These days, when the temperatures outside are starting to get lower and the days shorter, this year’s summer in Europe is drawing to a close. Although I am more of a summer type of a person, that time of the year was rarely a time for me to fully enjoy it, although it did happen a few times when I was younger, but still. I could say that this year, it was entirely different, from more than just one standpoint.
Every year the beginning of summer means that my birthday is fast approaching and when I was still in school, it also meant that the school year was ending and the holidays were about to begin. For a kid, there’s no bigger joy than being basically care-free for 2 whole months! I’m sure 99%, if not every single adult, would agree, that that would be a very happy couple of months for an adult as well! 😀
When I think of the summer holidays from the first years of being in school, I remember going to Croatia and staying with my relatives for most of the holidays. Those days were really among the most fun, it was the time to forget about everything and just enjoy the summer. There were quite a few memorable moments from that time, but maybe I’ll get back to that in some other post.
My usual summers for the past few years, as I’ve mentioned before, haven’t been as exciting as they could’ve been. There were some bright moments, let’s say, which made it enjoyable at least, but it was nothing special. A lot of that revolved around playing volleyball at some tournaments, traveling around the country because of said tournaments, and just having fun, sometimes more, sometimes less. A lot of people take some time off of work during summers to travel somewhere, or go to the seaside (which could also fall into the travel category, technically speaking :D), and so was the case for me this summer.
Those of you that have been following my blog, already know that I went to Venice and Berlin in July, and I’ve written quite a lot about that too. Since the plans for that were made that much further in advance (we bought the plane tickets in April), I knew that that was going to be the highlight of this year in general, not just for the summer. Last year it was the trip to Scotland, while this year, at first, I only thought it was going to be Berlin. But the trip was still relatively far away from the beginning of the summer, so there were still some things before we even got to it.
June started really well on the volleyball front. We went to a really great tournament and even though it was my first time playing beach volley this season I was pretty satisfied with the performance, and we finished as runners-up at that tournament. Might have needed a bit more luck to win it, but I wasn’t dissapointed with the result, because the final match was really good from both sides, but in the end someone had to win and the other team totally deserved it. Not long after that I decided to get yet another tattoo, this time on my forearm.
Since this tattoo is on a spot where I can see it without any problems, it was also the first one I was able to clearly see how it was coming to life. That was another new experience, the one I enjoyed quite a lot actually. Most likely, if I hadn’t been able to see it while it was still work in progress, it wouldn’t have had those blue-ish shades on the compass, since the plan at first was to make it all black, but I think it looks much better this way! When I made the appointment for it, I would’ve had to wait for about 2 and a half months, but a couple of days later my tattoo artist called me if I’m busy at a certain day and time, as a spot opened up, so in the end, the tattoo was an early birthday gift for myself, getting it done just 4 days before.
The birthday itself was pretty interesting as well, unlike some of the previous ones. I started using Avant2Go car sharing service then (you can read more about it here), and just got to spend the day with the rest of my family. Another thing to mention in June was our club picnic/tournament, which was also another fun event and an afternoon well spent. 🙂 There’s not much to write about that, since you can probably imagine what was going on, and it was a great way to finish off the season in style. 😀 After all of that was over, it was time to start counting down the weeks, and in the end the days, until it was time to go to Berlin.
A lot has already been written about the trip, so I won’t keep repeating myself, you can check out my other posts on that, but I am going to say that it was AMAZING! 🙂 A bit stressful at the end, but all in all, a great experience nevertheless.
The summer didn’t end with that trip, there was still the whole month of August ahead of me. The beginning of August in the last few years, brings a professional beach volleyball tournament to the city of Ljubljana. This year I have to admit I only went to see a game or two, I just wasn’t as interested in it as I have been in the past. A lot of other things have been going on back then, as well as right now, so my focus was/is more on that. It was still a pleasant evening, with some new plans being made, but more on that some other time. 🙂 Apart from that, I already had another trip planned for the end of the month, this time it was more like a fun “work” trip. 😀 Each year before the start of a new indoor season, our club organizes a trip to the seaside for the players, just to get ready for the upcoming season and maybe bring the teams even closer together, while still have a lot of fun before they have to go back to school. There were a lot of things to take care of, but we had a lot of fun so it wasn’t that hard to do all that. 🙂
Judging by the weather we currently have here in Ljubljana, I’d say our summer is definitely over, although meteorologists are predicting the temperatures to rise above 25°C this week, but anyway. For me it’s also a time to look a bit more into the future, so to speak, and think about some big life choices laid out in front of me, as well as some plans for future travels and things like that. It is going to be an interesting autumn without a doubt, so stay tuned to see what I have in mind! 🙂
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