The Black Stallion
You know what’s super adorable? Seahorses, seahorses are adorable, so cute and absolutely amazing, little critters. Sure we’d seen pictures of them, drawings of them, but to see one live is something else entirely. But I’m getting ahead of myself. We’re still in Galway, enjoying our haunted walking tour, soaking up history. Besides the cathedral steeped in history and tower house with a story, we also saw a street that was discovered when the ground for a new mall was being excavated. It always amazes me how cities are built on top of cities that already existed. Beneath structures can be a whole other time period that existed for ages upon ages, yet somehow gets hidden beneath new structures. I can remember when this happened in the city nearest my home back in Manitoba as well. Bridge work revealed far below the surface, a wall that turned out to be part of Upper Fort Garry, which is rather amazing. Upper Fort Garry was the original fort when fur traders first came to what is now Winnipeg. The city grew up around, and apparently on top of, what used to be the fort. A half hours drive away and to the north is Lower Fort Garry, which still exists and is a popular tourist attraction.
Anyway, back to Galway and the mall that grew atop what once was a bustling part of the old city. Down the stairs we went to admire the street that had been restored to what it would have looked like back in the medieval days of the city. It’s rather wonderful that it’s a part of the mall. It’s important to be in touch with the past, and to retain and respect it whenever it’s possible. At least that’s how I feel.
When the tour was over, we were off to the tourist office once again. There had been a pamphlet that had caught our eye. Just up the road a bit in Salt Hills, there was an aquarium. Now, these two prairie girls love aquariums. Maybe it’s because, we’re nowhere near the ocean and all the interesting critters that call it home. Or maybe it’s because I want to point out to the girlchild, why I don’t want to swim in it. I mean, all kinds of creatures, big and small call the ocean home, and some of them aren’t keen on sharing. Not that I blame them. After all, I wouldn’t be pleased with strange looking creatures invading my space either. Anyway, aquariums are a great way, for us to marvel at the creatures that inhabit the ocean. There was a double-decker, open top bus that went there, and we made sure to be on it. We’d been to the aquarium in San Francisco and had thoroughly enjoyed it. We expected this one to be every bit as fascinating.
The aquarium in Salt Hills takes in sea creatures that are sometimes brought in by local fishermen. Creatures like sea turtles that need rehab, and there happened to be a young one there for us to see. It was due to be released back into the ocean soon, so we were lucky to see it at all. Sweetpea got to feed some rather good-sized fish by hand, which was pretty entertaining, and there were all sorts of critters to admire and marvel at. And then it happened, we got to a tank with the most adorable sea creatures we’d ever seen … sea horses. Sea horses are amazing. They truly do look like horses, with heads like fancy, little Arabians. Not only did they have elegant necks and heads, these ones were a lot bigger than we’d imagined they would be. They also came in a few colours, including a black. Yup, there was a black stallion in the tank, a rather impressive one at that. There were also a couple of white ones, which seemed fitting. Fairy tales often have black and white horses in them, so it seemed appropriate to see these in this fabulous place. The seahorses were the stuff that could easily inspire a children’s tale. They were that cool.
We stood there for quite some time, simply admiring the elegance and beauty of the seahorses. They seemed to prefer to be in the strong current, where they hung onto the plant life like their lives depended on it, which it probably did when they were in the ocean. Maybe they weren’t the usual mane and tail, wonderful aroma of eau de Cheval, but they were absolutely lovely anyway. They definitely fall under the ‘horse-related’ heading.
Leave a Reply