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| The view |
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| In our courtyard with the farmer's dog. Our apartment is the door up the stairs to the right |
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| The vegetable garden |
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| Our afternoons |
Saturday, September 10, 2011
A wwoofer's paradise
... Or anyone's paradise, really. We have been on the 'farm' in Mallorca now for 4 days, and i still pinch myself every 20 minutes or so to make sure I'm not dreaming. Its the most beautiful place I've ever been, and to be wwoofing here is really kind of ridiculous. Its not a farm but an 8 million euro 'finca' (which technically just means country house) surrounded by 250 acres of mountain and thousands of ancient olive trees, 300 sheep and a bunch of wild goats. Part of the house we are staying in was built by the moors over 700 years ago.
We work 5 days a week, for 5 or 6 hours. Its different than other places, because we aren't growing anything for sale. The garden is mainly for the owners or people who rent the property, but there aren't any renters here right now. The farmer, Tolo, is this really bad ass mallorquin who hunts wild goats with a lasso and goes spear fishing, holding his breath for 3 minutes and diving down to spear some fish. Hes also a really funny dude but he gives us pretty lame work. Probably because we would be useless at doing the real work. With all the animals scattered over the 250 acres his dogs are much more useful than us. We spent one day cutting pieces of this strange grass that grows by runners, and then we spent the next day planting all the pieces in another spot. We also weed the garden and pick whatever is still growing there, and the other wwoofer who has been here all summer whipped up some really delicious gaspatcho.
The afternoons are much more grueling than the mornings. We have lunch, then lounge by the pool, read, swim, sleep, lounge some more. Intense varsity lounger training. Then we have weekends off, for hiking, going to the beach, going to the market, whatever.
I really cant believe that we're here, so far from where we started 2 1/2 months ago in Ireland! So much heat and sun. I love it.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Mallorca, Germany
Well, we have come along way from organic farming in Ireland. Pretty much the opposite, at the beach in Palma de Mallorca, which is basically the Spanish Jersey Shore, filled with german and dutch juiceheads. But dont worry, this was just a quick stop and we are off soon for Pedruxella, a remote estate in the mountains where we will be back to farming again, one last time.
In the meantime we have been in Berlin, Brussels, London, Cheshire, London again, and Barcelona! Barcelona is the best city ever. Cool architecture and unique urban planning, great museums, crazy nights. And its legit to nap in the afternoon, and a gorgeous beach is only a short walk away.
Anyway, running out of internet time, but we will be home in 2 weeks so see you soon!
Thursday, September 1, 2011
photo evidence
I had a few minutes to upload some photos, so even though they are not in order, heres some proof of what we've been up to... I dont have any pictures from the farm in holland, they are on sarahs camera, so i will have to add them later.
So theres a bit... the computer is really slow for uploading pictures so thats all i have for now. More news later i guess. xoxox
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| The Peace Wall in Belfast |
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| Our hosts at Moyleabbey farm in Ireland |
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| Glasgow |
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| Amsterdam |
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| Berlin pub crawl |
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| Brussels |
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| my only photo from the farm in holland, the creepy dharma initiative food |
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| Creamfields crew |
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| Tiesto! |
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Wheeeww
Its been a while since I last contributed to this beautiful blog and for all of our fans out there (aka mom and dad), I am sorry. Its been quite a whirlwind since we left Ireland 3 weeks ago. It was sad to leave that rainy but wonderful island, but this Irish WOOFing adventure has gone rogue and now we are in continental Europe! Surprise! Yes, so we left Moyleabbey organic farm on the 30th of July and headed to Belfast, then to Glasgow, then Edinburgh, Amsterdam, a farm in northern Holland for 10 days, Frankfurt, and now Berlin! Tomorrow we head to Brussels, then back across the channel for creamfields! (anticipatory fist pump), then to Barcelona and Majorca, then home on the 22nd of september. Real life looms ahead. Now, what to say about the past 3 weeks...
Belfast was interesting, we showed up just in time for the Pride parade so the city was a little crazy with all that. We did a tour of west belfast to learn about the troubles, and its crazy to see that they are still constructing "peace walls" between the catholic and protestant communities because theres still a lot of violence despite the fact that they somehow came to some agreement a few years ago.
Glasgow was just a quick stop, basically one and a half days, but we went to more museums there than we have been to anywhere because they were free and it was raining so not so nice to walk around outside.
Edinburgh is the best place ever. Its like a really great sized city and so beautiful and so much fun! When we got there the fringe festival was just beginning, so we got to see a great comedy show for cheap because it was still in previews. I really loved scotland and wish we had more time to spend in the land of "Och" and "Aye". Especially because we didnt have time to go to the highlands so i must go back and do that.
Amsterdam was really cool too but i was perpetually getting lost even though i was reading a map and it looks like it should be simple enough. The Van Gogh museum was really awesome but jam packed with people. Actually the whole city was jam packed with people, and as our luck would have it, it was Pride weekend in Amsterdam, so rainbows and drag queens surrounded us once again.
Traveling has been great but we are realizing why we never planned a whirlwind euro trip in the first place, were not really cut out for the city hopping, 2 days in each place sort of thing: Its super fun but not incredibly meaningful because you go around and take some pics and do whatever tourists are supposed to do in that place and then leave. But since everything seems so close its really tempting to try to go as many places as possible. On our last day in Amsterdam we had a pretty frazzled day trying to get all our plans in order and 20 minutes before we had to catch a train we were booking flights and such and ended up booking a flight from brussels to berlin instead of the other way around! So that was pretty crappy but luckily it wasnt to expensive to sort out. Its really nice to balance the traveling with staying in one place and having a chilled out routine, basically just gardening and sleeping.
Which brings me to our short stay in Holland. I was not that psyched about it when we first got there, but it did get better. On saturday evening, Lambert, picks us up from the train station and hes telling us about how the town, Veenhuizen, is like the prison center of Holland. There are 4 jails in ths sleepy little town, plus the very popular tourist attraction, the prison museum. Also the town was originally founded in like the 1800s as this sort of social experiment where homeless people and orphans and other such miscreants were sent to work and learn to be proper citizens, so many of the houses have sayings written on them such as "work is virtuous" and stuff like that: Then we get to the place we were sleeping which wa not Lamberts house but an abandoned farm house near the garden. Its completely empty, when the former resident died i guess his son took absolutely everything of any value, including the carpets and the light fixtures, and its really really dirty. Then we look in the cupboard and all the food is in these matching packages that look creepily like the Dharma Initiative from Lost... Anyway i was close to running away immediately because everything just had such a creepy vibe but Sarah convinced me that in the light of day everything would be better, and she was right. The gardens that we worked in were absolutely beautiful, and all the different volunteers we worked with were really great. It was more of a botanical garden than a farm, though they do produce some crops for sale, but the main garden is open for visitors to walk through so its all very artistically laid out in labyrinths and fancy shapes. Basically the only gardening task we did was weeding, because they are so meticulous that there cant be a single weed anywhere. But i understand that its the easiest thing for us to do especially since we were there such a short time. Also, ironically, it rained every single day (the irish weather followed us) so the ground was too wet for using machinery or tools so we had to trudge through the mud and pick weeds by hand. All in all it was pretty good though, Holland is cool. I love bikes and cheese and dutch people are all about their bikes and cheese. Apparently playing darts is really popular too, Sarah and I went with Lambert and his friend to the local pub, thinking they would play like two or three rounds, but they were really intense about it so we were there until 3 am. Darts is a really crap game to play when you are drinking because it actually requires a lot of mental math and strategizing, not to mention accuracy. And i always thought it was just get your darts closest to the center and you win. One exciting thing we did was cook up a bunch of recipes for squash because they are growing a lot of squash and dont really know how to eat it, so we made yummy squash risotto and zucchini cake and a few other things. One not so exciting thing we did was catch impetigo from Lambert's 1-year old daughter. They thought she had bug bites. Normally adults dont really get it but i guess our immune systems are weak from traveling, especially since we have not been very well nourished since we were at Moyleabbey.
I dont think im going to write about Germany right now because i have already written a lot and i have some other internet tasks to accomplish, namely, applying for jobs. its really hard to think about work and i cant even remember the title of my honours thesis at this point, so this is not going to be fun. I want to upload some pics but the connection is really slow so i will do it in a few days hopefully.
Belfast was interesting, we showed up just in time for the Pride parade so the city was a little crazy with all that. We did a tour of west belfast to learn about the troubles, and its crazy to see that they are still constructing "peace walls" between the catholic and protestant communities because theres still a lot of violence despite the fact that they somehow came to some agreement a few years ago.
Glasgow was just a quick stop, basically one and a half days, but we went to more museums there than we have been to anywhere because they were free and it was raining so not so nice to walk around outside.
Edinburgh is the best place ever. Its like a really great sized city and so beautiful and so much fun! When we got there the fringe festival was just beginning, so we got to see a great comedy show for cheap because it was still in previews. I really loved scotland and wish we had more time to spend in the land of "Och" and "Aye". Especially because we didnt have time to go to the highlands so i must go back and do that.
Amsterdam was really cool too but i was perpetually getting lost even though i was reading a map and it looks like it should be simple enough. The Van Gogh museum was really awesome but jam packed with people. Actually the whole city was jam packed with people, and as our luck would have it, it was Pride weekend in Amsterdam, so rainbows and drag queens surrounded us once again.
Traveling has been great but we are realizing why we never planned a whirlwind euro trip in the first place, were not really cut out for the city hopping, 2 days in each place sort of thing: Its super fun but not incredibly meaningful because you go around and take some pics and do whatever tourists are supposed to do in that place and then leave. But since everything seems so close its really tempting to try to go as many places as possible. On our last day in Amsterdam we had a pretty frazzled day trying to get all our plans in order and 20 minutes before we had to catch a train we were booking flights and such and ended up booking a flight from brussels to berlin instead of the other way around! So that was pretty crappy but luckily it wasnt to expensive to sort out. Its really nice to balance the traveling with staying in one place and having a chilled out routine, basically just gardening and sleeping.
Which brings me to our short stay in Holland. I was not that psyched about it when we first got there, but it did get better. On saturday evening, Lambert, picks us up from the train station and hes telling us about how the town, Veenhuizen, is like the prison center of Holland. There are 4 jails in ths sleepy little town, plus the very popular tourist attraction, the prison museum. Also the town was originally founded in like the 1800s as this sort of social experiment where homeless people and orphans and other such miscreants were sent to work and learn to be proper citizens, so many of the houses have sayings written on them such as "work is virtuous" and stuff like that: Then we get to the place we were sleeping which wa not Lamberts house but an abandoned farm house near the garden. Its completely empty, when the former resident died i guess his son took absolutely everything of any value, including the carpets and the light fixtures, and its really really dirty. Then we look in the cupboard and all the food is in these matching packages that look creepily like the Dharma Initiative from Lost... Anyway i was close to running away immediately because everything just had such a creepy vibe but Sarah convinced me that in the light of day everything would be better, and she was right. The gardens that we worked in were absolutely beautiful, and all the different volunteers we worked with were really great. It was more of a botanical garden than a farm, though they do produce some crops for sale, but the main garden is open for visitors to walk through so its all very artistically laid out in labyrinths and fancy shapes. Basically the only gardening task we did was weeding, because they are so meticulous that there cant be a single weed anywhere. But i understand that its the easiest thing for us to do especially since we were there such a short time. Also, ironically, it rained every single day (the irish weather followed us) so the ground was too wet for using machinery or tools so we had to trudge through the mud and pick weeds by hand. All in all it was pretty good though, Holland is cool. I love bikes and cheese and dutch people are all about their bikes and cheese. Apparently playing darts is really popular too, Sarah and I went with Lambert and his friend to the local pub, thinking they would play like two or three rounds, but they were really intense about it so we were there until 3 am. Darts is a really crap game to play when you are drinking because it actually requires a lot of mental math and strategizing, not to mention accuracy. And i always thought it was just get your darts closest to the center and you win. One exciting thing we did was cook up a bunch of recipes for squash because they are growing a lot of squash and dont really know how to eat it, so we made yummy squash risotto and zucchini cake and a few other things. One not so exciting thing we did was catch impetigo from Lambert's 1-year old daughter. They thought she had bug bites. Normally adults dont really get it but i guess our immune systems are weak from traveling, especially since we have not been very well nourished since we were at Moyleabbey.
I dont think im going to write about Germany right now because i have already written a lot and i have some other internet tasks to accomplish, namely, applying for jobs. its really hard to think about work and i cant even remember the title of my honours thesis at this point, so this is not going to be fun. I want to upload some pics but the connection is really slow so i will do it in a few days hopefully.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
last week on the farm
Time for my monthly blog update. Its not Kelly again...
Tomorrow is our last day on the farm and I can not believe we have been here a month. As Kelly has already expressed, this farming experience was much different than us working at the shop in Cork; waking up early and working hard all day long outside. We have really enjoyed the family and the farm and it will take some adjusting to get out of our daily routine, but I know we are both itching for some more traveling and are ready to move on. Our plans for the next week include traveling to Belfast then Glasgow and Edinburgh in Scotland.
Now for a little update on the past week and a bit. Last weekend we went to Wicklow National Park. For those chick flick fanatics, it is where they filmed PS, I Love You starring Gerrard Butler and Hilary Swank ( legit one of my favorite movies. so good. go see it if you haven't). I was obviously obsessed with this fact, and the whole time picturing being in that movie, or at least meeting myself a Gerrard Butler. We left on the Friday and stayed until Sunday at a hostel in Glendalough. Glendalough is one of the main towns in the park even though it consisted of a hotel/restaurant/bar and hostel. We spent the day on Saturday hiking through the park and even though the forecast called for thunderstorms it was a beautiful sunny day. I don't know if Kelly has told you, our luck with weather has been incredible. It is ALWAYS sunny when we need it to be ( i.e. taking a day trip), always defying the forecast. Ireland likes us :)
Saturday night we went to a restaurant in the next town ( 15 min walk away) and had a nice little dinner date. It was here that it became apparent we have absolutely nothing to talk about, that we have been spending way to much time together to remotely attempt any conversation. Our conversation went as follows: " How is your food?" "good, wanna try?" "Sure...oh its good...wanna try mine?" "No thanks." and we were sitting for almost two hours. no joke. After dinner we just hung out at the hostel watching movies, which is something we have been craving, so that was nice. On Sunday, we got up and left, stopping off in Dublin for a few hours before coming back to the farm. Monday we lounged and rested before another week of work.
The week went by as per usual...weeding, picking raspberries, harvesting onions, garlic and peas.
This weekend we decided to have a last hurrah in Dublin. We arrived on Friday to Emer's house and just hung out and caught up on the past 3 weeks. Saturday we walked around the city, got coffee and food and sat by St Stephens Green. We then went to Emer's friends bbq/party which was lots of fun. We met a bunch of her university friends and spent the night listening to music, drinking and chatting.
On Sunday the girls ( Emer and Aibhe) went to a music festival but we decided not to join, but instead hang out ( we are often very tired after the long weeks of work)...however our plans changed. As we were sitting outside on a bench in our Pajamas ( well, I was ACTUALLY in my pjs...we were only down the road from Emers house and just left to get a quick coffee) a friendly dude came and sat next to us. We ended up chatting and he invited us to this boat party. We didn't have time to change as it was leaving but still, Kelly and I spur of the moment decided to go. I am so happy we did because it was easily one of the funnest days of our whole trip yet! We spent the afternoon ( again BEAUTIFUL and sunny) outside on a boat, dancing and making new friends. After we joined our new friends and went to this really cool bar. We eventually got back to Emer's around the same time we did and hung out for a bit reviewing our days before bed.
Monday was sad as we had to say goodbye to Emer and Ailbhe for good :( :( ....well until they come to Canada :). after our Goodbyes we got the bus back to the farm.
This week has been the same ol routine except Wednesday we got the opportunity to go on a Farm Walk. This is basically when farms open up for an open house/tour sorta thing. One of the farm owners educated us on what we were seeing as we were walking by as people asked questions and made comments. It is a really great way for farmers to share information and learn from one another. It was also very interesting for us to see a different farm, one that was 10 times the size and very different than Moyleabbeys ( where we are working now).
Anyway, I think that is all for now. Hopefully this post will suffice until next time ( probs in August at some point). xo
Tomorrow is our last day on the farm and I can not believe we have been here a month. As Kelly has already expressed, this farming experience was much different than us working at the shop in Cork; waking up early and working hard all day long outside. We have really enjoyed the family and the farm and it will take some adjusting to get out of our daily routine, but I know we are both itching for some more traveling and are ready to move on. Our plans for the next week include traveling to Belfast then Glasgow and Edinburgh in Scotland.
Now for a little update on the past week and a bit. Last weekend we went to Wicklow National Park. For those chick flick fanatics, it is where they filmed PS, I Love You starring Gerrard Butler and Hilary Swank ( legit one of my favorite movies. so good. go see it if you haven't). I was obviously obsessed with this fact, and the whole time picturing being in that movie, or at least meeting myself a Gerrard Butler. We left on the Friday and stayed until Sunday at a hostel in Glendalough. Glendalough is one of the main towns in the park even though it consisted of a hotel/restaurant/bar and hostel. We spent the day on Saturday hiking through the park and even though the forecast called for thunderstorms it was a beautiful sunny day. I don't know if Kelly has told you, our luck with weather has been incredible. It is ALWAYS sunny when we need it to be ( i.e. taking a day trip), always defying the forecast. Ireland likes us :)
Saturday night we went to a restaurant in the next town ( 15 min walk away) and had a nice little dinner date. It was here that it became apparent we have absolutely nothing to talk about, that we have been spending way to much time together to remotely attempt any conversation. Our conversation went as follows: " How is your food?" "good, wanna try?" "Sure...oh its good...wanna try mine?" "No thanks." and we were sitting for almost two hours. no joke. After dinner we just hung out at the hostel watching movies, which is something we have been craving, so that was nice. On Sunday, we got up and left, stopping off in Dublin for a few hours before coming back to the farm. Monday we lounged and rested before another week of work.
The week went by as per usual...weeding, picking raspberries, harvesting onions, garlic and peas.
This weekend we decided to have a last hurrah in Dublin. We arrived on Friday to Emer's house and just hung out and caught up on the past 3 weeks. Saturday we walked around the city, got coffee and food and sat by St Stephens Green. We then went to Emer's friends bbq/party which was lots of fun. We met a bunch of her university friends and spent the night listening to music, drinking and chatting.
On Sunday the girls ( Emer and Aibhe) went to a music festival but we decided not to join, but instead hang out ( we are often very tired after the long weeks of work)...however our plans changed. As we were sitting outside on a bench in our Pajamas ( well, I was ACTUALLY in my pjs...we were only down the road from Emers house and just left to get a quick coffee) a friendly dude came and sat next to us. We ended up chatting and he invited us to this boat party. We didn't have time to change as it was leaving but still, Kelly and I spur of the moment decided to go. I am so happy we did because it was easily one of the funnest days of our whole trip yet! We spent the afternoon ( again BEAUTIFUL and sunny) outside on a boat, dancing and making new friends. After we joined our new friends and went to this really cool bar. We eventually got back to Emer's around the same time we did and hung out for a bit reviewing our days before bed.
Monday was sad as we had to say goodbye to Emer and Ailbhe for good :( :( ....well until they come to Canada :). after our Goodbyes we got the bus back to the farm.
This week has been the same ol routine except Wednesday we got the opportunity to go on a Farm Walk. This is basically when farms open up for an open house/tour sorta thing. One of the farm owners educated us on what we were seeing as we were walking by as people asked questions and made comments. It is a really great way for farmers to share information and learn from one another. It was also very interesting for us to see a different farm, one that was 10 times the size and very different than Moyleabbeys ( where we are working now).
Anyway, I think that is all for now. Hopefully this post will suffice until next time ( probs in August at some point). xo
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