My history feels inadequate

Dublin in a few words: Old. Meandering. Fairly pedestrian-friendly. Full of pubs. Chilly. Beautiful. Old.

Did I mention old? Certainly not all the buildings were built many moons ago, but of the historic buildings, there are the old buildings (18th, 19th century), and then there are the Old buildings (12th century). For example: St. Patricks Cathedral, the one of that St. Patrick, was "raised to the status of a cathedral" in 1191. Meaning: there was already a very well-established Catholic church there by 1191. By contrast, Europeans did not even get to the continent that I'm from until the 15th century, let alone build cathedrals. The city of Dublin has had it's own millenium and while they apparently may have been off by a few years, who cares? The city had a thousandth anniversary!

In all honesty I feel sort of like I'm in an alternate-universe version of New York. It's older, probably a bit cleaner, smaller, and colder this time of year, but a big city with a huge foreign population. (Note: being considered a foreigner myself? Odd.) It's busy (not as busy as NY), and a bit impersonal. The history is captivating and I half want to stay in Dublin for my entire time in Ireland. But on the other hand, my bank account says bad idea. Ireland in my mind is a bit more small-towny, and if I don't like what I find outside of Dublin, I can always come back.