Dublin Revisited

Dublin. The Fair City. Dirty Old Town. I sometimes call it Publin. A city that is certainly not the most beautiful but it still manages to charm you. Dublin embraces its lack of perfection and that's why I love it and sort of relate to it. It's so... unpretensious, you know. It's not as clean or organised as Vienna or Copenhagen, not sunny like Lisbon and probably not the most romantic honeymoon destination. However, there is something utterly raw, honest and real about this city and its atmosphere; it always lives up to my expectations. Coming back is always a pleasure - surprises in every corner, seagulls fighting, (almost) secret gardens, buskers galore, bartenders with a mordacious sense of humour, wild deers (!), countless Georgian squares, coastal villages, cheesy chips by the Liffey, Temple Bar in the daytime. Dublin is effortlessly cool, oscillating between the rough and the swanky, the dim and the colourful, the oh-so-Irish and the multicultural, the old-fashioned and the modern... What's not to love about that?