Howth that again?

We went to Howth today.  I thought it was Howth, like "How" with a "th" at the end.  It's actually "Hoe" with a "th" at the end.  They don't like it when you mispronounce your destination at the ticket window.  So things didn't start off too well.

"I need two adults and two kids."  I said.  He stared at me like I was speaking gibberish.  "Two what?"  "Two kids."  Saying it again didn't help.  He got a bit angry and jabbed away at his calculator.  Then Jess offered "Two children."  Oh yeah, kids are baby goats.  Silly me.  Why do you have a calculator at a train station anyway - aren't there only so many combinations of tickets that are always the exact same price that you sell all day long??

After a thirty minute train ride, we were in the beautiful Howth.  It was sunny in Dublin when we left.  When we got to Howth, it was cloudy, windy and bitterly cold.  Not so beautiful, really.

Walking along the pier, we stopped for lunch.  They had a special for seafood chowder on the sign outside that lured us in.  That's what Jess ordered - clam chowder.  "You want the what??"  the waiter asked, dumbfounded and looking at her like she just spoke in gibberish.  "The clam chowder."  Again, saying it a second time just doesn't help and he couldn't connect the dots.  "The seafood chowder," I offered.  Oh yeah, must be completely different.  When it came out, it had two clam shells in it.  Silly Jess, thinking it was clam chowder.

Not having our fill of blistering cold yet, we went back outside to take pictures and to see if we could get the "kids" sufficiently worked up, because they were really being quite good and that just didn't seem right.  It worked when I gave them both to Jess to take pictures. Wearing a sun dress while standing on large rocks near the water while chasing kids in the wind is apparently a bad idea, unless of course you don't mind everyone seeing everything under that sun dress.

Windy, cold and not having fun in Howth - and who's watching the kids while this shot was taken??

So, now it was clearly time to leave and we huddled up for the walk back to the train station.  Jess asked the nice train man (who obviously loved his job as much as the first guy), what time the next train back to Dublin would leave.  We missed the last one by 5 minutes and had to wait for 30 minutes.  The train station at Howth is likely the only train station in the world without a clock, so she also asked for the time.  He didn't like that very much and angrily pointed at his computer screen so she could squint to see the tiny clock in the corner.

With the kids sufficiently worked up now, we unleashed them on the other poor fools huddled inside the train station to run around, point at things and jump off the stairs.  Once we were satisfied with the dirty looks we got, we took them outside.

Then a train came with 12 minutes left until we were supposed to leave.  This can't be the one, can it?  We better ask the nice man inside.  Jess goes back in.  He sees her coming, puts his head in his hands and lets out a large sigh.  "Yes, dear?"  "Is this the train back to Dublin?"  "Yes, dear.  It leaves at 3:05."  She should have asked him what time it was.