubs! Tonight I am staying in. We were just playing pinpong with Mauro (from Rome) and that game is a great way to learn to count in italian. I can now count to 21!
I want to stay here for forever. I also want to learn how to do the riverdance! These Irish people are crazy. They drink Guinness every day and the bars are always alive and kicking with live music and everybody is just nuts (in a good way).
My feet are really sore from walking all over the city for the past days so I have to get some rest.
