Before the next stop, a quick note about the planner of this trip. Here’s a hint, it isn’t me. My lovely bride just finished a successful conference (which she also planned) where almost 200 scholars from all over the world gathered to share their scholarship. While she was putting that together, she was also putting this part of the trip together, too.
If this academic thing doesn’t work out, she, a full professor, is going to be a travel agent.
But only for people who want to go-go-go. I don’t think she can plan a trip where you didn’t get your hustle on. But if you take one of her trips, you’re going to do and see a lot. For instance …
We went to see the fairies at Tulan Strand. The reverend G.N. Wright was writing about them in 1834. The Fairy Bridges have been an attraction for about 300 years now, blow holes carved into the stone at Bundoran. When the tide is up, you can see the sea pushing up from the water below. People thought, according to the sign, that the sound of the waves were fairy guns. Why signs have to insult ancestral intelligence is beyond me. There’s also the wishing chair, a natural stone chair where if you sit down just so, follow the directions and do the hokey pokey, your wishes will come true.
One of the things you’re supposed to do while you’re in that magic chair is to contemplate the view. And, wishes or not, that’s a good thing to do. It’s a beautiful bay, and it was a beautiful day. On the clearest days you can see the cliffs some 17 miles away.
The locals thought that the natural arch had fairies on it, zipping back and forth, doing their little fairy business. I caught one in my video, and if you go back to see this morning’s video you might see the fairy, too. And here’s the arch, itself.
Wright knew the natural bridge was passable by “mere mortals,” which we saw evidenced today as a few people boldly marched out there, disturbing the fairies. “Visitors are recommended to avoid its unhallowed surface, as troops of fairies are constantly heard, and sometimes seen, by those who possess the invaluable gift of second vision, flying hastily from end to end.”
He was also a teacher, and author of some two dozen books, but I wonder what else he was into, having seen and heard fairies and all that.
It’s quite lovely, really. But, believe it or not, the views improved at our next stops. And that wasn’t even one of my wishes in the chair.
