It’s officially summer, temperatures have risen and we’re actually experiencing a heat wave today here in The Netherlands. I am not going to complain though, as I wanted this kind of wear for the longest time and it’s finally here! Like I have said in all of my latest posts, summer is my favourite season. Now that I am super close to graduating, I am really getting aware of how lucky I am to be able to have 2 months off of university and can basically spend my summer however I want, as I don’t have a fulltime office job. Since this might be the last summer of my uni life I decided that I wanted to make a little summer bucket list with all the things I am dying to do this summer to properly enjoy it.

Obviously I am being way more dramatic with this than it in reality is, but I have quite a lot of free time right now as I am only really working on my uni thesis this summer while doing some occasional freelance jobs and working on my blog. This basically leaves me with quite a lot of free time, which you, in all honesty, don’t really have when you work 40 hours per week. It doesn’t leave much time for you to go to the beach on a Tuesday for example. So I’m making the most of it now, while I still have that time.

Spend time in nature

Naturally we are all drawn to going outside more in the summer. The weather is beautiful, which instantly puts me and other people in such a good mood. Gorgeous weather makes me want to spend time outside and preferably in nature. I am lucky enough to have the beach, the dunes and lots of woods and parks near me, so there is more than enough nature I can spend time in. I already look forward to planning a dune walk with one of my friends and I know my other friend and I will have some sort of a picnic at the park to catch up!

Take a fun day trip

I feel like summer is also for exploring. As much as I am a major homebound person, I love my own home and spending time in my hometown, this year I am really hoping to plan a little day trip to another city here in The Netherlands. It’s so fun to explore and discover a new city. Especially when the weather is as glorious as today, it makes it super exciting to discover a new city, as it can easily feel as if you’re in another country!

Visit the rose garden

This next bucket list item might come close to my first bucket list item; spend time in nature. Every year my friend and I make sure to visit the rose garden in our hometown. It’s slowly becoming a tradition for us to go together to sit in nature a bit and look at all the pretty roses and all the other gorgeous flowers in that garden. It’s obviously not as special as some of the flower fields that can be found all around the world, but it’s a place I have been to ever since I was a kid, so it’s just very nostalgic to stroll through the rose garden.

Eat an ice cream

Summer means ice cream, especially when there’s a heat wave going on! I love ice cream and there are so many great gelato shops here in The Hague, which basically means I have lots of new ice cream places to try here. One thing I plan on doing lots this summer, is to eat lots of ice creams. The proper ice creams, but also maybe make myself some super yummy homemade fruit lollies. They have become my latest thing, as they are so cooling to have when it’s barely too hot to move around in the heat.

Go to a local market

One of the things I associate with summer too, is visiting a market. It’s probably because I love the idea of visiting a little market to buy lots of new fresh fruits and veg on a summer morning. This stems from this idea in my head about farmers markets. There’s just something about going to a market that makes me feel like the inner 12-year-old giddy and dorky girl I was back then. I am yet to find a proper farmers market here in The Hague, but I am making it my mission to visit some sort of a local market this summer to enjoy some bits and bops.

Read 4 more books

I have officially found back my love for reading again. Like I said before in my summer goals this year, I am really looking forward to spending lots of time reading a book in the garden. I am currently nearly finished with reading The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, which is so good! Next up I’ll probably, finally, read The Power and The Milkman. Once I have finished those, there is still an endless ‘want-to-read’ list on my Goodreads account I have to eventually get through.