I'm not yet in the mood of posting about our two-week summer adventure in Greece or finishing my TODO blogpost lists and travel videos. Guess I'm really a serial procrastinator. 🙃

Ever since I started this blog, I've always stuck to my personal goal that I do this (including my travel videos) so that years from now, I can look back and reminisce of the years past. I am also a serial "reminiscer". Lol I like looking at old photos, or reading my thoughts from years ago. 

So here I am, for now, let me just document what have happened in the last weeks since we got back from Greece. And also, today is the official start of autumn! Summer is over. Wala lang, walang konek.
(I hope this is the start of a weekly or bi-weekly self "news letter" blog posts, for my own sanity na din. I probably should think of a catchy phrase for this segment. :)

Max's friends came over and spend three nights with us at his parents' house. During those three days, we just ate, played games, walked around the city and on the beach, ate more, and did 15-minutes-sauna-then-plunge-into-the-cold-pool, repeated three times. Lol

Since the start of summer, I think I did more hikes than the previous years of my life combined. Lol I'm not really a big fan of hiking, but I do love doing it from time to time. Some of the best views should really be well-merited. 

Le Sentier du Littoral à Giens (Hyères) — With Max's friends, we did 4.5 kilometers of walk along the coast passing by beautiful beaches, and clear sea waters. The end of the hike was at the restaurant, of course. Then on our way back, we stopped at a "secret" beach to chill, snorkel and played games. 

Le Mont Fenouillet — the hill is located just in front of Max's parents' house. Not our first time here, but at the summit of only 291 metres, there is a 360 degree point of view of Hyeres and the surrounding towns, islands and sea. I really like it up there, it brings some kind of peace and quiet. The hike until the cross is only at about 1 hour with approximately 4.8km.

Le Mont Faron — a mountain at Toulon overlooking the city and roadstead. The summit is at 548 meters high. There were tons of paths to do, but we only did a small one with 6km in total loop. It lasted us around 1 hour and 40 minutes with some stops in between. We did this with Max's mom right after visiting his dad at the hospital. There is cable car going to the top where you can start the hike. We brought a car and the roads were a bit scary for me. Lol I slightly got dizzy on our way down. 

Sentier du Littoral at Les Londes-les-Maures — Sentier littoral means coastal path. This is the most tiring, but the hike with the most beautiful views we did. The route is full of views of turquoise waters, scented pine forests, and white sand beaches. It was magnificent, albeit during a hot, sunny day. We did more than 14 kilometers back and forth with Max's mom. (She really sometimes amazes me how still sporty she is. Lol) We stopped a few hours at a beach to picnic and sleep a bit, then head our way back to the car.

Château d'Hyéres small trail — There are really a lot of paths and trails in Hyéres perfect for small hikes and walks. We did a 5 kilometer loop of quite an easy hike. The path reminded me of Pulau Ubin in Singapore though. It's bike-friendly and quite easy to navigate.

5 hikes in 2 weeks! Phew. Okay, enough with the hikes.

On one Saturday we went to a museum in the city center, and find out that it was free for a day was a delight! It was Journée du Patrimoine in which the open all museums, historic places, monuments, and remarkable places for free to the public. I didn't take a lot of photos though. The temporary exposition was about Georges Braque, a renowned artist of the 20th century. Then we also viewed some photos and paintings of Hyères from the previous years.

Lately, I've also been trying to learn how to draw. Drawing and dancing are two of my life biggest frustrations. I just don't get it. But anyway, I have Procreate on my iPad and with tons of YT tutorials, I managed to cartoonised some photos. I don't think I would be able to this without ProCreate though.

We have also been working out every other day and doing 25-minute yoga from time to time. I really like the mini gym at Max's house. There's an indoor bike, an elliptical, a treadmill, a multi-function weight machine for arms, legs and back, and some small equipments.

We watched a small classical concert at a church in the city center. It was impressive. I'm not really familiar with classical music, and I liked it a lot. It reminded me of the grand palaces in Versailles. 

One Sunday we went to a flea market and we bought a vintage analog camera. I spent some hours researching about it, and it was quite difficult to find some information as it was part of a series released way back in 1957 until the late 1960s by a German company. Just yesterday, we finally put a film on it and I hope to God, it still works (and we did not ruin the film, lol).

Then of course, a lot of cuddle time with Coco! She's so adorable. I'm not really into cats, but she completely changed my mind about them. 

There were also days when we went to the beach hoping to watch a sunset, but the sky was obstructed by clouds. And days of just chilling at home, sipping tea or coffee. Of course, this isn't everything. There were still a lot in between, that I would probably leave out especially about Max's dad being sick. But we're both really glad that he's on his way to recovery. Hopefully faster! 

That's all for now. We still have less than a week in Hyères before we go back to the city. Less than a week to enjoy the country side feels!