Top 3 Thursdays – Friday edition – Vacation Houses

Blog Status: Ella is having a serious case of wanderlust

This post is coming to you a day late, but as soon as I saw this week’s Top 3 Thursday question I knew I had to fill it out. If you want to play along, head over to Kelly’s blog!

Top 3 Vacation Houses or Vacation Spots.

I’m currently suffering from a bad case of Wanderlust. Late Spring/early Summer has always meant travel planning for me. Typically I usually go to Europe sometime in June-July-August so May is always spent planning. This year is still very much up-in-the-air due to my work schedule and school applications for September. What this all means is that right now I have no plans to go anywhere, and this is making me very depressed. I’m going to try and drown my sorrows by fantasizing about the places I’ve been and the places I’m dying to go.

When I saw “Top 3 Vacation Houses” 2 automatically came to mind. I’m currently at work so there are no pictures, but I’m trying to improve my descriptive writing so hopefully I can paint a good picture in your minds.

Number 1.

The House In Spain

A friend of my father’s owns an absolutely gorgeous summer house north of Barcelona with a view that is worth a million dollars. The house itself is an adequate size, kitchen and living room downstairs and bathroom with 2 bedrooms upstairs. What makes it so priceless is the view from the patio and balcony. This house sits atop a hill overlooking the ocean, to the point that if you stand on the patio you see nothing but water. It is a truly breathtaking view. I spent many hours simply sitting in silence looking at the horizon. There is something very magical about this house, it has a hidden power to change people in ways they never thought possible. The salty air drifts in and out of the house as the cool ocean breeze carries it wherever it wants to go. Each night that place where the sky meets the ocean explodes into shimmering pinks and reds as the sun begins its final decent. Even though the night is as dark as can be, millions of stars light up the sky with their celestial designs. I have been fortunate enough to spend time there twice. Once on a weeklong vacation with my father when I was about 13, and once about 7 years later for 2 weeks with an old boyfriend.

Number 2.

The Hotel In Germany

The small German village that I grew up in only boasts 1 hotel. Whatever you picture when you think about small villages in Germany, this place has it. An old medieval elementary school that was originally built in the 1400’s, a giant cathedral that is probably even older, and tiny narrow streets barely big enough to fit a Smart Car. Every year that I go to Germany, I inevitably spend a few days at this hotel. I’m very lucky to still have a few friends from my childhood in Germany, and although they’ve all gone on to other things (med school, flight attendant for Lufthansa and graduate school, respectively) this village is still home. I spend the majority of my time in Germany at my Grandparents’ place about 2 hours from there, but we always go down for 4-5 days during my visit. I’ve come to think of this hotel as a type of second home in Germany. The location is beautiful, surrounded by forests on 3 sides and a pond with fish, frogs and ducks on the other. We always get the same rooms, with an adjoining balcony overlooking the pond. I love sitting outside reading a book with the sound of the water in the background and the smell of nature all around me. This hotel is special to me because for those few days each year I feel like I actually belong back in the land I loved so much as a child.

As for a 3rd Vacation House, I actually don’t have one specific one that I’ve been to more than once. I’ve been very fortunate to have stayed in Vacation houses in Portugal, Greece and France in addition to Spain and Germany. Each and every experience is magical and special in its own way. I generally prefer vacation houses to hotels because I love going to grocery stores and picking up food in a foreign country.

Wow this ended up being a very long and descriptive post, I’m done rambling now I promise.

Happy Weekend Bloggers!