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Booked: Where I’m off to this summer

BY ONEIKA RAYMOND

An update on my summer travels.

Can you tell it’s been a busy school year? A new teaching job and a new life in fast-paced Hong Kong have left me with little time to indulge in my creative pursuits — ye olde blog being a prime example.  Posting over the last 10 months has been scanty, at best, and even the travels have slowed down: weekend eurotrippin’ and extended breaks in far flung destinations like Peru and Guatemala are but a distant memory.

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#sigh #suchislife #worldssmallestviolin

But don’t feel sorry for me just yet.  Because while I haven’t been doing much travel (or writing much about it), I have been quietly plotting my well-deserved summer holiday.  I have seven (yes, seven!) weeks of vacation and plan to make the most of them.

Curious as to where I’m going?  Read on…

United Kingdom (London)

A few weeks ago I confessed my newfound appreciation for my former home base of London.  I was there this past Easter and had such a good time that sharp pangs of regret pierced my heart as I boarded my Hong Kong-bound plane at Heathrow (maybe I’m being just a little dramatic, but I digress).  At any rate, I’ll be back in Londontown for a couple of weeks this summer and am looking forward to it.

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France (Bordeaux and Biarritz)

Liebling and I managed to snag some cheap plane tickets to Bordeaux and will spend a few days touring the region.  I don’t drink wine but plan to fulfill my civic duty by eating every baguette in sight (as one should do in France).  A stop in the seaside town of Biarritz is also in the cards, so I’ll have the chance to lounge on the beach and work on my tan. Comme la vie est belle! France is never a bad idea.

Biarritz Beach
Biarritz beach via Tony Hisgett on Flickr

Canada (Toronto)

I haven’t been to my hometown of Toronto in over 18 months, so I’m super excited to catch up with family and friends.  I’m also super excited to eat at all my favourite restaurants… namely Randy’s, which I’m convinced makes the best Jamaican beef patties in the city.

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USA (New York City)

No trip to North America is complete without a jaunt to the Big Apple, so it’s no surprise that NYC figured into my holiday plans.  I’ll be painting the town red with my best friends and hopefully will have the opportunity to meet up with a few of my favourite bloggers/vloggers based in the area.

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Germany (Berlin)

Remember when I casually mentioned getting engaged in Berlin last Christmas? Well, I perhaps should just as casually mention that I’m getting married this summer! I will officially become Mrs. Liebling in an intimate civil ceremony in Berlin at the end of July *cue girly squeal of excitement*.  Since we’re eschewing tradition and having a relatively small and simple wedding (only four guests! no church! no wedding reception!) I have been pretty successful at staying level-headed and avoiding Bridezilla-ville. While the paperwork involved with marrying a German was a bit of a doozy (fodder for another post!), the other prep has been a breeze.  All that’s left to do now is find a dress… and learn how to say “I do” in German!

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Austria (Hallstatt and Salzberg)

Liebling and I will finish out the summer with a mini-honeymoon/road trip through the Austrian Alps.  From Berlin we’ll drive to the Salzkammergut, a region in Austria known for its stunning views. Salzberg (birthplace of Mozart) and  Hallstatt (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) are found here and I’m already envisioning living out my “Sound of Music” fantasy in an alpine meadow.  Just call me Oneika Von Trapp…

Halstatt
Halstatt, Austria via nclint on Flickr

The adventure starts the Friday after next and it can’t come fast enough — I’m dubbing these 7 weeks the Supreme Summer of Fun!  My plan is to dust the cobwebs off from the ole blog and post prolifically so stay tuned for dispatches from the field. Got Instagram? If so, you can follow me there, too, at http://instagram.com/oneikatraveller.

Do you have any travel planned for this summer?

 

SHARING IS CARING

305 Comments

  • WOW! What a summer you have planned! Wedding!!

    I only saw a smidgen of the Salzkammergut — you will love it. So beautiful, such blue lakes. And you’ll have to come see our new place in Balham!

    • Gracias!!! I am most looking forward to the clear air and blue skies (of which Hong Kong is sorely lacking at the moment). Can’t wait to catch up and check out your new place!

  • Congratulations on the upcoming wedding! I am sure you are so excited! I will be in Europe this summer as well and in Salzburg from July 30-August 1, so I cannot read what you will share about it. Happy travels! 😀

    • Cool! We’ll be there at around the same time, catch you in the town square?!

    • Thanks April! I haven’t done a proper road trip in a while so very excited about it!

  • Wow! You have quite the summer of fun ahead of you! Congrats on your wedding and I can’t wait for the post to roll in 🙂

    • Thanks Ruby! Stay tuned for the wedding recap. 🙂

  • Wow, what a whirlwind summer you have planned! I’m positively green with envy at how much PTO you get. And Halstatt? How beautiful!

    Belated congratulations on the engagement and soon-to-be nuptials!

    • Thanks Katrina! It’s true teachers get an extraordinary amount of time off but boy do we need it! It’s been a long school year. 😉

  • WOW! Congrats! You have a GREAT summer planned. Kudos on the low-key wedding, the best brides are then ones NOT stressed. I also will be getting married in July in Scotland, VERY small and intimate and spending time in London, Paris and Belgium for the honeymoon. I’m super excited can’t wait to see pics.

    • PhillyGirl you ain’t lying! We were initially planning to do the whole white wedding thing but it was stressing me out so much we decided to go for the no-fuss, no-muss low-key option! So glad we are doing it this way in the end. 🙂

  • You just made my current stay in Lisbon and previous shorter stay in Barcelona seem like a year living in Arkansas (which is unfortunately where I teach :(((….). I wish I could be getting married to a European and traveling to Germany and Austria this summer. So jealous!! Congratulations!

    • Lisbon and Barcelona are amazing! And Germany and Austria are a relatively short hop away. 🙂 Thanks for your well-wishes.

  • This sounds like a fantastic trip Oneika and of course the highlight of your wedding! Fingers crossed to catch up with you on your return to London 🙂

    • Yes let’s definitely meet up in London this summer!

  • Sounds like a wonderful summer of travel. I look forward to your posts ( I so dearly miss them) Congratulations on your upcoming nuptials, so exciting! *squeals*

    • Thanks Chanelle!! I’ve really missed blogging, too, so I guess you could call this a comeback.. 😉

  • Have a great one girl and praying all goes well with the ceremony and such. I am looking forward to the epic blogs coming. Oh I wish I could see summer vacation lol

    • Thanks lady!!! Does that mean that you’re working over the summer holiday?!

  • what an interesting itinerary! only 4 people at the wedding? your family won’t be included?
    Funny I live in “little Jamaica” area and i’ve walked into Randy’s a few times, but never bought anything. the place is always packed with people selling other “stuff” that it discourages me. and I was shocked to see Asians behind the counter too. Now i’m convinced to go try them out, including Raps.
    no Paris this time around? Hey, how come you have meetups with your New York fans but none for your Toronto fans? I think you should have one 🙂

    my current summer travel plans are only to the states 🙂

    • Our immediate family will be at the wedding. 🙂 You should definitely try Randy’s! I don’t know how familiar you are with Caribbean history, but there are a number of Jamaican-Chinese people from the island, which might explain why you saw an Asian face behind the counter. As for a Toronto meetup, I’m not opposed to having one, didn’t know/think there would be any interest!! Something to think about for sure!

  • Congrats on the wedding!! This is going to be an awesome summer for you both! 🙂 I’m planning on going to the Canadian Rockies, Alaska Cruise *crossing my fingers* trying to get a friend to come along to get out of paying the Single Supplement fee! And will also be in NY this December! 🙂

    • Oh wow that itinerary sounds amazing! I *still* haven’t made it to see the Rockies, tsk tsk. What a bad Canadian I am… I am crossing my fingers that you find a travel buddy because paying extra to travel solo is not cool!

  • Wow! Many congratulations on your coming-up-fantastically-soon wedding. What an amazing summer you’re going to be having!
    For the summer, I’m going to Thailand and Indonesia. What with the civil unrest and volcano explosion, it’s going to be an adventure LOL!
    I live in Berlin so if you want to meet up for a drink or something (possibly a sausage since you don’t drink LOL), give me a shout. 🙂

    • Thailand and Indonesia, how fabulous! Just my humble opinion, but I think the reports from Thailand are slightly exaggerated and most tourists are fine; my coworker just got back from a long weekend in Bangkok and from all accounts the trip passed without incident! I would love to meet up in Berlin, email me so we can arrange something!!

  • New reader, here. That photo of Halstatt looks stunning, and congratulations on your engagement and upcoming wedding! I really wanted a small “destination wedding,” but my husband’s parents refused last-minute to travel anywhere, so we ended up having the big schindig in their hometown. I STILL regret not doing a small wedding of our own or, in all honesty, just paying for his parents to travel, because it still would’ve been cheaper than what we ended up doing! And we just celebrated our 8 year anniversary, so yeah. I should probably let that go. 😉

    • Hey Katie! Thanks so much for reading. 🙂 You can still do an intimate vow renewal — might be a good compromise lol!

  • you are from the nature which could not help rest at home always go for wandering here and there for tripos having relaxation

  • What an awesome summer you have planned! And congratulations on your wedding plans..you two look so cool together..you should have had a big fairytale wedding..I think you deserve it, and you have so many fans all over the world (speaking for myself as one)..anyway, wishing you and Leibling marital bliss as you start a new page of your lives together!! So excited for you..I know you’ll post pictures…:-)
    I will be headed to the Balkans with my lil one!

    • Thanks so much Caroline!! We are super excited!

  • Congratultations on your upcoming nuptials, you definitely got the perfect summer..

  • It sounds like you have a packed summer ahead of you, and congratulations on getting married! I have yet to spend a summer in Europe!

    • Thanks so much! Europe in the summer is fabulous, you should definitely look into a trip!

  • Congratulations! I am so excited for you. I have a friend who married a girl from Germany and the wedding took place in Germany. They are still living there. I hear the paperwork isn’t pretty, but I am so happy for you regardless. I love that 2 avid travelers found each other.

  • Wow Oneika! It sounds like it will be an exciting summer! And yay for getting married to Liebling! 🙂

    • It’s going to be a fantastic summer! What are your summer plans?

  • Oneika….go ahead and live it up girl. I wish you all the best with Liebling. You guys make a great couple. Also, your vacation plans sound amazing. You only have one life and I see you’re determined to make the best of it. That’s the way everyone should live. Stay healthy and keep loving life. You’re absolutely inspiring.

  • That is quite the 7 week jaunt if I say so myself! Also, congratulations on your upcoming wedding.

    I don’t know German myself, but I am pretty sure “Das is Good! Das is Supa!” mean Congratulations! 🙂

    As for myself, I will be heading down to Brazil for a couple of weeks to check out the World Cup in person!

    • Wow!! I was also supposed to be going to Brazil this week but the trip fell through! I’m gutted!

  • Congratulations to you and Mr. Liebling.

    I’m taking a 14 day tour through Europe and another jaunt of London. I wish we could cross paths when I head home to the US.

    I’m looking forward to all of your posts.

    • Thanks Reginia! What part of the US are you from?

  • Wow that’s an amazing 7 weeks worth of travelling and wedding thrown in for good measure! Salzburg is beautiful and you do feel like breaking out into song like Maria in the Sound of Music when you visit. xx

  • Hey! Today is Royal Ascot and it reminded me of our wonderful day last year and I realized I’ve been out of contact for awhile but just checking out your adventures! Btw CONGRATS on getting engaged and the upcoming wedding! Exciting news! Sounds like life is going well for you! You’ll love Austria-it’s beautiful! I was there in December so it’s a different kind of beautiful then but Salzburg is stunning! Enjoy the next few months lady!!

    • Thanks Sarah! I’ve been to Austria twice before but never to this part (only Vienna), I’m looking forward to it so much!

  • New York City would still be my number one choice whether on a summer vacation or whatever season it may be. I don’t know there’s just really something special in the concrete jungle where I am totally in love of. Right now, my kids are old enough to try and explore the place. I am excited to visit New York City again. Thanks for sharing this post.

    • I’m thinking of planning an NYC meetup, stay tuned!!

  • Just my kind of wedding, ”four guests! no church! no wedding reception”, congratulations Oneika 🙂 wishing you both happiness and love always

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