Dublin

Been on a recent trip to Dublin and thoroughly enjoyed it. Was my first visit to the city and it was beautiful weather. The St Stephens park area is nice and I thought O'connell st was erm, disappointing, trashy and downmarket which surprises me given its history. Would Argyle St and I can think of good few more, be the Glasgow equivalent? Gets me thinking about why so dispersed in Glasgow city when these shops were a plentiful on O'connell street. Makes me wonder why so different and how is planning and the habits of the wandering, fickle consumer influencing this process. Miles and mile of street with barely anywhere to sit and lunch or coffee. But you couldn't help but notice that traffic gives way to pedestrians - they (what they call 'motorists' in the Daily Mail!) are so much nicer at it too. Who wouldn't want to be on the main street of Dublin given it's scale and generosity of street width to pedestrian movement? I like the human scale in the narrower streets and alleyways over the bridge. O'connell st though as it gives way to the bridges, acts as a little tester for the impatient. It allows all the exploration to venture off to endless little surprises. It's more intimate and adventurous and was a right wee eye opener to the delights of Dublin. The wee - which turned out to be very large, the Brazen Head pub, the oldest in the city, and you guessed it, at the bottom of the hill on which the Guiness factory and store stands. I had to test the claim (or merely savvy sales pitch) of the entrance doorman at the Guiness store that it was no more than 10 days old. I lived on Gardiner st. It was nice and quieter part of town. Still very Georgian (I think it was anyway) and you could feel and read about how the streets were named. You were given clues to occupants and phases of events as the street signs told you about them - an interesting touch. We had an urban garden and it was magnificent. We went both East and West to the city from Citywest to Howth both experienced by a combination of bus, taxi, tram, dart train. I don't think the city fathers and people have done this (how to feel this city and get about, oh and the nice touches it has, green and flowers and generally conscious of the importance of that to the experience) for tourists; I think they did it for themselves. Loads of excellent quality swingparks, erm, playgrounds, (where I saw anyway and experienced one). I could go on and on. The development and buildings, the location and the utilisation of the river....., and... and..