The Big City

The sidewalk size has tripled to account for the massive number of people, which has quadrupled.  Like most Irish cities, it surrounds a river with a bridge every couple of blocks.  Statues of historic figures are all throughout the city, forever shamed by the pigeon poop that runs down their faces.  Flower stalls sit side by side, the owner scowling at the other when a customer chooses the other stall.  Street performers lean toward the theatrical: people dressed as statues or a man frozen in time fighting against a storm, his tie up-side-down from its normal position and his coat flaps flipped up while his frizzy hair pushes behind him.  Big stone buildings, reminiscent of DC architecture hold public institutions like the post office and Trinity College.  Some of the oldest pubs in the city stand two or more stories tall with intricate detail in their molding and up to four or five bars inside.  The city is saturated with historic significance: Kilmainham Goal, a jail which housed numerous political prisoners throughout the Irish revolution and civil war; the stomping grounds of many of famous writers such as James Joyce and Oscar Wilde; the Book of Kells, an illustrated book of the four gospels of Jesus Christ that is now housed in Trinity College; and much more.  This is Dublin.