Visiting Dublin again, for the first time
Did you ever have one of those experiences where you are visiting someplace new, but it seems so familiar? That happened to me on our recent RL trip to Dublin, Ireland. Trilo and I were staying in the center of the city, and our week there gave us a lot of time to go strolling around on foot, enjoying the small winding roads, gazing at the large beautiful expanse of river that cuts through the city, and meeting lots of friendly people. Dublin is a wonderful city, small and welcoming. And very familiar … which was odd, since I had never been there before.
As I was roaming in Second Life last night, a couple days after returning from our trip, I decided to go back to the place of my rezzing. You see, when I joined SL, I thought it might be fun to choose an interesting virtual birthplace, some place fun I'd never been to before … virtual Dublin was that place. Of course on my rez day I was overwhelmed with the newness of everything, so the town itself was completely lost on me, not knowing anything of SL (or Dublin for that matter). I thought that it looked like a pretty town, with interesting buildings as I stumbled my way over to The Blarney Stone to have my first virtual pint of Guinness. I recall hearing people mention how much it looked like the real Dublin, which I thought was cool. So a year or so later, having just returned from the RL Dublin, I thought I should take a second trip, and go back to visit the virtual Dublin, the place of my rezzing.
As I landed, just outside of the Blarney Stone, and the town began to fill in around me, I was overwhelmed with the familiarity of the place. The builders had done a wonderful job of recreating the look and feel of the real world town with it's homey pubs, and winding streets. As I strolled around I started to get the feeling that I knew the place … not from having been there in SL, but from having been there in RL. I started running through the street, thinking to myself 'if I am here, then if I look down this street to the right, I should see that bridge I took a picture of last week…' And lo and behold, there it was. *g*
'… and if I go a bit further down this way, I should come to the Guinness Brewery (what would a virtual Dublin be without THAT?!)' … and sure enough, I found that too.
And then I wandered down to the River Liffey, with it's wonderful bridges that I was enjoying so much during our trip. Marvelling at the detail and how much effort the designers went to to create this world.
I remembered the river from my rez day, of course, but now I could enjoy it that much more with the appreciation of a years+ experience in building in SL. Not only is virtual Dublin a great recreation of the experience of being in Dublin (on a small scale, of course), but it is a really beautiful build, with an incredible attention to detail. Not only in recreating some of the most memorable building in RL …
… but in the small details that probably go unnoticed by most people, because they seem so natural. Take this detail for instance, a loving recreation of Grafton Street, a shopping area near Trinity College (which in this world is used as the rez place, I was pleased to discover). Grafton is a wide pedestrian-only street lined with shops. But the thing I found most intriguing, was that the builder went so far as to use refections of actual street scenes to texture the shop windows, so when you walk, it looks like you are seeing the building opposite reflected back at you. Brilliant! Bravo to the designers.
I do hope you will get a chance to visit the RL Dublin, but till then it's well worth taking the time to explore the Second Life town. Have a pint at one of the fun, and usually packed pubs (sometimes with live music being performed). Or just stroll around and be inspired. Here's the slurl, happy travels!
=^.^= blakopal
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