City Life/Country Life - Which do you prefer?

meeeeh

I don't know really. I would like to be a bit closer to good restaurants, ecent shops, theatre and that kind of stuff but I wouldn't want to compromise on quality of accommodation. I spent most of my life in fairly decent size detached houses and I am used to it. Minimum would be kids having each their own room. No taxing commute and if all possible no public transport is another preference. I'm pretty sure I would enjoy some of the more prestigious addresses in cities but I have no desire of living in a huge estate of semi d's. As it is big garden, not a huge but spacious house and 10 minute drive to work, shops and schools works for me. It might not be optimum solution but it is good enough. For me it's not country vs city it's a lot more dependant on geography and type of neighbourhood.

fxotoole

hairyslug wrote: »

I much prefer living in a small village, I'm an unsociable bollix so I don't have to worry about gossip.

This x 1000

tonycascarino

Lived in the city for over 10 years and I hope I don't have to again. The novelty wears off fairly quickly. Cities are grand to work in (or visit) but once it is over I am only too happy to leave it. I would also not be a fan of living in an area where everyone lives next to each other like sardines in a tin. However, living in the suburbs of a city or a town is ideal for me. You will have everything available within a relatively short distance of you (if you drive) yet can live in the peace and quiet of the countryside. For me, life in the countryside is more laid back and a far better environment to raise a family.

Buford T. Justice XIX

Ubbquittious wrote: »

Hopefully I'll be moving to an island with only a few 100 people on it soon

I don't think the economy here is that bad yet tbh :pac:

Outlaw Pete

Outlaw Pete wrote: »

Isn't there some song about city life vs country life, I think a line says something about how they like city life but it's country life they love.

I might be imagining it.

When I woke up this morning the song was playing on the radio! It's Don McLean's Castles In The Air and the line is:

'I'm city born but I love the country life'

He also talks about taking a country woman for his wife, but that's for another thread.

NIMAN

Country life all the way.

Ubbquittious

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

I don't think the economy here is that bad yet tbh :pac:

The economy isn't as important as people let on, with every day that passes I'm more and more convinced it's only there to keep people mindlessly busy.

yourdeadwright

When i was in my 20's id say City all day every day but mid 30's now with kids so Country side all day ,  
Only problem is fairy hard to find a job without having to travel crazy distance each day ,
Although I suppose somewhere in the Wicklow mountains would be close enough to Dublin

notsoyoungwan

I would hate to live in a city. Too noisy, too crowded, too much traffic etc. every time I have to go to Dublin for something, I leave thankful that I don’t have to live there.

I feel really lucky where I live- it’s rural enough that I look out my windows and see cows, mountains, a river, countryside but yet I’m within walking distance to a small shopping complex with supermarket, pharmacy, hairdresser, beautician, Chinese, pub etc. I can drive to a decent sized town in ten mins, and I’m in work in about 5 mins once I time it right.

John_Rambo

It's an ambiguous question, and that's not a dig at the OP.

There's city life - Big cities, small cities, mega cities etc..

There's town life - Small towns, big towns, market towns etc...

There's proper rural life - Agricultural, scientific life with a connection to the land often with a degree of self sustainability.

There's rural life with no connection to the land.

There's fascinating Island life.

There's village life - Coastal villages, crossroad villages, tourist villages etc...

There's suburban life or a typical mix of suburban/one off housing/ribbon housing type of living too. Some of which would be sold as "rural" life.

Purple Mountain

Rural living for me.
Have done the city thing in my 20s. Hated the noise, traffic lack of sense of community.
Here I like driving down my country road waving to all the neighbours, been awoken by either mooing cows or chirping birds and driving right up to the door of my work place.
I get peed off when I have to go 5 minutes for milk but that's a small price for the view I have.

fattymuatty

Graces7 wrote: »

Neither. Small island life for me every time. Folk few and scattered and life is challenging enough that there is never the boredom that leads to nosiness etc

Utterly lovely too, surrounded by ocean. Wild flowers and birds and seals etc and the peace when we are cut off in bad weather..

I grew up on a small island with a population of well under a 100, it was an idyllic childhood in lots of ways. We had the freedom of the island and it definitely gave me an appreciation of nature, we spent hours just roaming, collecting grasshoppers, messing around in rock pools finding all kinds of creatures, playing on the bog with the sundews making them close. I look back now with fondness but being the only kids on the island was lonely at times too.

I wouldn't go that rural again, we live in a small town now and it grand. Keep ourselves to ourselves so there is nothing to gossip about. I think ideally I would like to be about a 15min cycle from a small town, rural but with shops, chemist, kids school in easy reach.

gmisk

I come from a small village in a very quiet but picturesque area up north.
But I have lived in Dublin for about 15 years, I couldnt imagine living in the countryside again until I possibly retire.

Drifter50

Work in Dublin all week for me, rural at the weekends. I just feel the hassle slip off my shoulders once I point the car west after getting past Leixlip on a Friday evening. Would`nt like to be rural 100% tho, village gossip, everyone knows your business etc. The anonymity of the city works sometimes tho, but only sometimes

Jamsiek

Depends on the city and what the countryside is like around it.
I love living in my current city as it has everything I need right at my doorstep.
I also have the most spectacular scenery you could ever see all around me.
Sometimes the right combination does the trick

Jimmy Dags

Much easier to get an escort in city.

rainbow kirby

No real interest in countryside living. I've lived in cities all my life (grew up in Dublin and have been in London for 5 years) and plan to stay that way.

AttentionBebe

Unashamedly prefer the suburbs to city or country living. Quiet, easy access to amenities, near the city if you need it.

honeybear

Country

freshpopcorn

The one thing I did learn about living in a city when I did was I have no interest in shops/coffee shops/clubs/etc.

Graces7

fattymuatty wrote: »

I grew up on a small island with a population of well under a 100, it was an idyllic childhood in lots of ways. We had the freedom of the island and it definitely gave me an appreciation of nature, we spent hours just roaming, collecting grasshoppers, messing around in rock pools finding all kinds of creatures, playing on the bog with the sundews making them close. I look back now with fondness but being the only kids on the island was lonely at times too.

I wouldn't go that rural again, we live in a small town now and it grand. Keep ourselves to ourselves so there is nothing to gossip about. I think ideally I would like to be about a 15min cycle from a small town, rural but with shops, chemist, kids school in easy reach.

I hear you. And the other post re different needs in old age,. But I have chosen small island isolation for my old age and now have supply lines in place.

Was off island y'day first time for several weeks and will be weeks again when I lived on a north sea island, i was not off for the last 5 years I was there.

There is no reason to live else in reality for me . Nothing I need that I cannot get here.

lmimmfn

where is the poll?????

jester77

I grew up in the country, lonely, depressing and nothing to do as a kid. Wouldn't wish it on anyone.

I now live in the city, love it. They have the right balance where I live, any new housing developments that are built have all the proper amenities around and lots of green. Public transport, doctors, supermarkets, restaurants, bars, etc are only a few mins walk, yet everything around me is green, with lots of walks and parks.

Sleepy

I grew up and spent my 20s in the suburbs of large towns or cities, spent a few years living in a fairly rural location on the Wicklow coast and, while I loved a lot about it, it was just too inconvenient to have to get in the car to go get a box of cigarettes or a pint of milk in the evenings. I fantasised about the stereotypical penthouse in London or New York as a teen but in reality, it was the possibility of sexual escapades that anonymous city living offers that I was really fantasising about at that age. Having visited London extensively for work for the past decade, I now know that while I adore it as a place to visit, I'd find it extremely lonely as a place to live (even more so than a rural wilderness - there's nothing as lonely as being alone yet surrounded by millions of people).

Where we are now, in a small village on the North County Dublin coast, I absolutely love. We're surrounded by coastline, the house backs onto acres of fields where you can walk the dog or forrage for blackberries with the kids yet there's a local pub within 2 minutes walk, a brilliant chippy and a family-run convenience store at the end of our road: beside which is a bus-stop that'll take you into Donabate for the Supermarket etc. or further into Swords for a shopping centre). From Donabate, the City Centre of Dublin is a 20 minute train ride. There's not quite the same range of take-aways for delivery as in the suburbs I lived in previously, nor the same range of service providers for Internet / Waste Collection etc. but there's enough for the occasional treat and the broadband is fine. We have neighbours but have been lucky that they're a lovely little community with an active Whatsapp Group for borrowing / lending tools, keeping an eye out for each other and the occasional night out (or in) for few drinks. Sure, I'd love the extra space rural dwelling allows for: a garage workshop, storage rooms, bigger bedrooms with acres of storage etc. but I'd find it too hard to give up the convenience, the proper broadband connectivity, the reassurance of being within a reasonable distance of a hospital etc. that you lose in that trade-off.

AllForIt

If one simply has a home in the country but has a car to travel to a nearby urban area then that's not really county life is it?

County life is what I suffered when I was growing up which meant I was isolated in the country 5 miles from the nearest town - too far away to go for a casual walk. No public transport, no street lighting, no footpaths to light up anyway. Stuck in the house all day. I think that kind of life is really unhealthy and ppl who grow up in urban areas are far far better off for so many reasons.

I've always found it amusing the way ppl think of country life as being healthy because there is this idea that somehow country ppl spend a lot of time outdoors. This is completely untrue - country ppl spend way more time indoors especially in Ireland because they have no reason to go outside, the weather, and the fact that in winter it's pitch black outdoors from 5pm onwards.

City life for me every time. To me, there is no 'life' at all in the country.

jobless

Jimmy Dags wrote: »

Much easier to get an escort in city.

plenty of Ford garages down the country

jobless

Sleepy wrote: »

I grew up and spent my 20s in the suburbs of large towns or cities, spent a few years living in a fairly rural location on the Wicklow coast and, while I loved a lot about it, it was just too inconvenient to have to get in the car to go get a box of cigarettes or a pint of milk in the evenings. I fantasised about the stereotypical penthouse in London or New York as a teen but in reality, it was the possibility of sexual escapades that anonymous city living offers that I was really fantasising about at that age. Having visited London extensively for work for the past decade, I now know that while I adore it as a place to visit, I'd find it extremely lonely as a place to live (even more so than a rural wilderness - there's nothing as lonely as being alone yet surrounded by millions of people).

Where we are now, in a small village on the North County Dublin coast, I absolutely love. We're surrounded by coastline, the house backs onto acres of fields where you can walk the dog or forrage for blackberries with the kids yet there's a local pub within 2 minutes walk, a brilliant chippy and a family-run convenience store at the end of our road: beside which is a bus-stop that'll take you into Donabate for the Supermarket etc. or further into Swords for a shopping centre). From Donabate, the City Centre of Dublin is a 20 minute train ride. There's not quite the same range of take-aways for delivery as in the suburbs I lived in previously, nor the same range of service providers for Internet / Waste Collection etc. but there's enough for the occasional treat and the broadband is fine. We have neighbours but have been lucky that they're a lovely little community with an active Whatsapp Group for borrowing / lending tools, keeping an eye out for each other and the occasional night out (or in) for few drinks. Sure, I'd love the extra space rural dwelling allows for: a garage workshop, storage rooms, bigger bedrooms with acres of storage etc. but I'd find it too hard to give up the convenience, the proper broadband connectivity, the reassurance of being within a reasonable distance of a hospital etc. that you lose in that trade-off.

sounds idyllic.... where is it?... i live in wicklow myself...countryside a few mins away while dublin being commutable too...

kennethsmyth

cantdecide wrote: »

I want countryside at my back door, a city at my front door, a shopping centre just up the road and an airport just a little bit further down the road.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFDcoX7s6rE

You are talking about the Naul area north county dublin, country, m1 5 mins, milfield/balbriggan 6 mins, airport 20 mins!

kennethsmyth

jobless wrote: »

sounds idyllic.... where is it?... i live in wicklow myself...countryside a few mins away while dublin being commutable too...

Probably Portrane

meeeeh

AllForIt wrote: »

If one simply has a home in the country but has a car to travel to a nearby urban area then that's not really county life is it?

County life is what I suffered when I was growing up which meant I was isolated in the country 5 miles from the nearest town - too far away to go for a casual walk. No public transport, no street lighting, no footpaths to light up anyway. Stuck in the house all day. I think that kind of life is really unhealthy and ppl who grow up in urban areas are far far better off for so many reasons.

I've always found it amusing the way ppl think of country life as being healthy because there is this idea that somehow country ppl spend a lot of time outdoors. This is completely untrue - country ppl spend way more time indoors especially in Ireland because they have no reason to go outside, the weather, and the fact that in winter it's pitch black outdoors from 5pm onwards.

City life for me every time. To me, there is no 'life' at all in the country.

I live in the country 5 miles out of town, no street lighting and so on. First thing I do in the morning is go for a run and if I am early enough I usually meet some deer and squirrels. Kids can play outside, they have others over and so on. And even that, It's easy to cycle 5 miles.

I think it's perfectly fine to prefer one way of living to the other but there is also how much you make out of situation you are in.