Running through Dublin resulted in some interesting conclusions, driven perhaps by our biases. It feels like a charming city to live in but not to visit. It was hardly a tourist destination, even to Americans beyond 10 years ago – then the Irish Celtic Tiger boom and the advent of cheap no-frills flights combined to make the place more cosmopolitan.
If from Dublin, I would think the city very quaint with a number of beautiful parks close to city center we saw plenty of suits on a Monday enjoying their lunch in. More than enough main streets whether automotive or pedestrian are quite clean and well-maintained with elements of grittier neighborhoods nearby if that suits your boat.
It is a major plus that the city is completely walkable, but what there is to see as you walk could leave one wanting. Georgian architecture strikes me as easily mistaken for low-income housing- said to reflect a certain modesty in outward appearance for upper-class Dubliners, I will have to take their word for it as we skipped any houses serving themselves up for a tourist fee. Their museums had standard visual and decorative art but surprisingly less emphasis on history than I would have thought. We couldn’t enter Parliament as civilians, had to get some embassy permission for a tour. The art scene was lacking.
However, there is nothing to hate about the traditional Irish bars (and Irish music) with the proverbial dark scene and gold lettering around every single corner with cheap Guinness. The wine bar and restaurant scene excels also with modern bistros scoring particularly well- again a point for living but insufficient just for visiting.
The city indeed has infrastructure bottlenecks- lots of buses belching noise and clogging whatever streets are not closed off to be pedestrian; a start-and-stop route to the airport that would have been a lot worse with traffic; an overcrowded old airport with its own security bottlenecks- that new Terminal 2 in the distance cannot be finished quickly enough.
The week in Ireland is understandably the best way to do now – Dublin isn’t enough for a trip by itself unless you plan on drinking it away with some friends; you have to see the countryside with it.
