Hello everyone! My name is Florentien Gerber, and I am the new communication assistant for BTO and MTO. Last week, I started the Master Tourism, Society, Environment after I recently graduated from BTO begin of the summer. I am passionate about tourism, the environment, and most of all trying to reduce my personal impact on the environment whilst traveling. Speaking of traveling, how was your summer? Have you been on vacation/staycation this summer? I am excited to read what you have been up to. I went on a Europe-road trip with a friend that I have made during BTO, we went to Slovenia to see the stunning mountains, the blue waters of lakes and rivers, and to visit Europe’s greenest capital city Ljubljana. After that, we went to Croatia to the seaside and to the Plitvicka National Park, again chasing the blue pools of nature. Before heading back home, we spent some more time in Croatia’s countryside and then headed North to Italy. Venice was next on the list. Venice had been discussed so many times in our studies, shedding light on all the different problems the city is facing. We were curious to see for ourselves what the city is all about since we were in the North of Italy already and therefore pretty close. The city was fascinating, I must say. This is by no means an advertisement to visit Venice because I think there are other places worth visiting in Italy, that are less vulnerable. Anyways, after Venice we headed up to the Dolomites, to see some more mountains and to cool off. We again saw many lakes and did a few hikes. Then it began to rain, so we headed more North to Innsbruck. What a lovely city I must admit. The mountains in the background peeked through the clouds once in a while and it was very picturesque. We crossed off Liechtenstein from the bucket list before traveling home. After I got back, I was amazed by all the different things we saw, the countries we visited, and how great it is to travel to so many places within a short amount of time. I once again realized how amazing Europe is and that I do not have to travel far to see beautiful places and fascinating nature. Of course, we paid attention to all the Covid-19 guidelines, as both of us were vaccinated at least once and tested ourselves every few days. It was important to us to travel responsibly during the pandemic, but also to make the most of our trip. Well, this was my summer vacation, now I am curious what you were up to this summer! I am looking forward to this year, and if you have any recommendations for content on the blog or on the socials, let me know! Let’s connect! 🙂