Vacation with my sister 🙋🏼‍♀️✈️

Hello everyone out there in front of your screens 👋🏻🤗

It’s time for another blog post to bring you up to speed and tell you a little bit about my master's program. 😄

But let’s start with the vacation I took with my sister. A little background: When my sister turned 18 and celebrated coming of age, I gave her a short vacation as a gift. 🎁 The special part, though, was that she wasn’t supposed to know where we were going until we got there. Since we hadn't found a time since 2024 when we were both free at the same time, this year just seemed to be the right opportunity, so I started planning. 📝

We flew out of Memmingen. The vacation was divided into two parts. First, we spent a few days in Albania, and then we went on to Turkey. 🇦🇱🇹🇷 In Albania, we really loved the nature, and in Tirana, the architecture. But Turkey had a lot to offer, too. It was particularly hot there at times—up to 32 degrees. 🥵

On the day we arrived, we couldn’t check in until 2:00 p.m. My sister wasn’t feeling very well and was feeling dizzy. 😵‍💫 Then they gave us a room that was already prepared. On that same day, I drove back to the airport in Antalya to pick up a rental car. 🚗 Since our hotel was in an area with only narrow alleys, I lost track of where I needed to go to park the car at the hotel. So I got lost and got stuck. The only way out was to back up, but I didn’t feel confident enough to do that because of the narrow, winding alleys. Additionally, I hadn’t slept due to the night flight and was extremely tired. 🫩 So I called the front desk at our hotel and asked if they could help me. That was resolved fairly quickly, and I was back at the hotel with my sister, who was sick in bed. 🤒

Early the next morning, we planned to go to Pamukkale to see the famous thermal terraces. When I got up at 4:30 a.m. for the trip, I felt so bad in my stomach that I had to throw up. 🤮 Had I eaten something wrong, or was it the sudden stress from the second flight to another country? I don’t know. We had actually planned to leave at 5:00 a.m. so we would arrive around 8:00 a.m. and avoid the tourist crowds. We ended up leaving around 6:00 a.m. My sister was feeling better than I was. When we arrived in Pamukkale, we were truly amazed. It’s like being on another planet. The vast white limestone landscape and the historic buildings are truly impressive. 😮 We were even allowed to dip our feet into these pools. The water was not cold; it was lukewarm to warm. Very pleasant. We spent a few hours there before driving back. That evening, we had to return the car.

Another activity I had really looked forward to—but that was unfortunately canceled due to the weather—was the tour to Cappadocia. It’s a mountainous region where even hotels have been built into the rocks. In the morning, many hot air balloons rise into the sky at sunrise. 🌅 That made me very sad. I would have loved to see it. As an alternative, we visited a beautiful waterfall—both where it begins and where it flows into the sea. It was obviously beautiful too! 🤩 Even though I have to admit that Turkey wasn’t really my kind of place in terms of culture, I need to go back at least once more to make up for the missed trip to Cappadocia. That tour would have included an overnight stay in one of those cave hotels. So I had booked our hotel in Antalya for one night less. Since the trip didn't take place, we had to look for accommodation for an extra night, which was quite annoying. 😒 That’s why we had to switch rooms three times. For the last night, they gave us the honeymoon suite (see pictures). That was wild! I don’t know why, though. Because I only booked the Premium Deluxe Room. 😅

All in all: a really crazy trip, and many things turned out differently than planned. But that’s often how life goes. We should learn to trust that things can turn out well even when they don't go exactly as we originally thought or planned.

So much for my vacation. A week that went by far too quickly. But I managed to scratch off two more countries from my world map! That’s always lovely. 🥰 And now I have an overview of where I’ve been and what still lies ahead. 🗺️✍🏼

Back in Germany, I utilized the time to visit my brother, jump around at a kite festival, attend a wedding, go out for Persian food with a buddy, and go to an amusement park with someone else—while gradually getting ready for the first semester of my master's program.

So far, I only have a vague idea of what to expect and what my responsibilities will be in the master’s program. Students from all semesters work together on projects. You can envision it like an editorial team that produces and uploads various contributions. The website is called Frankensein. So everything that is special here in Franconia or that you can do in this region is presented in video format. Additionally, I’m taking the course