The Fairy Pools are a series of waterfalls and crystal-clear green/blue pools located on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. it’s an absolutely beautiful spot…highly recommended…My photos don’t do it justice, but you can check online for MUCH better ones.
We spent an entire morning there, walking slowly up the hill, taking in the views, stopping to admire the waterfalls and pools, aaaah and the colors!…and taking lots of photos, of course!
It usually takes about 45 minutes (each way) to complete the uphill walk without stopping, but how can you NOT stop? It’s simply stunning everywhere you look. The walk is deemed “Medium” for difficulty and includes a few river crossings over stepping stones, one of which would be quite slippery in wet weather…so please be careful!
One of the main things that slowed us down were the other visitors. The Fairy Pools were absolutely packed. Since it was an open area, though, that didn’t pose a problem, not a physical one, I mean. HOWEVER, since we didn’t want crowds of people to end up in all our photos (and the same, I’m sure, was true for them!), we had to wait for people to move out of the way, to let us by in some of the steeper areas, and so on.
It took a bit of time and a lot of patience. I don’t want to sound whiny: it was actually a perfect people-watching occasion…and at one point we even came upon a photographer who was wearing a kilt. Always fun, that!
The best moment, though, was when I looked down into one of the pools, almost directly below my feet, and watched in wonder as a sopping wet young man (a Scotsman), wearing nothing but bathing trunks and sneakers (compare that to Stefano who was wearing four layers of clothing, including a Gore Tex jacket!), climbed up the steep ravine. After reaching the top, he walked right past me and, to my complete surprise, JUMPED, as you can see in the ONLY blurry photo (above) that I managed to take with my cellphone. What a scary (exciting, too, I admit) moment! Jumping off those steep rocks to land with a splash into one of the Fairy Pools isn’t something that I would recommend, for sure…unless you know what you’re doing. This guy did, of course. But…brrrrrrrrrrrrrr, just the memory makes me shiver…
Before I forget (!), though, today’s anecdote has to do with our arrival. As we pulled into the Fairy Pools car park, which was almost full at the time (we got the last spot, right at the top), we noticed a sign telling us we had to pay to park…
While Stefano parked, therefore, I went off looking for an attendant or for a pay-and-display machine. I looked and looked, up and down the car park, but found…nothing except cars full of tourists looking for a spot…
Then I saw a Scottish guide standing by his van, waiting for his group of tourists to return from the pools. I figured he’d know what to do, so I went up to him and asked if he could tell me how/where to pay for our parking spot. He answered that the car park was free since it was a Sunday. 
Perfect!
I thanked him and prepared to go back up to the car to tell Stefano.
As I turned away, something on the ground caught my eye. A coin. A British pound. I pointed it out to the guide and said, “you’ve dropped a coin.” Before I could bend down to retrieve it for him, he said, “No, that coin isn’t mine. It’s yours!” I retorted, “no, it’s not. It must be yours.”
He grinned and, bending over to pick up the coin, said:
“If you find a coin, you’ll be lucky for an entire day. But if you find a coin and give it to a friend, you’ll be lucky for the rest of your life…”
He handed me the coin…