My Summer Plan

Photo by Foundry Co. (Pixbay)

It is that time of year again when the weather is getting warmer than it was supposed to and you are going to be sweating just by being outside for a second. What can I say besides summer is back baby?

Don’t get me wrong, I like summer with its sun and the wide variety of summer fruits. Don’t get me started on vacations and beaches. But in my defence, summer has become unbearable because of it soaring weather due to global warming.

A quick side note here, July this year has been awfully cold this year and I am convinced that August would be no different. On the one hand, the cold is a cool change of pace but on the other hand, I do not believe that this is a good sign for the future.

Nevertheless, in this article, I won’t be talking about how global warming is making summer less fun than it used to be. Today I plan on writing down my summer plans. Since I did have a whole summer planned. 

Technically, I didn’t plan jack shit. My mother planned everything, I just agreed to go with her on her many exploration adventures. It is not like my mother doesn’t travel alone because she does when I am at uni. Nevertheless, she just likes her travel buddy daughter.

It is also not like I don’t like travelling either. So a match made in heaven, I guess. Travelling is just so fun. Seeing the world with another also builds an unexplainable bond. It is shared experiences and tons of sight. Truly creates an enigmatic bond. 

However, before vacation, there is something that you need a vacation from for instance school or work. In my case, it is the end-of-term exams. And as always it is stressing me out. Not only before and during but also after since not knowing the grades makes for an anxious vacation.

Besides the untimely publishing of the grades, this exam phase has been less stressful, not because, I have fewer exams but just know how to study for an uni exam because let me tell you school exams are nothing in comparison to uni.

Putting uni aside, let´s get to the travel plans because I am writing because of that and not because of exams. I probably already dedicated many articles towards exams and how they are stressing me out.

In between my last exam and my first travel are a few special occasions for some friends so I am looking forward to celebrating with them. And no, no one is getting married. It is birthdays and some other celebratory events.

After that, I am travelling to Munich for a day or two and moving on towards Stuttgart for another day or two. The reason for those in Germany travels are because of family and friends. There are some friends down there and my mother would like to visit them.

Besides that, Munich and Stuttgart are perfect for city trips, and I do adore those. Big cities are exploration playgrounds for me. An adventure filled with small easter eggs everywhere for you to spot and to fascinate about.

For instance, my father didn’t visit my university city quite frequently and when we passed a green building (a building with greenery implemented into its architectural design) he stopped and stared for a moment because he was so in awe of it.

On my last trip to Hamburg, we also strolled through the city and found many fascinating things that we both found interesting. It might be small things such as an interesting sign and logos or it might be bigger things such as shops and restaurants.

So I do like my city trips. I believe that we could do a bit of sightseeing and just generally appreciate the old architectural design of the houses in the south of Germany since the architecture varies vastly across the land which makes spotting the difference oh so much more fun.

After that, we are back for a few days before we leave again. This time for England. Ever since the Queen's death back in September last year, my mother has been wanting to go to England since she missed her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee the same year.

In a cruel twist of faith, I told my mom that she shouldn’t go this year because there is always next year. Turns out I was wrong. In my defence, my mother did complain that the hotels and tickets were too expensive especially this spontaneously so I was trying to make her feel less bad about not going but that backfired on me in the worst way possible.

Now the least I can do is accompany her to England so she can pay her respects. I may never understand why the Queen of another country would mean so much to my mom like so many around the world but if that would make my mom happy, I would gladly tag along.

Besides, paying respects to the late queen, we had other plans as well. It is England after all there is so much to do and so many things to see. What I miss most about England is much to my surprise the people there and I have no idea why.

In all honesty, I just love the atmosphere there and people make up the atmosphere, so I don’t know what else there is to say. Most of all, I miss the accent because after hearing the German accent for such a long time, I need a reminder of how nice English could sound.

To a certain extent, I miss the food as well as the shopping. Even though big chains sell similar things all over the world, the smaller stores are not available everywhere, so I am looking forward to that. Aforementioned, I just missed how different things are there.

After a few days in England, we are taking a sleeper train to Scotland which I am somewhat looking forward to but at the same time not really. Don’t get me wrong, I have never been on a sleeper train and therefore don’t know how it is going to be.

But I do fear that I wouldn’t do much of sleeping on a sleeper train. Firstly the 8 hours of sleep will not be achieved since even if you board early, it is still somewhat only an 8-hour ride. Between the time it takes from getting ready to actually sleeping is a long time and don’t get me started on how old trains are loud.

However, I am also excited because if this experience is pleasant one, I would do that again. Sleeper trains are ideal for time-saving and effective travel so I could imagine if this is a pleasant experience, I would plan my future plans accordingly. So we will see.

Since I have never been to Scotland, I am not quite sure what we will do but since my mother seems to have a full day planned there, I am sure I won’t be bored. If I should be bored, I have set my heart out to learn the Scottish accent so anyway it goes I will be fine.

Luckily for us when we are in Scotland, there will be some sort of Folkfest with Bagpipes, dancing, celebrations and all which my mother claims to be very special and somewhat a must-see in Scotland. We are lucky to be there when it will be taking place so I am excited to see if it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience or not.

Right after coming back from one Folkfest in Scotland, I return to another taking place in Germany where there will be marching bands, celebrations, marching and all. A festivity my boyfriend claims to be very special and a must-see in Germany.

Can’t claim to be as excited as he is but it will be the last big event we are together before I leave for another country so I plan to make the most of the time we have together even if I am not the biggest festivities person at all. So we will see.

It feels as if a week after the last trip comes the next trip. This time a trip to China to visit family. Just like Scotland, I have never been to China so I wouldn’t quite know what to do but with family there I am sure everything will work out for the best.

From China straight to Taiwan where I was born, and I cannot lie. I am looking forward to that even though it means that I won’t see my boyfriend for a month or so. However, I haven’t been back since the start of that global pandemic so it has been quite some time.

In those four years, I haven’t seen my family in person and haven’t seen how things have changed over the years and it feels like something is missing. Even though I live in Germany just fine, Taiwan is still my home and nothing can replace a home.

I can’t quite explain it, but I just miss everything. The food, the people, the culture, etc… I just like the variety of the city. A nice change of pace from Germany. And I just miss the place I have been able to call my home for thirteen years of my life.

During my time in Taiwan, I just want to do everything. How everything is going to fit into my schedule is yet to be decided but that is a problem for future me to figure out so right now I am just looking forward to being back again.

For starters, I will eat street food until I literally cannot eat more. Because the food there is just so good and street food allows you to have a little bit of everything so if you are adventurous and ready to try everything Asian street food is the way to go.

Besides that, I am just going shopping for cute stationery because in Germany you can either get good but expensive stationary or bad but cheap stationery. I simply like the best of both worlds, so I am getting my cute but cheap stationary on the other side of the world.

Quite frequently I find myself in awe when it comes to innovation, so I am also excited to see the innovations awaiting me there. Even though Germany is quite innovative forward, I find Germany a bit slow in comparison to what I have read in the news and seen in real life in Asia.

By now it should be undeniable that I am really excited to go back to where it all started. I probably will be sad that I am going to have to leave a month later but I am not going to let that ruin my trip back to my home town.

It is no lie when I say that this is going to be an eventful summer and I am so looking forward to it even if my boyfriend won’t be there most of the time. We will figure it out one way or another how to make things work so it will be fine. If not, then it will be fine too.

Anyway, I cannot express my thanks to my mother who makes travelling the world possible as always. And I also cannot express how grateful I am to have her in my life and make travelling more fun.

I guess that is my summer plans summed up in two thousand words. I am sure that there will be three articles following up on my trip over the next few weeks if not more. In all honesty, I just need to start writing then an interesting article will come up. So until next time.