From what I have seen of Dublin life, history and culture are majorly important to their people. Our tour guide Tim gave us a great look inside of many historic landmarks within Dublin and other symbolic places he valued. One huge sign of present and past conflict was shown within the new modern buildings. There was one building we heard about that was taken down even though it had Viking history surrounding it. Based on how Tim reacted to it, many Dubliners resented the building and its modern design because it conflicted with the history it destroyed. This was the largest past vs present conflict I noticed within the architecture of Dublin, but there were other sites that were modernized and showed distaste in their people. I appreciated how much Dubliner’s care about preserving their history, but it did not change my perspective on their city.

Learning about the Temple bar area was very fascinating as well. As a huge tourist site, you would never guess that it used to once be slums within Ireland. We heard the story about how it was previously a bad area that the government was trying to transform into a public transit site to promote suburbanization. Without the ownership of all of the buildings, many young adults rented the other building in the area and transformed it. The area was built into a cultural and economic site that stands today, which is incredibly fascinating.

Traveling with Tim today was very exciting because I loved seeing his perspective. He was an engaging tour guide that did not only give basic history lessons but also engaged us with the culture of the city. Today was great for learning and experiencing Dublin because we went to practically every part of the city. I did not realize there was so much arts and culture within the city. I am very eager to travel in Dublin on my own within the next few days to get my own feel for the culture and life.