Today a few of us decided we would try to get in another hike since we had most of the day off. So Audrey looked up a route that would take us to Kilcoole, the next town over. We (Audrey, Kathryn, Hanna, and I) left a little before lunch and planned on finding a chipper (place that serves only fish and chips) or a pub. The path took us on this gorgeous hike along the beach following the DART tracks. We didn't really know how far it was, but we figured it couldn't be that far.... Plus, we thought once we had reached the next DART stop we would find the town.
We thought wrong. The hike ended up being only a little less than 2 hours... Much longer than we thought. As we were walking along, it felt like we were never going to make it. All we could see was the DART tracks stretching out into the distant rolling Irish hills. Wow, that sounds a lot nicer than it actually felt. One good thing thought, the weather was fantastic! It was a beautiful sunny day probably in the mid-60s!
Along the whole hike we kept getting hungrier and hungrier, but we were all trying not to complain. So when we got to a very deserted DART station in the middle of a field, we were desperately trying to fake good attitudes. There was only one road leading away from the station and the beach, so we decided to follow it for a bit. We hoped to find civilization soon, otherwise we would be hiking the whole way back on empty bellies.
Thankfully, we had only gotten a little ways down the road when we came across a warehouse that had a sign on the outside declaring it was actually a gift shop. We wandered inside in hopes of finding someone who could give us directions. The place was deserted, but we could hear voices coming from the back rooms. We decided to look around a bit and wait for someone to come out. This probably the randomest gift shop I have been in. It had jewelry, candles, purses, a hedgehog statue holding a beaker, a glass pyramid with pharaoh on the inside, random colored rockes, bowls with angel statues coming out the sides, and a million other random knickknacks.
Finally, a lady walked out of the storage area into the shop. "Hello, we're a little lost. We just walked over from Greystones. Can you tell us what direction town is?" (Now there was only one road, so we had a pretty good idea which direction town was... if there even was a town. But this seemed like the simplest question to ask.) "You walked over from Greystones? Haven't you ever heard of a bus?" "Yeah... It just seemed like a nice day for it." "Oh, ok. Well town is that way. Actually, I'm going there in a few minutes if you want a lift." "YES!"
She dropped us off in the middle of town and we set out to find a chipper. Who knew that would turn out to be an adventure. We probably wandered around this tiny town for 20 minutes. Every food place we found was closed. We asked for directions, but they didn't really help! We were about to give up and go catch a bus when we found it! A pub! A beautiful yellow pub with real food being served inside! It looked beautiful!
3/4 of us ordered fish and chips. Hanna is not really a fan of seafood so she got a cheeseburger. Oh did she miss out. This was probably the best fish and chips ever! Although, I'm not sure if I thought that because it really was that good or if I was so hungry even Brussels sprouts would have tasted good.
We enjoyed our lovely lunch and then walked the mile or so back to the deserted DART station. In theory, one was supposed to stop there at 3:15. It was the only one going through for quite some time and we did not want to miss it. So we got there around 2:50, sat down, and waited. All of a sudden, at 3:00 we hear a train honking! It's early? That's weird. So we stand up and look expectantly towards the oncoming train. But something is a little off. He wasn't slowing down. WHOOSH! That train went by us at full speed! There was nothing stopping him. I'm not going to lie, it was kinda scary. Even though we were on the platform and he was on the track... yikes. I am now completely committed to never playing chicken with a train.
So after that adventure, we sat back down to wait for out train. It's 3:15, no train in sight. Maybe it's a little late. Let's give it 5 minutes. 3:16, no train to be seen. 3:17, still can't see it. 3:18, maybe it's not coming. 3:19, looks like we're walking. 3:20, alright, that's it. We're walki.... oh wait! There are lights in the distance! Could it be????? It was! A train was approaching! Yippee! But would it stop?
It approached the station at a slow speed. So far, so good. It drove up to us at a slow speed. Good. It went right past us at a slow speed. WHAT? Not ok. Don't cry. Don't cry. Oh wait! It did stop! It just went farther down the platform from where we were! We sprint to the door and climb aboard, laughing at our emotional roller coaster all due to a train!
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