It's been a while ...

I haven't heard from myself in a long time... Yesterday was my last day of internship and now I'm preparing for my trip (planning the route, packing, moving out of the apartment, etc.). In the meantime, I have taken many weekend trips and have been on the go a lot. Recently, I took a longer vacation in Goa & Gokarna and in Pondicherry. The Goa vacation was my first vacation all by myself because I wanted to test how it is - since I will also be traveling alone soon. By now, I have crossed off almost all the places in South India from my bucket list :)

I'm doing very well, I left the office with mixed feelings. On one hand, I'm looking forward to the trip and then to coming home, on the other hand, such a farewell, which is most likely 'forever', is also sad. In India, when you have something to celebrate, like a birthday, they buy a cake and 'Cake Cutting' is initiated together. Even I and another intern got a cake :) Cake cutting means that we both cut the cake together and feed each other with the first slice (take a piece of cake in hand and feed the other person). Then we take another piece and feed each of the guests. A very funny action!

My travel plans for the next 4-5 weeks are as follows: First of all, I will go to Kerala again (although I was there already at Christmas, but there are still two places missing: Varkala Beach and Alleppey, the backwaters), then I have crossed off the very last missing places in the South and then I will head to the North. The state of Rajasthan is at the top of my list, with places like Jaipur ('Pink City'), Jodhpur ('Blue City'), and Jaisalmer ('Golden City') and the Thar Desert. April/May is unfortunately the peak of summer, so there can be temperatures of 40-50 degrees. I wanted to go there and see how and if I can handle it. If it doesn't work at all, I will have to go somewhere else. I also wanted to go to Rishikesh and do some yoga. Even the Beatles settled down here in an ashram back then :) I will visit some places around Rishikesh and then go to Delhi, where I will meet my brother on 21.04. :) With him, I will go to Agra (to see the Taj Mahal) and all the way up to the North, to the state of Kashmir. So, I have a lot ahead of me. On May 10th, I will be back in Germany again!