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Dull to diamonds in Dublin, Ireland

4/18/2013

5 Comments

 
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Often, a place may not be quite like you had imagined prior to visiting. Most of the time, you’re way off and it exceeds expectations in unconventional ways. But a place can also be quite dull in comparison to what you may have anticipated. Every place in the world is beautiful and wonderful in its own way. When I visited Dublin, Ireland, I was a bit let down to be honest. I’m not entirely sure if the Irish stigma of merry little pubs and all-night drinking is shared throughout the world, like it is in America, but Dublin didn’t quite fit the bill for me. I wasn’t foolish enough to believe that that was how it is in Ireland all of the time, but I was expecting a bit more of the natural Irish heritage and culture to be apparent in Dublin.
However, Dublin is a modern city and it shares many of the same likenesses of that of other modern cities. In most cities, you have the mass transportation, the corporate convenience stores, and the tourist shops. But typically you can search down back alleys or in rural local neighborhoods and find more authentic culture. In Dublin, I searched, found a bit, but mostly I struck out. I was searching for the authentic friendly experience that I had heard about, with little pubs in little towns, surrounded by farms and sheep, and of course, the brilliant beauty of the Emerald Isle, all of which are much harder to come by in a modern city like Dublin.

So I made the best of Dublin for a few days and then set off. Sometimes you just have to escape and get lost by driving, hiking, or whatever, to find the true spirit of a destination. I rented a car and drove south out of Dublin, and within minutes of the last city building, I began to find the lush beauty that I craved from Ireland. Yellow flora against rolling green hills, and loads of sheep that littered the streets around various sharp turns upon skinny haphazard country roads.

I was searching for emeralds, but I found something even better, I found diamonds. I drove and drove for a week, touring the countryside and staying in tiny little villages. Some of which seemed to have been free of a single tourist for months. I stayed in family-owned inns, shopped in boutique stores, and drank with farmers and sheep-herders. It was a brilliant time that I will never forget, and I look forward to experiencing again sometime. It’s important to not only step off the beaten path, but to run full-force in any whimsical direction, here and there, and every which way. It’s okay to get lost while traveling – that’s sort of the point; let yourself go and be guided, and molded, along the way. I hope you will remember this the next time your travels feel a bit stale – it’s likely that only a few turns or a few miles away there’s something waiting for you, that’s better than you had imagined.
(This piece was written by Brandon Elijah Scott and originally published on HostelsClubBlog.com)
5 Comments
Freya link
4/20/2013 11:00:10 pm

I liked Dublin a lot but I do agree with you that sometimes places you expected a lot of turn out to be quite disappointing and the other way around sometimes places you did not think about or which you thought would not be that special turn out to be incredible. Very often it also depends on circumstances like company, weather etc.

Reply
Brandon Elijah Scott link
1/8/2014 10:07:06 pm

Yes, sometimes places do expect a lot of turn out to be disappointing, I do agree with you on that. I think that it also could be the time of the year as well that plays a part in it.

Reply
Cayla link
8/23/2013 08:29:04 am

Gorgeous! I am visiting Dublin in September and am worried about missing out on the landscape that all seems to be on the west coast! I look forward to wandering a bit south as you did!

Reply
Brandon Elijah Scott link
1/8/2014 10:09:35 pm

Thank you. What did you think about Dublin, during your visit? Would you want to go back. Did you get to see everything that you wanted to see?

Reply
PurpleTravelKate link
2/13/2014 11:44:29 pm

I really appreciated your post. I'm Irish and the first thing I say to people visiting is to go to Dublin for about a day, see the main bits and then get straight out of there. Wicklow, Galway, Cork, I could write all day about the brilliant things there are to see and experience about Ireland outsite of the capital.

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