Ever since we arrived in Europe Spain has been on top of our travel list, so it is something of an achievement that we have visited 14 other countries before finally getting here. Our port of entry to Spain was Madrid, burrowing straight into the heart of the city via the subway, we emerging bleary eyed, yet eager to explore, right in the centre of the old town.
Expectations were high. Madrid was cleaner, quieter and more expensive than I expected. It has many beautiful old buildings that would have blown us away two years ago. It has narrow winding lanes lined with small shops and cafes that would have had our cameras flashing and our jaws on the floor two years ago. I guess this is an inherent problem with travelling. We become used to such sights and need bigger and more beautiful buildings to keep us excited. It's like a drug and your tolerance keeps increasing. While Madrid was both beautiful and interesting I can never shake the feeling of being part of an endless tour. Even when we go it alone I feel a bit like a puppet on strings; buy this, go here, photograph this. Or, if we try to do things off the tourist trail I just end up feeling a bit confused, an outsider who doesn't know the rules of the game.
I think this is why I love doing workaways. It brings back meaning to our travels - meeting people, learning new skills, seeing new ways of living, eating and cooperating. Getting an insight into the culture of a place. A lot of people might wonder why would you work for free while stuck in on place but what you get out of it is worth so much more than what you put in. We are currently doing our fourth workaway near the village of La Codosera right next to the Spanish/Portuguese border. The house sits on a hill overlooking a rolling landscape dotted with olive and cork trees. Today the horizon is obscured by smoke from a large forest fire 150km away. We are seeing climate change first hand here with July experiencing a new record average temperature. Although the smoke actually made for a cooler start to the day which we took advantage of by cycling to La Codosera for supplies (essentially chips for Hana and chocolate for me).
Our hosts have been at a dance festival for a week so we are essentially house sitting for them.
We wake up as the sun rises over the hill to make the most of the cooler mornings; feeding the animals (3 dogs, 5 cats and 10 hens), watering the plants and getting in some work before breakfast at 10am.
Hana has perfected her Spanish omelette. All of the ingredients are grown here. While our hosts are vegan they do eat eggs from their own hens.
It's starting to warm up by breakfast time which we eat our on the patio beneath the grape vines. We've been having freshly squeezed orange juice most days as the season is coming to an end.
After breakfast we do another hour or two of work before it reaches 30 °c at which time we might play a boardgame, read or go to the resovoir in Portugal for a swim before lunch. We have discovered a German boardgame called Carcassonne, which Hana keeps beating me at, so we play that a lot.
Around 3 o'clock we have a siesta for a couple of hours (along with the animals). After that we feed the animals, take them for a walk, water the vegetables (this takes around an hour, you need a lot of water in summer) and prepare dinner. We are both really enjoying living without dairy or meat. While I wouldn't call myself vegetarian I don't find that I am missing these things or craving them in any way. We eat dinner and chat while the sun sets. It just feels right.
Expectations were high. Madrid was cleaner, quieter and more expensive than I expected. It has many beautiful old buildings that would have blown us away two years ago. It has narrow winding lanes lined with small shops and cafes that would have had our cameras flashing and our jaws on the floor two years ago. I guess this is an inherent problem with travelling. We become used to such sights and need bigger and more beautiful buildings to keep us excited. It's like a drug and your tolerance keeps increasing. While Madrid was both beautiful and interesting I can never shake the feeling of being part of an endless tour. Even when we go it alone I feel a bit like a puppet on strings; buy this, go here, photograph this. Or, if we try to do things off the tourist trail I just end up feeling a bit confused, an outsider who doesn't know the rules of the game.
I think this is why I love doing workaways. It brings back meaning to our travels - meeting people, learning new skills, seeing new ways of living, eating and cooperating. Getting an insight into the culture of a place. A lot of people might wonder why would you work for free while stuck in on place but what you get out of it is worth so much more than what you put in. We are currently doing our fourth workaway near the village of La Codosera right next to the Spanish/Portuguese border. The house sits on a hill overlooking a rolling landscape dotted with olive and cork trees. Today the horizon is obscured by smoke from a large forest fire 150km away. We are seeing climate change first hand here with July experiencing a new record average temperature. Although the smoke actually made for a cooler start to the day which we took advantage of by cycling to La Codosera for supplies (essentially chips for Hana and chocolate for me).
After breakfast we do another hour or two of work before it reaches 30 °c at which time we might play a boardgame, read or go to the resovoir in Portugal for a swim before lunch. We have discovered a German boardgame called Carcassonne, which Hana keeps beating me at, so we play that a lot.
Around 3 o'clock we have a siesta for a couple of hours (along with the animals). After that we feed the animals, take them for a walk, water the vegetables (this takes around an hour, you need a lot of water in summer) and prepare dinner. We are both really enjoying living without dairy or meat. While I wouldn't call myself vegetarian I don't find that I am missing these things or craving them in any way. We eat dinner and chat while the sun sets. It just feels right.
- David
