Dublin
July 13, 2008Although we only arrived about six hours ago after having been here for a week last year, I finally realized why I love Dublin so much.
In general, I am not fond of big cities. Kansas City is fine, just because I know it like the back of my hand, and I don’t really consider it a “city”: meaning, it doesn’t have things like a subway, easy walking to main areas, lots of people, etc.
But anywhere else, I dislike. I lived in the suburbs of Washington DC for two years, and I hated going into the district. It is filled with politicians, rude people, and everyone is in a rush. I wasn’t fond of San Francisco. New York, I’ve never been to, but just the thought of it makes me shudder. (Sorry Yoon!) I never really got to see downtown Chicago either, but supposedly it is a lot like San Fran… so I’m not too keen on seeing it, either. Paris was alright, but so hustle-bustle, like DC.
Dublin, though, is a whole nother story. Grafton Street is smack in the middle of the shopping/dining district, and thousands of people walk through there every day. Trinity College is right off Grafton and Nassau. Being in Ireland, the whole area is gorgeous. Sure, there may not be many days of pure sunlight, but even with the overcast skies, it is beautiful.
The streets are so alive. I’ve found the majority of people don’t rush in Ireland- as evidenced by my shopping excursions today all over Dublin, where the cashiers took their time ringing you up and folding your clothes. It is busy, since it is a city. But there aren’t many politicians. Few rude Americans. An amazing variety of people fill the streets. Musicians capture the attention of most, and crowds make circles around them. You hear all different languages being spoken just walking down one street- Italian, Spanish, Gaelic, English, French, you name it, you will most likely hear it. The wonderful thing is, people are nice.
Usually, I am not fond of public transportation. Today, though, I took the LUAS (Dublin light-rail… = New York subway/DC metro) out to far Dublin to a shopping centre. The LUAS is simply lovely. It is clean, well taken care of, with guards in each car occasionally checking tickets, as there are no metal bars to swing through to get on; you just hop on outside at a stop, as it almost never goes underground. Again, you see all different kinds of people, hear all different kinds of languages, and while it can get crowded, no one pushes or shoves you out of the way. Quite a far cry from the metro!
Anyway, I guess I am just quite surprised at myself that I really like this city and find myself at ease here. Sure, you have the occasional freaky homeless guy, and at night will run into weird drunks. That happens in my town of 80,000 people, though. That can be overlooked.
Sounds like fun! I want to go to Ireland, it would be so cool. Are you going to kiss the Blarmy Stone? lol.
I love visiting NYC, but I wouldn’t want to live there. I have never ridden the subway there before, or taken any form of public transportation there for that matter. I’ve just walked everywhere.
I’m not a fan of the DC metro. It’s too crowded. My sister and I almost got separated from my family once while riding it. I was only 12 or so and my sister was only 5. She almost got stuck on the metro, but I yanked her off right as the doors were shutting. It was scary.
The Boston subway is pretty nice. They also have this nice train that you can take from the outskirts of the city to the downtown area.
Sounds lovely, have fun. I LOVE Toronto and I love big cities, but I hated Athens. It was just… yuck.
I think it’s the Blarney Stone… and probably not, although we are planning on going to Cork which is pretty close to it I think.
Yeah, the DC metro is bad and pretty nasty.
I forgot about Boston- I’m alright with Boston too.
I REALLY want to go to Toronto!! Ottawa was pretty cool, though confusing with lots of one-way streets and we didn’t have a map, so…
Gah, it is Blarney Stone. I’m such a bad Irish person, lol. I’d kiss it if I were there. One of my teachers from last semester kissed it over spring break.
Toronto is a cool city. I went there when I was 10. Although I didn’t like how we had to wait about 2-3 hours for our food at Fridays, lol.
Fridays? Like TGI Fridays? We don’t have those here.
Yeah Oz, come to Toronto. It’s INFINITELY better than Ottawa. I promise.
Is Toronto in Ontario? Anyways, I can’t take slow cities. I’m probably never going to find any city I like better than NYC with rude people and all except I hate the tourists because they tend to loiter and not walk with purpose, and stop suddenly in the middle of the nice flow of people. Can’t take that AT ALL.