Summertime.

Summer is coming to its end, and I realised that my blog has been on a vacation just like me. So this post is some kind of a catching-up session with my readers and a chance to reminisce about great summer adventures for me.

June.

The greatest thing about June this year was my getaway to the UK. Spending a whole month with Iskandar, meeting his family, staying in Durham and simply enjoying the British way of life was a heartwarming experience. Durham charmed me with its beauty and lifestyle and, although it is completely different from Exeter( which is the best place in England,IMHO) , I grew to love it in less than a couple of weeks. Playing football, Scratching knees and elbows, Exploring Newcastle, Go karting for the first time in my life, Rowing on the river, Trying some best-tasting red velvet cakes and banoffee pies, Taking the wrong train and ending up in Scotland, attending Iskandar's graduation and college events- these are just some things that I can remember now. 

July.

July started for us in London. We were spending pretty much most of our time in Kensington( I LOVED IT) , Bayswater and Hyde Park. I'm not sure if you've heard about the heat wave in England, well if you haven't , trust me, the digits were way too high for a typical British summer! Nothing to complain about though, it was great. One of the hottest days was probably the day we visited the London Zoo. Thank God for the fast-track tickets! It took us about 10 seconds to enter the Zoo, unlike lots of tourists who were standing there for at least half an hour under the sun. The Zoo surprised me with the way they treat the animals- being brought up in a post-Soviet country, I was used to seeing hungry dirty poor animals, often looking like they just got into a fight, and grumpy zookeepers, which is why the previous time I attended a zoo was nearly 15 years ago. However you can tell that all the little, tiny, huge, creepy, playful, etc. creatures at the London Zoo are happy. One of the funny moments was my boyfriend's reaction to the bugs section : "Oh my God, they are so cute"! The Perks of dating a Geographer. <3

       

During the second half of July I was staying at Koc University, working as a mentor at an English Learning Camp for kids. The three weeks I spent there somehow managed to change my opinion about   lots of things. Being for about 10 hours per day right next to teenagers, observing the way they communicate, the way they think about most things, seeing how good-hearted , kind and loving they can be , makes you want to learn from them instead of teaching them. At the end of the project we were incredibly close with the fellow mentors as well as the kids. Goodbyes were too hard to handle, but this is something we all had to get used to. 

                           

August.

August turned out to be rich on trips for me. At first I had a chance to go to Macedonia for a couple of days. Skopje turned out to be small, environmentally-friendly and different from what I would expect it to be. Macedonian vegetables and fruits are something worth traveling for in this GMO era, the country's nature is untouched, non- industrial and preserved at its best. Unfortunately I didn't have time to go to the countryside and visit the famous lakes, but maybe that's a good reason to come back?

The second trip, which was probably the most exciting time of this past month, was my trip to Antalya. I can't express with words how much I missed the sea. They say that salty water heals everything, even your soul. Can't agree more. My skin got tanner , body refilled with some sun energy and now I'm emotionally satisfied with my summer and ready for Autumn.

                            


P.S.: Thanks for reading, hope your vacation is going great and in case you haven't been on a summer adventure, go ahead and make the most of the one week left!


Love,
Aida