Our Last Workaway - Salles, France

Our final workaway brought us to a tiny village called Salles about an hour North of Toulouse, France. We were picked up from the Montsempron Libos train station by Fitz (one of our hosts) and drove about 30 minutes to their quaint farm. We arrived well after the Sun went down so we didn't get to see the property right away. We walked into their beautiful home (an old renovated stone building) and sat down with Ann and Fitz for a home cooked meal. We spent some time getting acquainted before turning in for the night.

The next day we took the grand tour of the house and of the surrounding area and talked about some of the work we would be doing while staying with them. Over the next week and a half the agenda consisted of rebuilding a tile roof and painting the frame of the terrace, installing a rain gutter and rain barrel, pouring cement and setting posts for a new and improved chicken enclosure, and enjoying the surrounding area and the company of our hosts.


This was an old house on their property that they plan on restoring as a vacation rental.

Here is a view of their house from the courtyard.

This was a nearby village with an old church.  They host arts and craft  fairs here in the summer.

The old stone built church.  There were some interesting grave stones in the floor...probably secret entrances to crypts filled with the knights templar treasure!

The local Chateau.





Me working on the tile roof

Amy sitting down on the job
 
We cooked thanksgiving dinner for our hosts one night.  We had turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and brownies for dessert.

Ann and Fitz were gracious hosts and we enjoyed the 10 days we spent with them.  Our original plan was to spend another month in Europe but all of the moving around had taken a toll on us and we were ready to be back in the good ol' USA.  We switched our flights to December 5th and headed to Paris for a quick visit before flying home.

Florence and Venice, Italy

Normally we would do a separate post for each city we visited, however, Florence was planned as a "stay-cation" (a span of downtime to recoup, yes recoup, from travelling) and we tried to do as little as possible.

We arrived by train, as usual, and headed to our hotel to drop of our bags.  The hotel was nice, off the beaten track, and had some great staff.  We freshened up, grabbed a quick bite at a local kebab shop, and started to wander around the city.

Our first site was the Ponte Vecchio, a famous bridge covered in jewelry shops.  Some quick facts: the bridge was the only bridge in Florence not destroyed by allied bombers in WWII.  The bridge was originally filled with meat shops until the city rezoned it and required it to only house jewelry stores.



We wandered on over to the main church "Duomo".  Upon enterring the Piazza del Duomo "Duomo Plaza" my first reaction was "I climbed that!". What I was referring to was the Campanile tower that was recreated in the xbox game "Assassin's Creed" (yes I am nerdy like that, so what).  But I digress.  The Duomo is among one of the more impressive cathedrals that we have seen in our travels and we stood in awe at its size and beauty.





We walked around the side of the church and were immediatly caught off guard by this lady singing in an amazing Opera style voice.  We stayed for 3 songs and were compelled to tip her some euro change.



We entered the Cathedral and walked around a bit.  Unfortunately security was overly vigilant so we weren't able to snap any photos of the inside.

We wandered a bit longer around the city and headed back home, grabbing some chinese for dinner along the way.

The next day, after forcing ourselves to get up and ready, we had breakfast and headed out into the city.  We stopped at a straw market to pet the bronze pig and drop a coin in its mouth.  This tradition is suppose to ensure a safe return back to Florence in the future.  





The rest of the day was spent doing more wandering, enjoying the character of the buildings, monuments, and statues throughout the city.  

We made a reservation at a restaraunt called Accademia for our anniversary dinner (not easy to do when you speak no Italian).  We arrived all spiffed up (a difficult feat when you're living out of a backpack) and ordered the fixed price menu (42€ each).  The meal was pricey but great!  We started off with a glass of prosecco (a sweet wine) that is probably designed to relax you for the feast to come.  The first course was a mushroom strudel with creme sauce served with a glass of white wine, delicious!  Next up was a whole wheat lasagna with lamb sauce served with a glass of red wine.  Again, delicious.  Already feeling full and buzzed from the wine we braced for the 3rd course, a tender cut of meat in a brown sauce with glazed shallots.  Again, served with another glass of red wine and soooo delicious.  The final course was dessert, a grouping of 3 yummy cookies served with a glass of dessert wine.  I had trouble downing it all but I managed.  We left filled to the gills and walked home to turn in for the night.

Our last day in Florence was spent planning our next leg of the trip, blogging, and meeting up with our old college friend Lauren for a drink and a climb to the top of the city.




It was raining pretty hard so we didn't hang around too long.

We left the next morning for Venice at 8am (way too early to be up and moving).  We got into Venice and took a boat ride to a stop close to our B&B.  We checked in and grabbed some pizza at a hole in the wall place before taking a walk through the city.

























Venice is a very unique city and has a very romantic feel.  The only downside is that it is littered with tourist shops and people trying to sell you junk.  It seems like a labrynth of tourist traps.  But I suppose we were prepared for it and made the most of the city and its character.  


We had pizza and wine for dinner at a place near our B&B and crashed for the night.  

The next morning we had breakfast at our B&B.  It consisted of coffee, juice, and manufactured rolls (bleh!).  We came to the conclusion that Italians just don't care much for breakfast (maybe because they eat such big dinners??) We continued our tour of the city, stopping in the San Marco Cathedral.






The square was flooded from the rain the previous night and the city had set up walkways for the tourists.

Afterwards we went to the center of the plaza where I was attacked by pigeons!  I suppose I was asking for it by holding bread in my hand.  Amy refused to come near them and I got a good laugh watching her scramble as I tossed bread at her feet.



We walked out to a point for lunch (leftover pizza, so healthy) and spent some time sunbathing along the waters edge.







When I started to overheat we went to the Guggenheim Museum where Amy convinced the staff we were students, saving us 10€ on the tickets.  We spent a good deal of time in the museum (I think Amy got more out of it then me).





We rounded out our day with dinner at the same restaraunt (it was the most reasonably priced and filled with customers, a good indicator of its quality).  We checked out the next morning and headed for Switzerland.

A quick note about our experience in Italy.  Although we visited some very wonderful places and met some very nice people we found the cities to be dirty and the locals rude.  Italy has been our least favorite country thus far :(.

Budget Travel

Some people have been asking how we can afford this trip, but the truth is that so far, we have spent about the same amount per month traveling as we would have just living in Chicago. We have learned a lot of things that have helped us keep costs down. Here are some basic tips that we have put together including many things you should do before you leave:

1. Don't pay rent in the states while you are abroad, this is a great tip for anyone going on a trip that is longer than a month. We packed up all of our stuff and sold most of our furniture. Our stuff is graciously being stored in my mom's basement at no cost to us, but even paying for a storage locker for the time you are away would be better than paying rent.

2. Don't get international service on your cell phone. It is a rip off and you can get a go phone easily enough. In the EU there are regulations on the cost of texting (no more than 15 euro cents per outgoing text), so for the most part we have just been texting people if we need to be in touch. For calling home, use skype. It's free and if you have an iPhone/iPod touch with camera, bring it and then you can make free calls using the skype app whenever you have wireless. Also, call your US wireless provider before you go and see if you can put your contracts on hold. Both Kurtis and I were able to do this: Verizon allows you to do it for free for 90 day periods, I will have to re-hold my contract sometime in December, but it is done easily through their website. AT&T allows you to do it for any period of time for $10 a month, just call to let them know the dates you need. For both, the time the phones are on hold will be added to the end of your contract. The go phone that we got for use while we are here was 13€ and we buy 15€ cards to top it up. Over the course of our four months in Europe, the expected total cost of our go phone is about 60€, which is less than it would cost either of us for one month in the states.

3. Check into your credit cards and debit cards before you leave. Some cards have really high fees for international use. My chase ATM card would charge $5 or 3% of EVERY transaction, whichever is higher, so I didn't even bother to bring it with me. Kurtis' bank of america card charges a fee to use it as a debit card but partners with  many banks across Europe to offer free ATM withdrawals. I also have a chase credit card which has no international fees. Paying fees to pay for things and take out money adds up really quickly, it is best to find out if you can avoid them before you go. The other thing to be aware of is that European credit cards have a chip in them that cards in the US do not. Some places will not allow you to use your American credit cards, so just make sure that you always have cash with you too!

4. Couchsurfing.org This is a website that basically connects travelers to people who may be willing to host them around the world. The idea behind the site is that there is an exchange of cultural ideas. If you have used the site you may already know that it can get a little bit annoying in certain ways... The site itself is a little difficult to navigate and there are also people on the site will tell you that you shouldn't couchsurf to save money, that if you couchsurf you should be able to afford to stay at a hotel, that it is about the experience, etc... But with that all being said it does save you money by providing you with a free place to stay. If you are going to be using couchsurfing, I highly recommend getting on the site at least a few months before you plan to surf and making a profile, it would be even better if you could host a few people before you go surfing yourself.  Our Couchsurfing experiences have all been very different, but none of them have been bad. The other thing is that you can't necessarily count on finding someone to host you. You have to be patient and send out tons of requests... Realize that in some of the more popular locations, people may be receiving 10+ requests a day. On average, I start sending our requests about a week before and I send about 10 per day until I either get a positive response or give up because it is now the next day we would be trying to surf. Basically, you should look at couchsurfing as a plus but not a guarantee, there are going to be places where you just cannot find a host. You should always be willing to spend some time with your host (although you may get a host that just points you to your bed and that's ok too) and don't couchsurf if you can't even at least pretend to be interested in other people. We have had some of our best nights while couchsurfing because it gives you a chance to experience what life is really like for the locals. If you want to read more about our couchsurfing experiences, check out our posts tagged with the "couchsurfing" tag.

5. Try a work abroad program. There are many websites that organize work exchanges, the one that we are using is called workaway.info. There is a membership fee to join (22€ for a couple to join for 2 years) but this fee is fairly small and I think is probably meant to limit the amount of people who back out of showing up for the work at the last minute. The exchange (as laid out by the workaway site) is that workawayers are meant to work 25 hours a week in exchange for room and board. We have done 4 workaways so far and the work has been varied as well as the room and board situations at each place. At some you live with the family and eat meals together and at some you may be given groceries to cook your own food. The site only works as a launching pad to connect the workers to the hosts and after that, all of the arrangement are made privately between the two. Our experiences with the workaways has varied from excellent to good, but I think the most important part of the experience is laying out the work and the expectations via email before you arrive so that everyone has a clear understanding of the arrangements. We have had some frustrating experiences where we felt that we were being taken advantage of, but overall it has been a very positive experience that has allowed us to see the countries from a different side and  it is a great way to stay in one place for a longer period of time. If you want to read more about our workaway experience, you can look for the "workaway" tag on our posts.

6. For us, hostels have not been a good option. We have found that when traveling with two people, it is often more economical to stay in a B&B. The typical cost of a dorm bed (although it greatly varies based on location) is between 15-22€. If we take the low end of €15 and each get a bed (now we are at €30) plus some hostels charge €1-4 for sheets/towels and some have a guest hostel tax (if you are not a member of hostels international or something similar). So for the two of us to stay in dorm beds in a hostel, we are often looking at between €35-50 total. For a private double room at a hostel it is typically €40-80 and this does not necessarily include all of the fees laid out above. For these reasons, we have found that when we are not able to couchsurf, it is best for us to look for a B&B (in Germany these are called Pensions). These small family owned hotels are full of character and usually run about €40-60 per room (not per person as the hostels charge) and the best part is that they include breakfast. The breakfasts alone make it worth it, you start your day out right and you may even be able to pack a few things away for lunch. Of course there are benefits of staying in hostels, especially if you are traveling on your own: You meet other travelers and there is usually a community kitchen which means you can cook for yourself and not worry about the cost of meals, but in general, the costs have not been worth it for us.

7. Transportation is by far the biggest cost we have while traveling. The trains are efficient and easy to use, but they are NOT cheap. We looked into Eurrail passes before we came, but they are also very expensive ($700-1200) and they come with many restrictions that can be difficult to work around. For example, the train journey we are taking right now from Venice to Luzerne, Switzerland is about a 7 hour trip and cost a little more than €80 each, this is also taking the regional (cheaper) train for more than half of the trip. When possible, it is good to look for alternatives for long distance travel. Flying in Europe is very inexpensive, try looking into Ryanair or EasyJet, both have sales very often and you can score flights for as low as £1 (without taxes), plan ahead and wait for sales... If you have a general idea of where and when you want to do long distance travel just book it and work around it later. Another option (especially in the uk and Ireland) is megabus or other discount coach providers (we took one through Kearns in Ireland). In Germany we we stumbled across a rideshare website (mitfahrgelegenheit.de) which we used a few times for cheap travel to Prague and within Germany... You have to make calls (in German) to set it up, so you may want to have someone do it for you if you don't speak German very well. Another discount of sorts that we used in Germany in the Bavarian region is the Bayern ticket. For €29 up to 5 people can have unlimited travel for a whole day starting at 9am. So if you can find people at the train station who are going the same way as you, you can split up the cost and save everyone money. The cost of travel is so extreme in some cases that it has caused us to question whether or not it may have been a better idea to buy some sort of camper van when we first arrived and sell it when we left (this would eliminate the cost of finding somewhere to sleep as well, but would add gas expenses... Gas is about $7 per gallon here). The best way to find out about the cheapest travel options is to talk to the locals and find out what they use!

8. If you have a student ID, it doesn't matter how old it is, bring it with you! There are student discounts on everything and you will need to show ID. The age limit for a student discount in Europe is 26, but it seems like it is pretty easy to talk people into giving you the discount (sometimes they don't even ask for ID) but you do need to ask for the discount every time. Sometimes these discounts are as much as half off.

I am sure there are more things that we have done and more tips that we will think of... If you are interested in reading more tips for traveling on a budget just look for entries tagged "budget".

Olive Picking in Umbria, Italy

Amy and I left Rome and took a 1.5 hour train ride to Fabro, Italy where we were doing our 4th workaway.  Our hosts Helmi and Peter (a german couple from Hamburg) picked us up at the train station and we drove about 10 minutes to their vacation home.  Their house sits on a hill top from which you get pretty amazing views of Umbria.





The house is a restoration done from a ruin.  In Italy, as well as in a number of other european countries, you are allowed to build on the old footprint of a house without too much trouble, but any kind of extension requires a lot of planning permits.  The house has the main apartment upstairs where Helmi and Peter live and 2 guest apartments on the bottom floor.  Its a beautiful house and the surrounding yard is filled with olive trees, pomegranate trees, rosemary, lavendar, a pool, bacci ball court, and multiple terraces with amazing views.

After exploring the grounds we picked up the other workawayer (Kelly, an American from Tennessee) and went to have pizza with a some friends of our hosts (a New Zealand couple).  The pizza was great and Amy made it a point to tell everyone it was my birthday.  A birthday song from the restaraunt, a lot of embarrasment, and a celebratory gelato later, we headed back home and to bed.

The workaway was for Olive picking, a time intensive job, so we had free time before the harvest to explore the area.  Our first trip was to the hill town Orvieto, an Etruscan town founded around the 10th century that was used as a stronghold between Rome and Florence and had strong ties with many catholic popes.


Killing time In Fabro before our train arrived.

We arrived by train and took a tram line up the hillside to the town.


The tram ride was only 5 minutes long but still worth it.

We spent a good amount of time walking through the narrow cobblestone streets lined with quaint stone built houses, simply enjoying the sights.

Eventually we stumbled into a plaza with the Orvieto Cathedral.  The exterior is a composition of travertine and green basalt lined in rows that resemble something from the Beetlejuice movie.


Monsterous!


The front facade was beautifully decorated with carvings and frescos.

Inside we enjoyed the frescos and vaulted ceilings.  Amy snapped a few pictures, regardless of the "no photo" sign.





Afterwards we stopped for gelato and poked into a few tourist shops before taking a walk around the edge of the town.





We came across one of Orvieto's underground areas and for 2 euros we couldn't pass up a tour of it.  The chambers were carved in the stone of the hill and were used for homes, workshops, and even as a necropolis.






The well dug within the chambers, very deep.


The view from the city.

The next few days were spent helping with yard work, visiting with the family, playing Baci, and going to the natural hot spring baths in San Casciano dei Bagni.


A nice break playing Baci.


Bonfire with the family and lots of wine.


The walk down to the baths.


The baths were used by the popes...as well as hairy italians in speedos.




The little cafe with an amazing view where we had cappucino after our hot spring bath.

We also took a trip to some gardens with one of the german couples (Horst and Angelina) that had came to help with the harvest.


The geese alerted everyone to our presence and were pretty terrifying, running towards us while honking as loud as possible.


The old house on the garden grounds that use to be owned by a jewish family before they were evicted during WWII.


The house sat on the edge of a nice scenic overlook.


The estate greenhouse.


Amy in a tree tunnel.

When Monday rolled around it was time to get to the real work, 150 trees of olives to pick!




Handpicking.  I did 14 trees in 1 day using this method.


The quickest and easiest method was using nets and hand rakes.












Amy next to a 100 year old olive tree.

It took us 3.5 days and the results was 1200kg (2500 lbs) of olives which, when processed, made 175 liters of olive oil.








The oil is very green at first until it settles.




Picture of a tree we took in a nearby village while we waited for the olives to be processed.

After we took the olives to the mill we stopped over to our hosts neighbor's house.  Their neighbors include some pretty famous people, who we were asked not to mention directly from their PR group!  We got a quick tour of one of the neighbor's homes, unfortunately there are issues with security in Italy so we aren't allowed to show photos.


We took a convoluted walk back to our hosts' house which took us through a field.


It was starting to get dark and I was worried we wouldn't make it back before the light faded.  But, a dimly lit trail through the woods later, we arrived back.

Our remaining time in Umbria was spent packing and planning for the next leg of our journey.  On Saturday morning we said our goodbyes and took a train to Florence for a few days of much needed down time.