I've been living in Dublin for two months now. My naive-touristic phase is long gone, so I have a word or two to say about this place.
Dublin is like Dogville (if you haven't seen the movie, think of a village with no walls, no decoration, only plain people). The city is not attractive, it's not enlightening, it's not glossy. It's silent and peaceful and not-intrusive (well, except at midnight where the streets belong to drunk people).
This city looks like a kid's painting: green trees, houses and rainbows, with a sign that reads "we don't have much to offer but you are more than welcome". Just like a film set where you have low alike buildings, lots of gray clouds, greenest trees ever and a lazy river flowing... You walk for three hours and you feel as if you are on a treadmill. Red-old smiles come your way. It all looks the same. You have only the wind to listen to, and the noises in your head. You are never in a rush as the city never expects you to be quick. You never feel alone as the stillness of the city keeps you company. It all feels the same. Isolated yet secure.
But then it's very much like Dogville. Because there is nothing else to see, you see people. Or you stare in the mirror and see yourself.
If you keep staring in the mirror and start writing, you become a great depressed writer as your inner-thoughts grow within the silence of the city.
If you invest your time in other people, than your life is meant to get much more complicated for you. As the saying goes "there's nothing else to do, every me and every you". Thus, relationships are intense. Even the naive ones that seem to be shallow, they go deep. Weaknesses of people are easy to pinpoint or abuse when you are that close, so ego-wars are common. Much like any suburban community, status quo dominates all group dynamics. And much like any suburban community, this is a place where you feel home if you belong, and you feel banished and angry if you don't. Well, of course this is not a battleground and a lot of people feel home... I do... It's also not that you can't find a new place for your head or heart when you feel unfit, but unlike other cities, here, there is no clutter to distract you from your communal routine. The city is not attractive as I said, so people around you take a larger slice of the cake when you are allocating your attention.
And to compensate for this density, people drink :) That is the perfect excuse to loose consciousness and blame the pint for breaking any rules. The booze brings an air of levity and alleviates the burden of being visible. Dublin, in the end, takes things easy.
As the Irish saying goes:
May the light always find you on a dreary day.
When you need to be home, may you find your way.
May you always have courage to take a chance
And never find frogs in your underpants.
