Donegal Dreamin'

We made a spur of the moment decision this morning to go to Donegal for the weekend. We began the afternoon shopping in Letterkenny and listening to the buskers--there was a busking festival on. Every couple of yards there would be someone on tin whistle, ukelele, concertina, fiddle, saxophone--one kid was just dancing to a boom box, a young boy--I had such respect for him. A few young kids were playing by themselves with their mom’s sitting behind them holding an umbrella. I have such love for these parents and for their brave kids.
Across the street from a ukelele band was this very obese woman literally doing nothing other than banging a tin with a drumstick. Her t-shirt said--I am not making this up--“Whatever.” I think that is what the Irish call "taking the piss.” She’s behind this white car.

The pictures I posted the past two days were from an evening walk on Rathmullan Beach--where the sun came out and a rainbow appeared! And from a drive north on Fanad peninsula. Tomorrow, we will drive to the northernmost part of Fanad Head, starting our day on the White Strand. Some previews:

I felt giddy when I got on this beach. I felt like a kid, I just wanted to run and jump and laugh. Sometimes I can’t contain the joy I feel when I am confronted with such utter beauty.

Maybe it’s because I harken back to a time when I was a teenager and I had a pony and the world was my oyster. I know that I totally romanticise the past--although I do think I felt joy frequently when I was riding. But I’m fine with this glossy nostalgia because it beats lurking in the darker corners of my history.

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