Rheinbund
Established Nation
31 August 2019
Plauen, Rügen, Eiffelland-Retalia
In Eiffelland-Retalia, the first schoolday after the Summer vacation is traditionally the first Monday of September. As a result, the last day of August has a somewhat magical sound. Despite the fact that the astronomic Summer lasts until 22 to 23 September, and despite the fact that especially in the southern third of Eiffelland-Retalia temperatures of 25 degrees Celsius are common in October, people consider 31 August to be the last day of Summer. Especially on the Long Sea Islands, where thanks to tourism there are twice as many people in July and August than in the rest of the year, leading to a much more dynamic athmosphere in July and August than in the rest of the year.
This day has extra magic when it is on a Saturday, because then it not only marks the end of Summer but also the end of the Summer holiday. Saturday is traditionally the day when tourists go home. When it is the last Saturday of the Summer vacations, the only tourists who return are the ones who are not bound to the school, college and university vacations. The students and the families with children go back home, and will not return before Easter.
As one of the Long Sea Islands, Rügen is a destination for tourists looking for sun, sea and beach. Plauen, a city in Rügen with 80,000 inhabitants, has an additional reason for being a tourist attraction than sunseabeach. It is the city where Eiffelland-Retalia’s space centre with rocket launching site is located. Before the 2018 war, a couple of countries, among which Bourgogne, Eiffelland and Retalia, established a space organisation. One of the rocket launching sites established by that space organisation was the one in Plauen. With the fall of Bourgogne, that space organisation fell apart. However, Eiffelland-Retalia continued the space activities in Plauen. One of the reasons was to replace the spy and other military satellites destroyed during the 2018 war. Meanwhile, all satellites lost during the 2018 war had been replaced.
The north coast of Rügen, between Peenemünde and Plauen, is a sand beach with dunes, and forest behind the dunes. The old road Plauen-Peenemünde runs through that forest, connecting those two cities with some small fishermen villages which had managed to escape mass tourism. The area had been lucky that the planners had drawn the line of the so-called Bergener Ring (a motorway on the island forming a ring road about 5 km away from the coast) a bit further to the South, leaving the landscape unharmed.
When you drive over the old road Plauen-Peenemünde, you sometimes notice a dirt road branching off the paved road. Those dirt roads lead to houses built in the forest, sometimes even a kilometer away from the road.
The 49 year old Ingo Scholz lived in one of those houses, permanently accompanied by the cheaper kinds of Gunnish whisky. Five years ago, on exactly the same day, he lost his job due to his drinking problem and won 5 million Eiffelland Mark in a lottery. The money he had won had made him not enormously rich but financially independent. It was enough to buy this house and spend 40,000 Eiffelland mark each year until he would die.
Now it was 31 August. The last day of Summer. So many years ago the last day of his life that he had felt happy.
Plauen, Rügen, Eiffelland-Retalia
In Eiffelland-Retalia, the first schoolday after the Summer vacation is traditionally the first Monday of September. As a result, the last day of August has a somewhat magical sound. Despite the fact that the astronomic Summer lasts until 22 to 23 September, and despite the fact that especially in the southern third of Eiffelland-Retalia temperatures of 25 degrees Celsius are common in October, people consider 31 August to be the last day of Summer. Especially on the Long Sea Islands, where thanks to tourism there are twice as many people in July and August than in the rest of the year, leading to a much more dynamic athmosphere in July and August than in the rest of the year.
This day has extra magic when it is on a Saturday, because then it not only marks the end of Summer but also the end of the Summer holiday. Saturday is traditionally the day when tourists go home. When it is the last Saturday of the Summer vacations, the only tourists who return are the ones who are not bound to the school, college and university vacations. The students and the families with children go back home, and will not return before Easter.
As one of the Long Sea Islands, Rügen is a destination for tourists looking for sun, sea and beach. Plauen, a city in Rügen with 80,000 inhabitants, has an additional reason for being a tourist attraction than sunseabeach. It is the city where Eiffelland-Retalia’s space centre with rocket launching site is located. Before the 2018 war, a couple of countries, among which Bourgogne, Eiffelland and Retalia, established a space organisation. One of the rocket launching sites established by that space organisation was the one in Plauen. With the fall of Bourgogne, that space organisation fell apart. However, Eiffelland-Retalia continued the space activities in Plauen. One of the reasons was to replace the spy and other military satellites destroyed during the 2018 war. Meanwhile, all satellites lost during the 2018 war had been replaced.
The north coast of Rügen, between Peenemünde and Plauen, is a sand beach with dunes, and forest behind the dunes. The old road Plauen-Peenemünde runs through that forest, connecting those two cities with some small fishermen villages which had managed to escape mass tourism. The area had been lucky that the planners had drawn the line of the so-called Bergener Ring (a motorway on the island forming a ring road about 5 km away from the coast) a bit further to the South, leaving the landscape unharmed.
When you drive over the old road Plauen-Peenemünde, you sometimes notice a dirt road branching off the paved road. Those dirt roads lead to houses built in the forest, sometimes even a kilometer away from the road.
The 49 year old Ingo Scholz lived in one of those houses, permanently accompanied by the cheaper kinds of Gunnish whisky. Five years ago, on exactly the same day, he lost his job due to his drinking problem and won 5 million Eiffelland Mark in a lottery. The money he had won had made him not enormously rich but financially independent. It was enough to buy this house and spend 40,000 Eiffelland mark each year until he would die.
Now it was 31 August. The last day of Summer. So many years ago the last day of his life that he had felt happy.