At first glance, Dublin is a typical big city. Big crowds, lots of stores, office buildings, bars, and clubs. I am now exactly one month and two days in Dublin. Already after a few days I noticed that Dublin is much more than just a simple big city.
At first glance, Dublin is a typical big city. Big crowds, lots of stores, office buildings, bars, and clubs. I am now exactly one month and two days in Dublin. Already after a few days I noticed that Dublin is much more than just a simple big city. There are countless side streets, few tall buildings and simply a lot to discover. Dublin is despite its more than 540,000 inhabitants rather a cozy and idyllic city. There are many old buildings, which adds to the charm of the city. Each building seems to have its own history that could go back several hundreds of years. One of my favorite places is near the Fiffy River, which goes right through downtown. There are many little hidden alleys with vintage stores where you can buy special and unique clothes, shoes, and accessories for a reasonable price. In vintage stores it is typical that you pay a price per kilo. Thus, a T-shirt costs only a maximum of five euros.
What I also really like here are the people and their mentality. With one or two exceptions, everyone here was very polite and open. One aspect that emphasizes the politeness is that the Irish apologize for a lot of things, and even when they are not even at fault. One situation where I noticed this a lot was when I was in town in the evening. There were three young adults there who had had a bit more to drink. They bumped into a man as they walked by. But they apologized directly, the man immediately went back the few steps to apologize as well and said he could have been just as careful. Both parties have apologized to each other about three times and have seen the blame on themselves. I have seen similar situations more often and I was surprised each time that no one was annoyed or did not apologize. Another point that surprised me here very positively, is that over 95%, the people who can be vaccinated against the Corona, are also vaccinated. This could possibly be since the 2G rule applies everywhere here, thus also in the pubs. Here in Dublin, the pub culture is very big. Many people go here already from 15 clock or after work in the pub. What is also very positively noticeable here is that nevertheless rarely drunk people are unpleasant. Everyone just drinks a few beers with their colleagues after work and that rather for pleasure, which makes the atmosphere in the pubs very pleasant and harmonious.
Especially in the pubs we have met a lot of people. They are all very open and come up to you of their own accord, simply to have a short or even longer chat with you. They ask where you come from, what you think about Dublin and Ireland and give many tips from themselves, what you should look at.
Another point that I really like here is that although you are in a big city, it doesn’t take long to get to nature parks or the coast. Sometimes you only need 30 minutes to get there. I can especially recommend Dun Laoghaire. There you can walk along the East Pier, eat freshly caught fish and go swimming, provided that the water is not too cold with a temperature of 15 degrees. Me and two friends of mine went swimming there. It was very cold, but after about ten seconds in the water, it became very very warm, almost hot, and then it was very pleasant.
Because of these four aspects, the cozy, idyllic city, with the vintage stores, the pub culture, the mentality, and behavior of the people here and because of the nature, which is fast and easy to reach, I love Dublin so much.
