There was no set plan for this holiday; just a need to get away. So today on a whim, I decided to drive out to a little gift shop in Goleen. The same crazy, winding roads and an hour later I ended up in the village of Goleen.
Turns out where Google maps had pinned the gift shop was actually a coffee shop so stopped in for coffee and the most sublime coffee cake I’ve ever tasted. Cost next to nothing, which continues to blow my mind and I parked off in a window seat with a book. Half the village must have stopped in for coffee and everyone seemed to know everyone else. I love people-watching in places like that. Turns out the coffee shop is also the post office, which closed for lunch while I was there. The lady sat behind me and I asked her about the gift shop. Turns out the post office was also the gift shop until last week but she’d be happy to call the lady if there was anything particular I was looking for.
A few people came in and dropped off letters and cash while the post office was closed and while I was finishing up my coffee, the mobile library van pulled up outside and a few people sorted out their literary needs for the next few weeks. This tiny village is exactly how I imagine my dream life. Sitting in the coffee shop, catching up with friends, reading a book and a mobile library is just a cherry on the cake.
The post office lady suggested I drive to Mizen Head, which is the most southwestern tip of Ireland and she pointed me in the general direction. I stopped at the corner shop for a drink and there were 2 people in line waiting to pay. No-one behind the till. The owner was apparently out doing a delivery and ‘would be back at some point’, so we all just waited patiently. That would never work here. That shop would be empty by the time she returned. But there it made perfect sense. The 2 guys were catching up on each other’s news while we waited and the lady eventually came back in, no hurry, and attended to her customers. I frikking love it!
Mizen Head was windy as all hell but there was a gift shop and I’m now the proud owner of 2 more books. Yes, I’m sure it’s a disease and no, I don’t care. Sitting watching the ocean crashing into the point was therapeutic. I’ve missed the ocean so much. Listening to the surf and watching the waves made me realize just how much I’ve missed it. It’s driven home how much I crave the simpler things, like how life goes on in that little village. Quite, unhurried, simple. Sometimes you don’t know what you need until it’s put right in front of your face for you to look at.
Driving home I followed the mobile library van for a bit then turned off back to Kilcrohane. There was a little burial ground along the road, so I stopped. The grass was completely saturated so left my shoes at the gate and headed in barefoot. The ground between the head and foot stones was raised; it’s as if the ground never settled over the bodies resting below. I spent a bit of time there, just walking among the stones, some of which have been there for centuries. What stories lie untold under them? I always wonder…
