Waterford City, a bore or not?

yankeegal

hello,

I am an American student and I will be traveling to Waterford for four months on an internship. I am a college aged student and I was hoping Waterford at least has some younger people and things to do at night. (maybe near WIT college?!) Can anyone give me some hope!?! Ive been researching the area and it seems very low key. I am not expecting it to be like Dublin, but would I be better off going to Dublin on weekends? PLease help me out!

merlante

yankeegal wrote:

hello,

I am an American student and I will be traveling to Waterford for four months on an internship. I am a college aged student and I was hoping Waterford at least has some younger people and things to do at night. (maybe near WIT college?!) Can anyone give me some hope!?! Ive been researching the area and it seems very low key. I am not expecting it to be like Dublin, but would I be better off going to Dublin on weekends? PLease help me out!

I doubt you'll be disappointed.

Might be better than Dublin in some ways. To really get the benefit out of Dublin you'd have to be there longer than four months. That's perfect for Waterford though.

Mossy Monk

if you like the idea of being ripped off in the pubs then Fáilte Romhat Chuig Port Láirge

dlofnep

Waterford is fine - I like it here. It's not dublin but then again, there are far more annoyances in dublin.

yankeegal

what does that mean? (Fáilte Romhat Chuig Port Láirge)

FreeAnd..

Welcome to Waterford lass..

mike65

Bloody Yanks, they come over here and complain! Enough already!*

Mike.

*humour/humor

Mike.

yankeegal

very very funny....;)

c - 13

It all really depends on what your looking for from the place i guess :
Pubs ?
Gyms ?
Cinema ?
Arts ?
etc etc.

yankeegal

I am looking for a little bit of all I guess. I know I wont find all in the same area, but are there pubs/gyms near WIT?

Mossy Monk

Waterford isnt that big. you can get from the WIT to the center of town in a few minutes (if you are not walking)

c - 13

GYMS NEAR WIT
Waterford crystal sports centre : gym and swimming pool
WIT gym

PUBS NEAR WIT
The Dome bar
Paddy Brownes (Lisduggan)
Bad Bobs (Lisduggan)

For better pubs your probably better heading closer to the city centre, its within walking distance from WIT and a taxi will only cost you around E5-10 depinding to the time and that.

Sully

Send us a pic and we could prob help ya out even further :P

christophicus

The only recreation that alot of people from waterford patisipate in is going out and getting pissed.You have to look very hard for other things to do.

solas

thing about Ireland is that the larger cities are surrounded by lots of smaller towns, so you can change the scenery in a matter of minutes when it suits.
Waterford city has plenty of pubs and clubs, galleries, theaters and drama la de da etc (all mod cons) and the people are generally nice. Yes, there are a few young people, you can see them wandering around aimlessly most days and increasingly on weekends.
If you fancy a change tramore is only 7 miles outside of town, nice place with great atmosphere, (lots of surfer bums and hippies there too) beaches, walks and restaurants. New ross is on the other side of the bridge, which has a completely different atmosphere (I always found wexford very biker grungy).
Dublin is only a two hour drive from waterford (travelling at 90mph the twistiest windiest roads in Ireland) so weekends there should be fun providing you get there in one piece. Or you could just get the train, which takes apx three hours.
Y'never really know where your going to wake up on saturday morning, but you can be sure it won't be anywhere remotely American.

As far as Ireland goes Waterford offers as much as any other major town or city.

c - 13

Here, this might be handy to let you know the sort of stuff thats on around -

whazon, waterford


Also whats worth keeping in mind is maybe catching a game of Hurling/Gaelic ?

Rollo Tamasi

c - 13 wrote:

Here, this might be handy to let you know the sort of stuff thats on around -

whazon, waterford

I'm in the "middle" of setting up a waterford based website for events, mainly clubbing events and alternative music. The site ain't done yet but the forum is fairly active with over a 100 members so far. If you want to find out what's happening in waterford then check out the General Events Forum.
www.blaa-blaa.com/forum btw

Once the site is done, i will properly announce it.

Just to give a flavour of what's coming up in Waterford...
Tonight in the Forum - Ben Watt from Everything But the Girl - Dj Set
Next Week in the Forum - Tony Vegas from the Scratch Perverts
the list goes on and on....
it all depends what your into i suppose...?

c - 13

Nice one !
Bookmarked.

yankeegal

thanks for all the help everyone, I think Waterford seems like a nice place, definitely not dodgy like some have made it out to seem

maybe I will see some of you in the local pubs come Janurary!

mike65

Dodgy?* You sure you're American?

Mike.

*We are certainly not dodgy, thats Limerick!

yankeegal

hahah, well, i actually typed 'sketchy' but then I figured you may not know what that means.. and i remember dodgy from Love Actually, heheh, so i replaced it;)

mullanimal

Waterford has pretty much got something for everyone...

It's the oldest city in Ireland so it has an amazing history going back over 1000 years... the old city walls, castles, towers, old buildings are to be seen everywhere... the city centre is modern has loads of good shops and of course there are more pubs than would be necessary for the entire EU LOL.

The county has Tramore as another poster already said and 30+ other beaches along the coast if you will be getting a car... it has a lovely coastline (called the copper coast) and has two mountain ranges with some fantastic scenery there... It also host the most beautiful small town in Ireland as voted by the tidy towns, Lismore, a gorgeous village with some fantastic scenery...

You will not be disappointed with WIT, it is a very modern campus and we all reckon in Waterford it will be upgraded to a Univeristy before long.

All in all you will not be disappointed I would imagine. the general perception of Waterford outside waterford is "What's down there?" but when anyone stays here they say "I wish I knew about this place before" Waterford people have kept it to themselves and it seems to be the forgotten county of Ireland... I think that is by design as they don't want it turning into another Dublin...

You could ask the lads on http://www.upthedeise.com about it as they are all crackers about Waterford :-)

Coumtay

Hi Yankeegirl,

you should also try here:

http://www.upthedeise.org/waterfordmessageboard

It's a community of people from Waterford or with connections to Waterford who would love to help you out with any questions you have.

Dilbert75

But it has been said about Waterford that its "a town that thinks its a city but acts like a village". There's no malice in that statement, just one person's opinion of the place.

Rollo Tamasi

Dilbert75 wrote:

But it has been said about Waterford that its "a town that thinks its a city but acts like a village". There's no malice in that statement, just one person's opinion of the place.

thats my perception of waterford to a t, actually! Don't mean anything nasty by it. I've lived in a few big cities - Chicago/Rennes and Cork of course. Waterford is a step down where entertainment/shopping is concerned but thats expected!

Mossy Monk

Dilbert75 wrote:

But it has been said about Waterford that its "a town that thinks its a city but acts like a village". There's no malice in that statement, just one person's opinion of the place.

pretty much covers my thoughts of the place too

Jesper

Going to have to go against popular opinion here.
Don't like the night life in Waterford city at all. It doesn't have a college autmosphere during the week and at weekends there is only about 6 pubs you can go to that will have a vibrant crowd. Most of the pubs are up there own arse either trying to be ultra hip/trendy/posh. Very few places you can go to have a good laugh and not be looked at strangely. The bouncers are nearly all complete ******s (even for bouncers!). Little choice for clubs but the live music scene is really taking off and there should be a good band/act some where every weekend (if you have the money for it). Waterford is also very expensive as most pubs/clubs are owened by 2 groups of people.
The city is looking very well and improving a lot every year.
The College is new and looks good but I've had nothing but bad experiences trying to deal with administrators and course leaders there.
Sorry to burst the bubble about Waterford but It's really going to be a matter of making your own fun.

Cabaal

Jesper wrote:

<snip>The bouncers are nearly all complete ******s (even for bouncers!).<snip>
The College is new and looks good but I've had nothing but bad experiences trying to deal with administrators and course leaders there.
<snip>

hmmmmmm, perhaps you just dislike authority figures which is why you don't get alone with bouncers or college administrators
Perhaps you are the problem not them, after all you can't have that much bad luck?

solas

"a town that thinks its a city but acts like a village"

its cute

hahah, well, i actually typed 'sketchy'

must have lived in waterford in a past life.

yankeegal

All this advise is fabulous! Even though a few of you think its not that great, it probably has a lot more to offer than from where I come from. I have lived in both extremes, I am from a small town in Massachusetts, but I live in Boston now, so it seems like Waterford will be right in the middle of both. I just hope I can find some nice Irish to hang out with and get pissed (lol) Is it true that some pubs are 21+?


I must add that I find the Irish humour quite enjoyable... maybe I did live in Waterford in a past life, haha

c - 13

No, to my knowledge none of the pubs in Waterford are over 21's. Except maybe whispers (lap dancing) dont know about there tbh.

Mossy Monk

if a pub is over 21 and you dont fit the age there are many that will serve 18+

south

Is it not against the law to that these days.. discrimination or something...

Cabaal

south wrote:

Is it not against the law to that these days.. discrimination or something...

Your correct, there's been no such thing as a over 21's pub or club for well over two years now as its against the law

Jesper

Cabaal wrote:

Your correct, there's been no such thing as a over 21's pub or club for well over two years now as its against the law

Aha but there probably will be in Waterford seeing that most of the bouncers are ******s.
And its not an authority problem I have I was trying to apply for a Masters in WIT and found them all very difficult to deal with and extremely slow to respond. When I eventully completed all the work needed myself I got informed in June that the Masters I wanted to do wouldn't be available until next year. A delay getting funding/numbers etc.
But then again its a place like everywhere else and it'll be as much fun as you make it. And like posted before there are places close by that are very good for a night out like Kilkenny City and Fungarven.

yankeegal

hmmm, well I am 20, so I hope they are not tools about it

i was also wondering, what do Irish think of the American accent? Do we sound like complete idiots? Do the guys like a girl with an accent??

AdMMM

Cabaal wrote:

Your correct, there's been no such thing as a over 21's pub or club for well over two years now as its against the law

Ruby's have an over 21 night on Tuesdays.

Lionheart84

It`S quite simple Waterford best place for a god damn good piss up being from waterford and in college in sligo all i can say is up the deise..

c - 13

|.Murderer.| wrote:

Ruby's have an over 21 night on Tuesdays.

Ruby Tuesdays, used that be a gay night there ?

Le Rack

I love Waterford, nightlife is good enough there. I had a fantstic time down there during the Imagin Festival, granted there was loads of live music that week but ther'e always something to go to down there...

Rollo Tamasi

yankeegal wrote:

i was also wondering, what do Irish think of the American accent? Do we sound like complete idiots? Do the guys like a girl with an accent??

your only as smart as the words that come out of your mouth! or something equally profound along those lines anyway.......TAXI ! Take me to the asylum!

---

Yeah, i remember going into Rubys before on a Tuesday, it was full of Dykes. Well not full....but around a dozen or so "ladys" would be in there. You would know by the look of them that they'd cook a mean breakfast. Rashers, eggs, suasages..toast...the list goes on tbh.........pudding....lobster...:rolleyes:

yankeegal

hahah! well, Im not looking for women... so I should probably stay away from there on Tuesday nights! where do all the young, attractive Irish men hang out??!?!

galwaydude

what part of mass, im moving over there myself in feburary.

Waterford is a grand old spot and alot more personal than Dublin. Make sure when your over here to go travelling around ireland.Places like kerry, cork,Galway,Clare,Mayo and Donegal have oustanding Scenery and thats only the west and south coast. Try http://www.goireland.ie/ has loads of useful information.

Beer is Life

I doubt she'll be lookin' at the scenary lads, if you know what i mean.

Rollo Tamasi

yankeegal wrote:

hahah! well, Im not looking for women... so I should probably stay away from there on Tuesday nights! where do all the young, attractive Irish men hang out??!?!

i frequent Ruby's on a Tueday quite often for some strange reason......anyway to answer you question, the attractive men hang out out down at the beach pumpin weights and lifting cattle above their heads....you even had to ask!? Shock!

yankeegal

galwaydude wrote:

what part of mass, im moving over there myself in feburary.

Im in Boston right now, where abouts you moving to?

yankeegal

Rollo Tamasi wrote:

i frequent Ruby's on a Tueday quite often for some strange reason......anyway to answer you question, the attractive men hang out out down at the beach pumpin weights and lifting cattle above their heads....you even had to ask!? Shock!

hmmm... but will these attractive men be there in January? Isnt it cold there in January? What is the avg. temp? Im gonna have get used to this Celcius stuff....

galwaydude

you will be grand considering what the temp is like in bosten in january. Im moving to new hampshire and then South bosten once i get settled in after 6 months

mike65

yankeegal wrote:

Isnt it cold there in January? What is the avg. temp? Im gonna have get used to this Celcius stuff....

Typical winter temps of around 8 C which is 46 in old money. You won't freeze but it will be damp (proberly!).

Mike.

yankeegal

better than the snowy season I will be missing here!

yankeegal

another question for anyone...

which airport do you all fly into for International flights? which is the closest to Waterford? How far away is Shannon? Does a train go from Shannon to Waterford? Taxi? (are taxis costly?)