Ireland day 1252. Monday 03 March 2025- The Brutalist

Today’s summary	Recovery continuing. Note quite up to 100% yet but enough for a busy day in Dublin. Got the train in for a meeting then went to Spanish shop, a running shop to get new trainers, then Fallon & Byrne for some papayas. Watched “The Brutalist” at IFI – a 3½ hour epic worthy of about 3 stars out of 5. Lunch at the IFI then dinner at the flat after video call to Val
Today’s weather	Dry bright and fresh with some sun. Light south westerly wind. Appx 11c

Today’s overview location (The red mark shows the location of my route)		Close-up location (The red line shows where I walked) (No GPX today)

Commentary

My steady recovery continued today. I’m not up to 100% yet, but I feel so much better than I did early on in the weekend. Hooray! (But I’m not counting my chickens).

With Val still being away, I had a full day pretty much to myself. I had a meeting in Dublin at 11, but that was all there was in the diary. So after a quick videocall to Val, a couple of cups of tea and a shower, I was up and away on the 10 o’clock DART into town. A straightforward (and without cost – I still can’t get used to it) journey, and my meeting finished quickly so I was a free agent again by 11:30.

My first objective was to have browse round the Spanish shop in Capel Street (and – I will admit it – I secretly wanted to practice a bit of my Spanish too!). I bought a couple of Spanish delicacies.

From there I crossed over Grattan Bridge and into Essex Street to call in at “Run Logic” – a shop I’d never visited before – to try and get some new running shoes. For people like me with dodgy joints, I’d been recommended “Hoka Bondi 9” trainers, which are super-padded and good for general wear even if not actually running. Anyway, they only had the older model in stock, and also in the wrong size, but I ordered a pair of the correct ones, and they should be in stock in a couple of weeks. The store was friendly and helpful, though quite small.

I next wanted to go over to Fallon & Byrne to try and get some papayas. So I headed off in a generally easterly direction from the sports shop – but was waylaid en route by the IFI. I thought I’d drop in on the off-chance and see what was showing today. It turned out that “The Brutalist” was being screened in an hour and a half and, having picked up a few Oscars over the weekend, I thought it would probably be a film worth seeing. So, on the spur of the minute I bought a ticket. The ninety minutes until it started allowed me enough time to go over to Fallon & Byrne to get my much sought-after papayas which I’d failed to find in Clontarf yesterday (and the liquorice allsorts!) and also to pack in a fish and chip lunch in the IFI café. Delicious.

The film itself was a 3½-plus epic about a Jewish Hungarian post-war emigrant who moves to the USA and becomes a renowned architect in the “brutalist” style. The story revolves round life as an immigrant, and also the architect’s complex relationship with his family and a multimillionaire who commissions him to build an ambitious (and in my view hideous) concrete community centre. My feeling about the film was that it was too long, too meandering, and lacking in a satisfying conclusion. I quite enjoyed watching it, but I wouldn’t particularly want to see it again and at most I think it deserved 3 stars out of five. At least there was a 15 minute interval in the middle!

When I came out of the cinema, it was going up to 6pm but still light. I walked over to Connolly and didn’t have too long to wait for a DART to take me back to Malahide. Once back, I had another quick videocall with Val, then made a light dinner of oatcakes, pears, and porridge (yes really – I know it’s strangely eclectic, but it was just what I felt like I needed).

I’m going to close down now and put my feet up for a bit with my book, and reflect on a well-spent interesting and worthwhile day. May there be many more!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


*Managed to get some Mojo Verde* – Canarian green sauce – from the Spanish shop in Capel Street. A nice reminder of our holiday**	More shopping – ordered a pair of Hoka Bondi 9 running shoes. They are super-padded and supposed to be good for people with joint issues – also for general wear, even if not running in them

Fallon & Byrne – Dublin’s equivalent to Fortnum & Mason. Has all sorts of exotic fruit (though not, interestingly, blood lemons or bergamots)	Papayas! Managed to find some at last. I bought a couple – they are a rather hard and bullet-like at the moment, but hopefully after a few days on the window-sill they will ripen a bit

I treated myself to fish and chips in the IFI café while I waited for my film to start. It was the first time I’d felt properly hungry for several days, to be honest – so I really enjoyed it (especially the fact that I didn’t have to make it myself!)	O’Connell Street this evening, on the walk back to Connolly station

Temple Bar looking sparkling, as ever, this evening