Hike up Coumeenoole Hill

At around 11am, we arrived at Coumeenoole Hill, which was another film spot for Star Wars! I was very excited about the hike since I've been missing going on them at home, and the atmosphere and weather were absolutely perfect. I ended up pretty far ahead of the other group as we ascended the hill, but I was more than happy because it gave me an opportunity to quiet my mind and really appreciate the nature around me. My favorite part of the whole thing was hearing the waves crash against the rocks, and while it was only slightly concerning how close you could get to the edge, I found it exhilarating. I noticed our bus driver had made it up to the tower on the top of the hill ahead of me, so I walked up to meet him, and he talked to me about the history of the tower, a little bit about the area, and then mentioned a bit of pagan influence on the area as well. I pressed a little on that because I have my own personal interests in the history of that religion as well as how integrated it is into almost every aspect of ancient times. He told me about how much it was around and how our next stop would be at an ancient ritual site for pagans. Meeting the rest of the group at the top, Snyder grabbed me for a couple of pictures, and then we decided we wanted to head back down to the beach for the remainder of the time that we had there before moving to the ritual grounds. Going the way back down, we ran into an artist who took pictures and wrote poetry in Irish on the bottom of the pieces, and I thought they were gorgeous. 

Getting down to the shore, I was

very happy, too, because I'd also been missing the summertime and the sand and water, so getting to be close to it made me forget a lot about any stress that I had been feeling. Dr. Snyder was with us, and he ended up going in the water, so I said screw it, and I took off to follow, and honestly, it was so nice to feel the sand and the water and then walk up without my shoes on low key healed part of my inner child. When I got back to the bus, I mentioned that I was interested in pagan religion to Dr. Reed and that I wanted to try and find a poetry book that was based on pagan mythology. Hopefully, I can find one by the end of this trip! Speaking of poetry, a poem that I can relate back to lit would be Yeat's The Everlasting Voices. Just because it says, "That you call in birds, in wind on the hill, In shaken boughs, in tide on the shore?" and those two lines reminded me of the entirety of the hike over Counmeeoole. And then the very last line "O sweet everlasting Voices, be still." reminds me of the silence after the waves hit the shore, before the next wave comes back and hits.