Just this one Ireland thing

Lock Ness monster and this one food thing are mythical creations

I’ve been processing (writer speak for procrastinating) talking about my travels in Ireland. Partly because I’m pitching things around still. Partly because there has been something on my mind from the gas station stop we made on the trip.

Snacks!

This gas station had the international snacks that foodies dream about. Some of the same products we find at home but better. Snacks that taunted me and that I knew I could only have in a limited supply.

Somewhere in Ireland on the road back to Dublin from Sligo our group made a stop at a gas station. The drive was two hours long and we all gabbed to one another on every topic known to the human experience.

This was toward the end of the trek of seeing hills, biking, hiking and figuring it all out. We walk into what feels like a superstore of junk food dreams. I really did want to try the chips because none of them have the same names or ingredients that they have in the US. In fact, many of them were made without the filler ingredients, with whole wheat or has actual sugar not a substitute of sugar.

And they tasted amazing.

But there was one thing that created warmth and nourishment to my cold dying heart and the abyss that is my soul. An ice cream cone.

I shouldn’t diminish this wonder by calling it simply “an ice cream cone”. This was the thing that you bike across a causeway for. This was the creation that makes hiking up a windy mountain the reward of champions.

This was a Magnum ice cream.

I found it in the case, glowing at me. It was the “Sunlover” Magnum Ice Cream. I looked around me. How were people acting so normal with this majestic item?

Why this mango, white chocolate and coconut Magnum Ice Cream found me here in this moment, on this trip I don't know. But here we are.

Whoever said “Its better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all” was a liar.

This coconut creamy delight and golden jam of mango wrapped in decadence gave me pause. I was rethinking decisions. . I didn’t want to think about getting to the end but I knew it was coming. Biting into it was a mistake but one that created a medley of mango, chocolate and coconut blending and dancing on my palate.

The unabashed inhale before I released audible sigh of content escaped me.

I was making plans for a life beyond this moment. I had no choice. The stick and thus the end of my treat near. I had to decide who I was once it was gone before gnawing at that last sliver of white chocolate clinging to its wooden home.

It was everything I wanted it to be and more. And I will probably never see it again. I will long for this treat.