What is Your Favorite Place?

What is your favorite place?

Most people, including me, will say: "my hometown where I grew up". And I'll add: especially after the first rain in the end of dry season, in the afternoon, when the ray of light infiltrating the wet leaves and the sun somehow rising again, though the twilight is about to approach the horizon. On that moment, I felt that the day was prolonged. This kind of scenery always reminds me of my lovely childhood memories.

Years have passed since my first encounter of that sentimental reminiscence, until one day, when I experienced my first summer in the northern hemisphere. During my stay in Germany, I lived in Bochum, a small town on the riverbank of Ruhr. I can say, summer in Bochum was the best. Why? Because I saw my childhood in there. Even though, it was not identical, but the sceneries somehow revived the ancient paths of nervous system in my head, awaking the most wonderful time of my life. The days were prolonged and the sentimental memories were called back for sure.

When the afternoon sun in August swept the yellowish wheat leaves near Ruhr river waiting for their harvest time, I remembered the warmth of the afternoon sun that swept my face when I sat at my favorite branch in Guava tree in front of our home. When I heard the sound of children playing on the banks of Kemnadersee lake, I remembered my childhood friends.

So, when I am asked again: Where is your second favorite place?

I'll say: the European country side in summer, when the Earth surrenders itself dearly to the caress of the sun.