Summer 2025
We had just come to the end of our week-long camping trip in Connemara…
During our stay I spoke with my friend who used to live in the nearby city (Galway), he told me about the best spice bag he’s ever had here. That stuck with me as I’m quite particular and curious when it comes to spice bags. So I made a quiet decision right then and there that once we were done here, I’d cap this trip off with a little adventure of my own. To try one for myself. Eat it in the park I’d wanted to visit on the way up here.The final morning came anyway and as we were saying our goodbyes before going our separate ways, I did a little research on this place I was already getting excited about. After days of hiking mountains, running on the beach and wading into cold sunset swims, the idea of a hot, chunky, salty crispy bag had me EAGER, and I even skipped breakfast in ‘preparation’.
Bad news…
What I wanted was clearly labelled with nuts as an allergen. That was news to me, not a single spice bag back home ever had nuts in them, maybe its some sort of local style? B**l***s anyway, I wasn’t about to start taking chances on something clearly labelled as such, good thing they said it but still, this was a serious punch in the gut after getting my hopes up.
Well look, I thought, Galway is a big city, if we can’t get THE spice bag surely we can at least get A spice bag. My mind was already set and I wasn’t leaving without one.
This one looks promising, it’s even on the way home…
I scanned the menu as per usual…
✅ Allergens listed
✅ Individually labelled for each dish
✅ The exact thing I wanted, clear of nuts
BINGO. The mission was officially BACK ON: Order, pickup, and bomb it to the park.
I arrived early and had to wait outside until they opened, another delay. When I finally got the bag, I was ready to horse it down, but I stuck to my usual caution, plus the park plan: one test bite, then wait and see how my body responds before eating it all.
I took a bite of a crispy chicken piece… Delicious. Slightly sweet? Different, but in a good way. I put the rest down, set a 15-minute timer on my watch, and set off for the park.
I should mention at this point that the park I wanted to enjoy this in is not some small playground job, it’s a full on nature reserve well outside the city. I had wanted to visit it because my mother used to walk there when she was pregnant with me and it even influenced my name.
15 minutes pass on the motorway. I’m basically drooling at this point, I felt fine but just for the sake of it I waited closer to 20 minutes before snacking away at 2-3 full pieces.
10-15 more minutes pass, as I’m barreling down the motorway with the landscape of empty fields blurring by, I feel something on my bottom lip…?
I rub my finger across it to double check. Am I imagining this? I rub it again, my gut says it’s swelling up, that doesn’t feel normal.
I keep driving.
The same empty fields and the same plain roads keep rolling by at 120km/h offering me no distraction from my thoughts, I’m glancing at the bag in my passenger seat like it just stabbed me in the back, I rub my lip again as my upper body starts tensing up, alarm bells start going off in my head as my mind goes racing.
That first place had nuts too, surely not a coincidence? A local style? Were you right? But the menu? Were you wrong? That sweetness you tasted… Peanuts are often used for adding a sweet flavour no? Well if it was peanuts that’s like the worst one no? Is there even signal to call someone from out here? This would be a pretty lame way to go don’t you think? You got an engine light when you drove up here, what if the car breaks down right now? Maybe the sweetness is just sugar and you’re thinking yourself into a reaction? Is that even possible? Reactions are just your immune system overreacting, are you overreacting right now and making it worse? Stop making it worse.
I try to stop thinking about it, to focus on the road, but there’s still nothing new there while my mind is screaming at me…
With a severe allergy like this, I tend to mentally anchor myself to emergency locations, so I know for example “the hospital is roughly x minutes that way”. Well, here I was anyway in the middle of nowhere, nothing but roads and empty fields. My friends are miles away and I’m on my own
This whole romantic vision I had built up of enjoying this meal alone in the forest I was named after… Was now turning into a darkly poetic return from whence you came place to die story 🤣.
F*ck.
I cracked the window open and force myself to just focus on controlled breathing. I centered myself and made a decision. I had no notion of how much time had passed at this point, but I do know I’m 5 minutes away from the park, what I need now more than anything is to just disengage and calm everything down, then I can assess the reality.
Worst case I still have my pen and there’s surely people at the park at midday on a Sunday.
Driving into the reserve, the visuals finally freshened up. Chocolate brown trees were shooting into the sky and sunlight rays split down through the dense tree coverings, helping my mind get off of itself.
I parked up, stuck the driver door open and just sat with myself for a moment. The bag still filling the car with its aroma. Despite all of this it was still drawing me and my empty stomach in. It’s funny how we even attempt to negotiate with ourselves over such high risk low reward ideas. I get out of the car and walk around looking for a bin, it has been decided.
As I’m walking around it’s no longer just the visuals but now the chitter chatter and forest noises that enter my senses too. I must say I found it amusing. It’s just my way of dealing with it but the contrast of it all hit me, me walking around basically with RED ALERT RED ALERT going off in my body as families with kids are strolling and hopping along without a care in the world in a beautiful summer green forest.
After a point, nothing had gotten any worse, so I figured I’ll try as best I can to calm down my system from what has already come up. So I kept walking and lost myself in the forest for a while.
I never did find that bin. (I ended up just putting the bag in the boot)
In retrospect, if I took out my thoughts. I had an increasingly swollen lip, slight swelling in my throat/neck but nothing severe, a feverish headache and red, irritated eyes.
But that’s not reality, you can’t ignore signals, you can’t ignore your reality, your situation and you can’t just take out your thoughts. I know how powerful the mind-body connection is and with my mind racing I believe I only exacerbated all the above. Maybe, potentially caused it? I don’t know. I’d had reactions abroad and in other weird places but something about this one and the combination of everything just threw me into a wreck.
To finish the story, at the end of my walk I scarfed down 3 backup oat bars I had, a sad sorry meal compared to what was promised to myself, but enough anyway to get me through the 2+ hr journey home.
The story isn’t all bad though, as I did end up celebrating the end of that day with my local spot which I KNEW was safe, so I still got my spice bag in the end. Not the one I really wanted. Not in Galway. Not without waiting all day for it. Not without panic. But a spice bag nonetheless!
