Crypts, Stacks, Food & Flicks

I had a day out today that should make my father proud. I've apparently inherited his ability to fill a day of travel with more things to see than are humanly possible - yet still keep the trip under budget.

10:30am - Marsh's Library 2.50 euro
Marsh's library is a library in Dublin that came highly recommended from my Frommer's guide. The library is old (founded 1701), small and you can't take pictures of anything. However, I found the exhibit they had on old medical books quite interesting. Some of the books dated back to the 13th century. It's interesting to see how medicine and surgery have developed over the years. More impressive, though is seeing medical books that have diagrams drawn by Remmbrandt before he was a famous artist.

11:30am - Christ Church Cathedral 6.00 euro
The Cathedral was built in 1030 AD but has been rebuilt once since then due to a collapse of one whole wall. Though it is now part of the Church of Ireland, it was built before the division of Christianity into its various sects. It is an absolutely beautiful building with wonderful stained glass windows and ornate stone and wood carvings. The crypts are pretty neat, too.

1:00pm - Fish 'n Chips @ Leo Burdocks ~10.00 euro
Leo Burdocks is a famous chip shop in Dublin. There are two locations, one on Liffey St. and the one I went to that is right across from Christ Church Cathedral. The fish was great and the chips were plentiful, but there's nowhere to sit and enjoy your meal. On a sunny day, you can probably set yourself down somewhere on the Christ Church grounds, but it was wet outside. So I found a pub that had a beer garden with an awning. Nobody was outside, so I was able to enjoy my fish and chips in peace, unlike my experience in Monaghan.

1:30pm - Chester Beatty Library FREE!
This library had two large exhibits: Muraqqa' and Sacred Traditions. The artwork in the Muraqqa' exhibit was beautiful (taken from books dating from 17th century India and Iran), however the history was not all that intriguing to me. The Sacred Traditions exposition, however, mesmerized me. It was a wonderful exhibit on three of the major religions of the world: Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity. I love getting a more worldly perspective and found a place to do that here in spades. Wonderful exhibits, and it's free! Also there is a wonderful garden outside the library that looks up on Dublin Castle.

3:50pm - The Other Guys ~ 10 euro
After the Library, I got a ticket to see the new Will Farrell/Mark Wahlberg movie. It was freakin' hilarious. I recommend you go see it. It was an interesting perspective seeing the movie with an Irish audience. I found there were a couple of jokes where I was the only one laughing (because the Irish apparently don't know who Ralph Nader is - well at least not this audience).

6:30pm - Fries & a Shake @ Eddie Rocket's ~ 10 euro
Eddie Rockets is what we'd consider a revival 50's diner. You know the type: red vinyl seats, waitresses in pink uniforms, and mini jukeboxes on the table. It's one of my escapes to Americana that I can get while I'm over here. The food was good, but expensive.

8:20pm - Inception ~ 10 euro
This is the movie that's been out for awhile with Leonardo Di Caprio in it. All I can say is that it was a phenomenal movie. I don't go out to the movies to often . . . mostly because I don't like paying 10 euro (that's about $14 US) to see a movie that will cost $4.99 on Comcast in six months. However, this one was worth the price of admission.

It was quite a busy day and I know that my father would approve - with optional criticism that I paid too much for the movies. I did end up cutting one thing from the schedule, but we'll put that one onto the itinerary for another day. So what did I learn today? Chiefly that there are a lot of old books in Dublin and that the Irish don't know who Ralph Nader is.

The Blind Side

Beth and I borrowed The Blind Side from a friend (Thanks! Tiney) and watched it on Sunday. For those who are not up to speed on the movie scene (like us for example), this was the "true" (spiced with a dash of Hollywood) story of Michael Oher, Offensive Tackle for the Baltimore Ravens - drafted in 2009.

The movie was nominated a Best Picture Oscar and Sandra Bullock won the Best Actress in a Leading Role Oscar for her portrayal of Leigh Anne Tuohy, the matriarch of a southern family that adopts Michael.

I won't go into too much detail, because I'm not here to give you the Cliff Notes on the movie. I just like to point out the profound things that I see in my life and write about them.

The profound thing that I saw in the movie was characters moving outside of their comfort zones to take a chance. People watching this movie might think that it was the Tuohy family that took the risk of letting an outsider into their car and their home. However, don't underestimate that chance that Michael took. He also took quite a few steps out of his comfort zone to get into the car with the Tuohy family in the first place. How did he know that they didn't have ulterior motives?

Imagine for a moment walking down a street by yourself. You're homeless and it's raining. All you want to do is to get back to a place that you know that is safe and dry. Imagine now that a car pulls over. Somebody gets out of the car and offers you a ride and a place to sleep for the night. Do you get in? Do you trust that this stranger doesn't have ulterior motives? Is this how children/teenagers end up missing?

At some point you have to look to your gut to help you make a decision in that hypothetical situation. Both Michael and the Tuohy family took a chance to step outside of their comfort zones and both were rewarded for taking that chance. The truth is, however, that something could have gone horribly wrong for either party.

I'm happy that it worked out for them all. I admire them for their bravery. It's not easy stepping outside of our comfort zone, but sometimes it's worthwhile to take the chance.

Avatar

I finally saw Avatar. Since it took me so long, I'll go ahead and assume that most other people have seen it. Thus this is your spoiler alert. If you don't want to know what happens in the movie, read no further.

I enjoyed the show and I enjoyed the 3-D. As I was putting on my 3-D glasses before the show, I thought to myself, "What a gimmick! What the hell is so special about watching a movie in 3-D?"

Truth is the last time I saw something in 3-D was in Las Vegas . . . and it WAS quite gimmicky. This was no gimmick. What I found great about it was that things weren't necessarily poking out of the screen at you. Instead, the 3-D sunk back into the screen. It gave movie depth and perspective.

The world that was created was fantastic and beautiful. I'm not sure how practical it really was - floating mountains and all. Yet, I was still able to put my skepticism aside and enjoy backdrop.

The story has been told before: Lawrence of Arabia and Dances with Wolves come to mind. Soldier goes into the wild, befriends the natives, is finally accepted by them, then accidentally betrays them. Have I mentioned that I loved both of those movies? I think I just did.

Even though the story wasn't very original, its placement in a Science Fiction setting was new. I'm sure that it's been done before, but probably not as well as this. The use of the Avatar bodies was an interesting plot device, that was even more interesting since it gave the lead character away to overcome his disability.

The characters were fun and I enjoyed the acting - save for the lead character Jake Sully, played by Sam Worthington. His acting was the only distraction that I had to an otherwise enjoyable movie. The rest of the cast did an outstanding job.

Overall, I'd give it a 9 out of 10. Very good movie. I may go see it again, after all I now own the cool 3-D specs.