Week 26: our journey home (friends, family and ferries)

Very early Wednesday morning, and still feeling under the weather, we hopped on a bus from Sutomore, Montenegro to Dubrovnik, Croatia. Crossing the border into Croatia took aaaaaaages and our 5 hour journey became 7 hours. And the toilet on the bus didn't work. Needless to say I wasn't particularly chipper when we eventually arrived!

After checking into our hostel and having a rest we walked into Dubrovnik old town. Sadly, being ill we didn't really want to drink or have too much to eat so we just wandered aimlessly through the quaint little streets of the old town. We have been to Dubrovnik before, a few years ago, so we didn't feel too disappointed that we didn't have the energy to make the most of our one day here.

The following morning we flew from Dubrovnik to Dusseldorf and then got the train to Düren, Germany. Some friends of mine were having a house warming this weekend, so we called in for a pitstop on the way home. The first time we were in Germany it felt very clean and efficient. It felt even more so this time, in comparison to the more relaxed attitude to litter etc in Eastern Europe! We spent two nights with Marcelo and Larissa (and their kids George and Eloisa). We went out to the beautiful city of Bonn with Larissa and the kids. The "bo" in Haribo stands for Bonn, and it is where the sweets originated. There was a huge Haribo store that was totally mind blowing. They had Haribo sweet versions of absolutely everything. We spent the rest of our time just catching up with our friends and relaxing (we were starting to feel a bit more human by this point, thankfully). Marcelo and Larissa threw a great party (and Craig got to catch up on all the Game of Thrones he'd missed while we've been away!), it was a really fun weekend.



On Sunday we waved goodbye to our friends to and said hello to family! We got the train up to Amsterdam (the last stop on our trip) where we met Craig's parents. We had rented a beautiful apartment near Amsterdam city centre for 3 nights. Sunday was Neil's Birthday, so in the evening we walked along the canals to Proeflokaal Arendsnest, a cosy bar with 100's of Dutch beers, which was a great start to our family holiday.

It really felt like we packed a lot into our time in Amsterdam. We went to the Rijksmuseum, the Albert Cuypmarkt (a huge outdoor market), De 9 Straatjes (the 9 streets, a pretty area of Amsterdam with lots of independent and stylish stores), and of course we took a boat trip through the canals. Our boat trip was with Boat Amsterdam and it was €15 for an hour boat trip with all drinks included! We got cosy at the front of the boat under some blankets and enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine. As we arrived back at the Oude Kerk at 3pm we saw a tiny multicoloured boat with a man playing musical instruments in time with the 3pm church bells! It was great!





After all our exploring we spent Tuesday afternoon in a quirky bar with furniture on the ceiling, sampling plenty more beers.

Elaine and Neil flew home on Wednesday morning, and me and Craig did a little more exploring before heading to get on the overnight ferry back to Newcastle. Before we even set off for our trip we always said it would be nice to go home via Amsterdam and maybe get the ferry. We didn't dream that Elaine and Neil would come and meet us and that we would have such an awesome time. So it's nice our plans came to fruition! We all really loved Amsterdam- it's really laid-back and you never get bored of strolling along the picturesque canals.

On Wednesday evening we boarded the ferry and were pleasantly surprised by our room. We had bunk beds, a little sofa, a desk and an ensuite bathroom. Compact but cosy and more than we expected. We had packed a little picnic so we sat in our room to eat. The weather was calm so the ferry was quite still, so we slept like babies. We woke up on Thursday morning and went outside to Tynemouth coming into view in the distance. It felt very surreal that the trip we had looked forward to for about a year was already coming to an end! But what a trip it has been!! We had little idea what to expect when we set off exactly 6 months ago, but never dreamed it would be so rich and rewarding an experience.

So there we have it! 

2 people

6 months

12 countries

7 hosts

€3543

Countless good times

Week 25 (Sutomore): camping trip in Montenegro!

Our main task work-wise for this week was to paint Tamara and Charles' porch and balcony. We started with a coat of primer, which was really thin and dribbled down our arms while we tried to paint the ceiling above your head, then dried on our skin like PVA glue! After the primer dried we started on the first coat of paint. I didn't manage to get a great before picture, but the area to paint was quite big, with lots of fiddly edges and pillars so getting a first coat on took a couple of days.



We have also been helping Tamara set up an English school this week. Her first classes start next week so we have been helping to assemble desks and chairs and get the classroom ready to go.



We also had the pleasure of babysitting Sally and Stuart one evening this week. They were surprisingly easy to handle and were pretty happy spreading their toys around the living room, before climbing into the toy box. What one does the other copies. They have very different personalities and are very funny. Stuart is very quiet and totally chilled. Sally is a lot more vocal (although no proper words yet) and is the boss of her brother, taking toys off of him at every opportunity. Stuart is too chilled to care though so this rarely ends in tears.



Charles has been our first English host since our first host Diane, in France. Although we love Workaway for the opportunity to get to know a new culture, we have to admit it is quite nice having some home comforts after such a long time away from home. Charles cooked a curry for us- our first curry the whole trip (Indian food is not popular at all on the continent, its basically non-existent), as well as toad in the hole, and even a Sunday Roast! And there is English breakfast tea! Of course we have balanced this with some Montenegrin food, I particularly enjoyed Burek, a type of pastry filled with meat that Charles and Tamara brought home fresh from the bakery one morning.

At the weekend we set off in the car once again for Rijeka Crnojevica- a small village on the edge of a small tributary that leads into lake Skadar. The drive there was along a narrow windy road, with lots of hairpin bends and blind corners. Cue a slow drive with lots of horn beeping. The scenery accompanying our drive was pretty stunning and as the road was quite quiet we managed to pull over to get a cool shot of the car. We chose Rijeka Crnojevica to visit as Charles and Tamara kindly lent us their tent and I picked a campsite down by the river. After arriving we set off on a hike to Obodska Cave. Tamara has great knowledge of Montenegro and has so many recommendations for places for us to visit. When we said we were going to Rijeka Crnojevica Obodska Cave was her first recommendation. The hike was a 7km circuit, with the cave about 1km from the end. It was a great hike, if a little steeper than we expected based on the "easy" rating the route was given on the tourist info board! It has been a long running joke on our travels that Craig can't read a map, and although he tries to deny this we ended up taking a wrong turning and adding an extra (quite steep) kilometre onto our walk. Craig was not trusted with the map after this.



Arriving at the cave we were presented with some rather large boulders. We thought perhaps the walk ended here and you couldn't actually get inside the cave, however the markings we had been following continued over the rocks and right into the cave. So we set off climbing and clambering over the rocks. Definitely not "easy" in my book!! Craig ventured all the way into the cave and off into the dark, while I stayed on the outside and took some photos. The cave was a pretty impressive sight!



After our walk we set up our tent for the night and before heading to a nearby restaurant for dinner. We shared the mixed grill and it was absolutely delicious! Just what we needed. We headed back to camp and enjoyed a nice internet-free evening together around the campfire!



The next day we walked the other way up the road to Pavlova Strana viewpoint (also recommended by Tamara). The walk itself wasn't particularly exciting as it just followed the road but once you reach the viewpoint you can see for miles and the river does a big U-turn around the mountain in front of you.



Although it was only lunchtime we decided to head back to Sutomore, via a brief stop in Virpazar, a picturesque town on the edge of lake Skadar, as I started to feel unwell. I climbed into bed as soon as we got back and spent the afternoon feeling quite sorry for myself and the evening repeatedly vomiting. So typical when we are so close to the end of our trip!

This was our last week in Montenegro! We have been looking forward to Montenegro from the start of our trip and it definitely lived up to expectations - it is such a beautiful country! I've struggled to cram everything we got up to into the blog.

We have once again been lucky in finding amazingly generous hosts who we got on so well with. We really hope to return to see Charles and Tamara again in the future.

Next week we start our journey home!

Total joint spend: €2863

Week 24 (Sutomore): exploring Montenegro

For our first week in Sutomore our task work wise was to lay some concrete in the garden. This would be another first, for me at least. We weeded the area to be concreted, lay some miscellaneous metal parts down, which apparently makes the resulting area stronger, and then we got mixing. The process involved mixing cement, aggregate, sand and water in the cement mixer, tipping it out into a wheelbarrow, and then dumping it onto the floor and smoothing it all out. It's not overly difficult but it took longer to cover the area than I thought it would, and making sure it's all level takes patience. We had some great views of the hillside and of the sea to admire during our breaks though.



Charles and Tamara were happy for us to get involved with the twins and we were happy to help out where needed. From our first day we got involved with feeding the twins at meal times, and just generally keeping them entertained around the house. They loved a good chase. Tamara speaks to Sally and Stuart in both English and Montenegrin (Charles only speaks English) but the twins haven't started speaking yet so at least we didn't have a language barrier to worry about with them. They are adorable and already have different personalities despite being twins.

Sally (left) and Stuart (right)

We were lucky enough to be insured on Tamara's Suzuki Jimny (right hand drive) meaning we were free to go off exploring Montenegro at the weekend. On Saturday we took it relatively easy (we had been warned that the drivers and roads in Montenegro can be a little crazy) so we drove to Stari Bar, or Old Bar in English, the next town over. Stari Bar was destroyed by an earthquake in 1979 so the town was abandoned and the new town of Bar was established nearer the coast. We had a nice walk around the ruins and got some great pictures of the scenery.



On Sunday we set off on a bigger road trip. We drove up the coast, surrounded by mountains the whole time, with the top down on the Jimny. Our first stop was Kotor, on the Bay of Kotor. The old town of Kotor has a similar feel to Dubrovnik. The city walls disappear up the mountain side and you can hike the whole way along them. However, it was midday and VERY hot when we arrived so we just walked part-way up so that I could get the iconic Kotor photo.




From Kotor we continued around the bay to Perast, a beautiful much quieter town than Kotor.




From Perast we drove on around the bay to a car ferry to get us back across to where we started. From here we drove through Tivat and stopped at Sveti Stefan for another photo opportunity at sunset on the way home.




The day was so much fun and we are so grateful to have use of a car! We did encounter a little of the crazy driving we were warned about, but nothing too bad (although that's easy for me to say when I didn't do any of the driving!).

Our route

Total joint spend: €2765

 

Week 23 (Budapest): bench building

This week we got stuck into building a new bench outside for Zita and Arpi. The metal frame for the existing bench was in good condition, we just needed to remove the old wooden planks, measure and cut new ones, and then bolt them into place. Just! We quickly found out that several of the old bolts were seized in place. As we were limited tool wise to just a spanner, getting these off took a lot of elbow grease, grunting (and probably swearing), and WD40. A few hours later than anticipated we had removed all the bolts and could get stuck into rebuilding the bench. We measured up the new planks, cut them to size with a tenon saw (which are reinforced to increase precision) and then drilled holes for the bolts to go back in. Craig always encourages me to get involved with these DIY projects, so the list of power tools I can use is rapidly growing! The trickiest bit of rebuilding the bench was joining the pieces of the angled back rest in the corner- but we got there eventually.



Overall, the bench project took a bit longer than we anticipated, by the time we had bought the wood, got the bolts out, worked out all the angles etc, so the job kept us occupied for our entire week in Budapest! We just finished in time to sit and admire our work before we left Hungary! Sadly we had to disassemble the whole thing again and store it away. Zita and Arpi will coat the bench in some protectant and paint it before assembling it again. Hopefully they can send some pictures our way when it is finished!


In our spare time this week we headed back over the river up to Budapest Palace and through Castle District. The views over Budapest from the castle were fantastic.



From here we wandered along through Castle District, a quaint oldy-worldy part of Budapest with cobbled streets. As beautiful as it was we both got a slightly odd vibe from Castle District. I think the number of tourists around, and the cafes and restaurants catering for them gave the area a slightly "put-on" feel. Nevertheless, the area was lovely to walk through, but we opted to keep walking and stop for a drink somewhere quieter.

We really enjoyed our time back in Budapest, Zita and Arpi let us get stuck into some really fun projects, and we got to see a few more areas of Budapest that we didn't see with my parents. On top of that we got to stay with some very seasoned travellers and hear great stories of their trip and pick up some tips for our future travels. Listening to them talk definitely makes me want to go out and buy bikes and set off into the sunset for a few years!

On Sunday we flew out of Budapest to Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro. We both wanted to visit Montenegro from the start of our trip, so we were really excited to be ending our trip here. We picked up our first passport stamp of the trip as Montenegro isn't in the EU yet. We had one night in Podgorica (pronounced pod-gor-its-a) before getting the bus to new hosts in Sutomore (pronounced sut-o-mor-rah), a coastal town, on Monday.

Podgorica has a very different feel to the other cities we have visited along our journey. The city is one of the smallest capital cities in Europe, and when I looked up the population I think it was somewhere between Carlisle and Newcastle. After arriving on Sunday we went in search of dinner. We ran into a slight translation issue- very few places has an English menu and Montenegrin isn't on google translate. We tried translating from other similar languages but were still left confused in some places. For example one section of the food menu in one bar was titled "pivski meni", googling this phrase drew a blank and translating from Croatian gave us "Beer me". So who knows!

Eventually we settled for Gyros. Straight away it was obvious that this was one of the cheapest places we visited in terms of food. Drinks were similar to other places we have visited at €3-4 for a pint, but the food was ridiculously cheap. We got two XL gyros and two 0.5L beers for €10. And it was amazing!

The next day we walked around Podgorica for a couple of hours, taking in the relatively few sights, before hopping on a short bus down to the Montenegrin Coast. Charles, our new host met us off the bus and drove us up the hill to their house in Sutomore. Charles is English but moved to Montenegro 14 years ago after meeting his Montenegrin wife, Tamara, in the UK. They have twin 18-month year olds, Sally and Stuart. They were so lovely from the moment we met them. We felt right at home! We have actually been in contact with Charles and Tamara since May as we were initially planning to visit in July. However, Charles and Tamara were travelling themselves then we rescheduled for September as they sounded like great hosts and we really felt that staying with them would be a lot of fun!

We were shown up to our bedroom and were pleasantly surprised to find it had a balcony looking out over the sea- totally amazing! I have a feeling the next 3 weeks in Montenegro are going to be good!

Total joint spend: €2724

Week 22: back to Budapest!

On Thursday this week we parted ways with Tamás and Anita. We got some lovely pictures with them and Tamás' Dad, who had kindly made us some sandwiches for the journey, and they also gifted Craig a goatskin drum! This was a pretty cool present, it's nice to get a souvenir that is in some way genuine and not from a tacky tourist shop! Craig now thinks he looks pretty cool with a drum tied to his bag when we are travelling.

 

After a couple of hours on the train back up to Budapest, our new host Zita met us near the train station. Her and her Husband, Arpi, did a four year round the world trip on bicycles as a honeymoon, kind of puts our little jolly around Europe into perspective! They are still active in the travelling community - they are about to publish a book, regularly do inspirational talks, and often host Workawayers and Warm Shower-ers (warm showers is a website where people host bicycle travellers for free). In fact soon after our arrival, an American doing a cross-continent trip, Kyle, arrived (check out his blog here). His trip has an emphasis on freedom from the material world and meeting new and different people. Being travellers themselves Zita and Arpi made a huge effort to provide us with plenty of Budapest sight seeing information. Our room was full of maps, recommendations and city guides. We did a lot of the touristy stuff with my parents a couple of weeks ago, but we were still looking forward to seeing a few new sights. Our first full day with Zita and Arpi started with a run down of the jobs we could do-mostly gardening, furniture painting, and DIY. Zita was happy for us to pick and choose which jobs we wanted to work on and when. In our first week here we built some compost bins, painted a metal table and repaired some wooden ceiling panels in the house.

 

At the weekend we ventured into Budapest, via the very easy number 110 bus. We wandered the streets just soaking in the vibe, and came across Szimpla- the bar that had had a queue down the street the last time we were in Budapest but now was much less busy. Szimpla is a 'ruin bar', which are derelict buildings full of mismatch furniture that are turned into bars. They are all the rage in budapest, but Szimpla is the oldest. We got a shisha and a few beers and wiled away a lazy afternoon in there. In the evening we went for pizza with our hosts. Their local pizza place had a half price offer on so we each got a 40cm pizza for €3-4 and took the leftovers home for breakfast! 

The new working week started with a project ideally suited to Craig- reconstruct an old outdoor bench. The metal frame is in good condition, but the wood has begun to rot away, so it's a case of measure up the existing wooden parts and cut and drill new ones to replace them. Tune in to the next blog post to see how we get on!

Total joint spend: €2432

Week 21 (Csólyospálos): our second week on the farm

So we’re nearly two weeks into our Hungarian farming funtime! We have gotten into the swing of things since our last post.

The work here is simple but rewarding. We feed the animals every morning, cutting alfalfa for them all with a scythe (no machinery or automation here!) and then give them all water. Its around 35 degrees here each day so the animals are normally quite thankful for a drink. The little pigs are especially funny and always dive straight into the water troughs for a bath.



We also help pick courgettes at Tamás’s parents farm, most of which go to the pigs as they are too overgrown (though definitely not overgrown for an English palette!). 



Apparently the small courgettes get sent to be made into those fancy vegetable crisps, so they have to be around 3.5cm in diameter. Communicating this concept without them speaking any English was a bit of a challenge! We tried holding up different sizes of courgette with thumbs up and thumbs down signs in the form of a question, but even this didn’t get a clear response. But we must have done a reasonable job, as at half past nine in the morning after an hour of courgette picking we were rewarded with a nice glass of red wine, as you do at that time of day.

Despite the language barrier with the grandparents, we came to know them as kind and generous people through deeper forms of communication, such as chess. Tamás’s father turned out to be some sort of undiscovered grandmaster, roundly and frequently beating us when we played. He even toyed with us, in one game giving a dummy gasp as we took his queen and walked right into his carefully set trap to checkmate us. Just as well we don’t know any Hungarian swear words.

We spent our second and final weekend at a friend (and fellow Workaway host) of Tamás’s for a small gathering with food. His place, also a small farm, was in the process of being renovated, and filled with artwork and projects done by past workawayers. He is from Switzerland, moving to Hungary for a more laid-back pace of life. As a result of having Swiss, Hungarian, English and French (his current workawayer) nationalities present, English was the language of choice, and it struck us as interesting that even if we weren’t there, everybody would still be conversing in it. How lucky we Brits are in our native language! We ate some pörkölt (a sort of Hungarian stew) which made use of every part of a sheep you can think of. This didn’t put us off though, and it was delicious probably because it was cooked in the traditional Hungarian way in a special pot over an outdoor fire for about 4 hours.



We just have a couple more days here until we head back up North to the slightly more cosmopolitan Budapest. We have definitely come to enjoy our time here more than we initially expected. But one thing we won’t miss is the water. They do occasionally buy bottled sparkling water but most days tap water is the only option. We were told it is safe to drink, but we discovered it has a VERY strong metallic taste. We think it must be iron as it tastes and smells a bit like blood. It even started to turn my blonde hair orange! Although Craig quite liked my new colour (perhaps unsurprisingly) I was worried about how permanent this effect might be so I avoided washing my hair, relying solely on dry shampoo, for over a week. Here’s hoping for an iron-free shower at the next hosts!



Total joint spend: €2360

Week 20: Stanton family reunion in Budapest

This week saw the first Stanton family holiday abroad together in 7 years! We spent a long weekend in a quirky apartment near the centre of Budapest. The first event of the journey was that Louis Alfonsi (the singer of Despacito) and his huge entourage were on my flight from Barcelona to Budapest. A little strange, as the flight was with budget airline WizzAir- maybe the cheque for his number 1 single hasn’t cleared yet! He apparently wanted to film something on the plane before we all boarded, delaying my flight by an hour. I was counting down the minutes to seeing my Mum and Dad, imagining a cheesy airport reunion scene, but it turned out they were waiting in the arrivals lounge of a different terminal. Confusion aside I was over the moon to see them again after 4 months. We spent our first evening relaxing in the apartment, waiting for Craig (and Mum and Dads bags) to arrive, and then eating takeaway kebabs. The next day we set off exploring Budapest. We headed over the river and hiked up the hill to the Citadel, walked across the Chain bridge, then we got the metro out to Hero’s Square and walked around Vàrosligeti-tó Park. Along the way we found some nice spots for a drink: we chilled in some deck chairs along the Danube river in Raqpart Bar and later looked out over the city rooftops in 360 Bar. For dinner we went to the outdoor Street Food Karavan, where there were about 10 street food vendors selling everything from burgers to traditional Hungarian Goulash and Lángos. Take your pick, grab a beer from the bar, and find a bench! This was great for a nice relaxed, fun, and cheap dinner, we definitely recommend Street Food Karavan to anyone heading to Budapest.

 

After spending Tuesday hiking around the city, Wednesday was our relaxation day. We walked to Margaret Island (a small, pedestrianised island in the middle of the Danube river) and spent 3 hours at the Palatinus Strandfürdö spa. This suited everyone as Dad (the swimming fanatic) could swim some lengths and the rest of us got to relax in the outdoor thermal pools. There was even a wave pool and water slides! After the spa we walked through the Japanese Garden on Margaret Island and then headed home, via a beer in the city centre at a great place we found to dip your feet. For our last night we ate at a fish bar on Dob street. We found this street while walking back to the apartment and it is lined with great looking restaurants- we struggled to pick one. From Jewish street food to a “Makery” where you sit around a table and cook your meal together as a group.

 

On Thursday we said goodbye to my parents and set off to meet our next Workaway hosts. They own a small farm in southern Hungary near the town of Csólyospálos - a change from the bustle of Budapest. We were met from the train at about 17:00 by a host who speaks a lot less English than we had anticipated based on our messages back and forth! After arriving at his farm we discovered that there was no bathroom or shower, only a compost toilet outside. The bedroom on offer at their farm also had pork meat hanging up to dry and a broken sofa bed with no sheets or pillows. Thankfully we were offered a room at his parents farm down the road, where there would be a bathroom with both a shower and no toilet. No internet, but that was a sacrifice I was happy to make. Támas and Anita were also hosting a Swiss couple (Camilla and Matias) with a 2 year old son and a girl from Taiwan (Chomin), who were all nice and friendly. We helped them feed and water the pigs, goats, cows, chickens and emus and then went to bed, unsure what the next couple of weeks would hold!

 

We start work about 8am each morning, mainly tending to the animals and vegetables, building/repairing the odd bit of fencing and generally help out where we can. We finish work for the day at around 12.30pm for lunch. Lunch seems to be the main meal of the day here so Anita or Camilla usually prepare something hot with pasta or rice. Hungary is known for the paprikas (or peppers as we call them in the UK) and zucchini (courgettes) so they are almost always on the menu! The local town of Csólyospálos is quite small and there isn’t much to do. We have a couple of bikes we can borrow to get into the town but they aren’t in good enough condition for a day out cycling and I think you would have to cycle quite far to get to the next town. It has proved a slight bit of a blessing though, as it has forced us to just enjoy sitting outside reading and relaxing. And even though our hosts don’t speak as much English as we thought, they are really nice people. At the weekend they took us to a traditional Hungarian horse fair and a tractor rally, which were actually quite cool experiences. In a strange way not a million miles away from the sort of events you get in rural Cumbria where we’re from. And I finally got my hands on a chimney cake- a long tube of dough cooked over a fire and then coated in sugar and flavour (chocolate in our case)!

 

Admittedly, we were a little shocked when we first arrived with Támas and Anita but our first few days have been fun and interesting! Workaway can be a little strange at first, trying to settle in to someone else’s house and suddenly spending so much time with people you’ve only just met. But we are yet to have a bad experience so we will just embrace this new and different place, which is surely the whole point of travelling! 


Total joint spend: €2308

Week 19: parting ways in Warsaw!

On Tuesday we drove with Piotr to their main house in Warsaw. Piotr and Kinga kindly offered for us to stay here for our flights out of Poland.

Craig left at 5am on Wednesday morning to head home and surprise his sister for her birthday, leaving me alone to explore Warsaw on Wednesday and Thursday morning. Craig chose a rather complicated route home consisting of 8 different connections- he missed one but thankfully made it home! 

I got the bus into Warsaw city centre easily enough- quite a few of the buses we have gotten in Europe have been well labelled and have electronic screens indicating the next stop, much easier than getting a bus in the UK. I was pleasantly surprised by Warsaw, a few people we met in Slovakia described Warsaw as “just another city”, and Piotr also explained that much of Warsaw was destroyed in WWII, so it is not very old. So I didn’t have the highest of hopes, but I found Warsaw to be quite beautiful. I walked for about an hour before reaching the old town, which was apparently rebuilt after the war using original bricks etc. I stopped at Podwale 5 for lunch, a quiet place with chilled music and free wifi. The waitresses were really friendly but did struggle to translate the daily set lunch menu, but I opted for it anyway and enjoyed a tomato and lentil soup followed by a really yummy grilled chicken breast with couscous and salad. Really delicious and all for 25 zlotys (around £5) with a 0.5L beer too. After exploring the old town a little more I got the bus back and picked up some beer and dinner on the way, and settled in for a lonely wifi-free night. I admit I was quite nervous staying somewhere unfamiliar all by myself - hence the beer! I enjoyed Warsaw much more than i expected, however, it wasn’t quite the same without my travel buddy.

On the Thursday I pottered back into Warsaw to pick up a few bits and pieces and then got the bus to the airport to fly to Barcelona for my friend’s hen party. As a bridesmaid I have been helping plan this weekend for months so I was very excited! I landed late Thursday night and got a good nights sleep in a hostel before meeting the other hens on Friday. It was great to see some familiar faces from home, and meet some new faces before the wedding in October!

After the girls left on Sunday I stayed in Pension Aris for the Sunday night. I can recommend both this and Buba House for solo travellers in Barcelona. Pretty basic but very welcoming and I felt very safe the whole time (Pension Aris had a finger print scanner to get in!).

The excitement continued into the following week as on Monday I flew from Barcelona to Budapest where I would be reunited with Craig, and also my parents (yippeee) for 3 nights, which will be covered in the next blog post!


Things we discovered:

- Polish mosquitos are the worst!
- They enjoy wafers in Poland. Whole supermarket sections were devoted to differently shaped wafer for home baking.
- Almost everyone we met in Poland also has an English name that they introduce themselves with. Eg Piotr = Peter, Jurek = George, Kasia = Kate


Total joint spend: €1850

Week 18 (Kazimierz Dolny): our final week in Poland

Our final week in Kazimierz Dolny saw us continue to help Piotr at his mums house in the next village, Mecmierz. We chopped wood and trimmed a lot of hedges- I even had my first go using a petrol hedge trimmer! I declined a go with the chainsaw though, I'll leave that one for Craig. It's been nice to get back out into the garden and do some physical work again, but it's been very hot in Kazimierz this week!



Piotr has continued to show us the sights and culture of Kazimierz in our free time. On Tuesday we went to a small bar in the market square to watch an Argentinian band. There were no vocals, just piano, drums, and an accordion-type instrument. It was fantastic! Later in the week the local band "The Kazimierz Hobos" also played in Mecmierz. The band sing about anything Kazimierz Dolny, from the nun cult to the fire station, and from the brief translations Piotr gave us they seem very funny! The atmosphere was amazing, everyone was dancing and knew all the words to all the songs! We really felt like we got to experience a staple of Kazimierz! After the gig we headed down to a bar in Kazimierz market square for beer and some guitar playing. Piotr brought a second guitar from their home in Warsaw so Craig and Piotr could play together and entertain the other bar-goers.



To top off our cultural activities we also went to an art exhibition opening of a friend of Piotrs. There was a great turn out to this too. Kazimierz has a great community feel to it and you see all the local faces in the bar, at gigs, in the gallery, at the market on a Friday. It's great!

We celebrated our final day in Kazimierz with a last ice cream and another campfire at Pia's house, a friend of Piotrs. I really love sitting around the fire roasting kielbasa and drinking beer. We had more music and singing, this time joined by a Jazz Violinist too! It was a great end to our time in Kazimierz Dolny, although we are sure we will be back again in the future!





Total joint spend: €1780

Week 17 (Kazimierz Dolny): birthday in Kazimierz

So we’ve now been with our Kazimierz hosts for 2 weeks. It doesn’t feel like that long, but we did settle in pretty quickly. We got to know the girls quite well from the English lessons we’ve been giving them, it helps that they’re both really enthusiastic and friendly. Our time in Italy and Slovakia served us well in this regard- we’ve had plenty of ideas for games and conversation starters which hopefully made our lessons fun and useful for them. Piotr and Kinga have been very grateful to us for the English tuition, and encouraged us to take the girls out for ice cream and just enjoy the town with them. It doesn’t feel like work at all, but English conversation practise for the girls obviously something our hosts really value. Win-win!

This week was our last with the girls, as the youngest left for a summer camp, while Kinga and the eldest are now doing a Workaway as guests themselves in Spain. Kinga did one last year too in Portugal, and obviously enjoyed it enough to do it again and even become a host- something we’ll definitely consider in the future when we have a suitable place. So for the rest of our Polish Workaway we will be helping Piotr, who has a few jobs lined up for us including gardening, DIY, and preparing meals.

In our time off Piotr is great at keeping us entertained, whether it’s bringing us along for some market square busking or providing recommendations for where’s best to explore (as we may have mentioned before, local hosts’ knowledge and company is one of the major benefits of Workaway). Among his recommendations was roots gorge, one of the network of loess gorges surrounding Kazimierz. In fact, the street that our hosts live on is at the bottom of one of these gorges, and if you walk past the house and continue up the cobbled street for just a few minutes it turns into a dirt track, and soon after becomes a forest. Roots gorge in particular is an interesting place, so named because of the exposed tree roots along the walls of the gorge.

Craig’s birthday fell in this week, so after a few beers together in the market square, Piotr took us for a traditional polish lunch. This involved pork, herring and the most vibrantly-coloured soup (borscht) we’ve ever seen. Following lunch we went to the nearby town of Lublin, where there was a political demonstration going on. Kaczyński, de facto leader of the right-wing ‘PiS’ party was trying to pass legislation around control of the supreme court which many found controversial. The prime minister has since unexpectedly veto’d the move, so now Craig and I can both claim the title of successful political activist, clearly having been historically significant figures in Poland’s political future.



Other highlights of the week have been a near-constant supply of ice cream and a trip by ferry to the renaissance castle in nearby Janoweic, a very interesting cultural stop situated on the beautiful Vistulan hillside.


Total joint spend: €1717.51

Week 16 (Poland): an unexpected gem

The 16th week of our meandering saw us venture into Poland. Leaving Slovakia we felt like proper backpackers; instead of getting the pre-organised Angloville bus/train back to Prague, we departed from our fellow English-speakers and set off walking down the road (called route 66 funnily enough). Okay, so we only had to walk about a kilometre to get to the bus stop, but somehow it felt quite adventurous at the time!

We got a trusty PolskiBus (super cheap and actually quite nice and well-equipped) to Krakow, via the old spa town of Zakopane. At our destination we just about managed to negotiate the tram system, which wasn’t labelled quite as clearly as a British equivalent probably would be, and were at our hostel after a short walk. The Momotown hostel in the Jewish quarter was our home for 3 nights, and was a pretty good choice. The staff were really friendly, the only downsides were that the male bathroom was on a different floor to our room, and some of the shower cubicles were kind of translucent which was slightly odd. That and the snoring Chilean guy we shared our dorm with, but that’s the risk you take with hostels!

Krakow itself is a great city which we highly recommend for a cheap European getaway. The Jewish quarter is well connected transport-wise and really well-kept with nice bars and restaurants everywhere. On the first night we went to an absinthe bar where they do great cocktails in a chilled atmosphere. Penny-pinching though we are, we found Krakow refreshing as the food and drink is so cheap you don’t really need to factor price into your choice of bar/restaurant. A couple of places we’d recommend are the aforementioned Absynt Cafe, and the Ambasada Sledzia (called ‘Herring Embassy’, as it’s opposite the American Embassy). Most people working in the bars/shops speak at least some English, which is helpful when ordering from a menu as Polish pronunciation seems to hold no resemblance to spelling (at least to an English speaker).




Some of the main attractions in and around the city are the central square, the cloth market, Wawel Castle and Dragon, and the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp. The city lends itself to walking around and happening upon things, the central square is very grand and can’t be missed, and you can get a great feel for the place through the many free attractions. We couldn’t miss the opportunity to visit Auschwitz during our stay, and opted for one of the organised tours from Krakville tours, which cost PLN198 (~€40, the cheapest tour we found by about €20) between us. You can make your own way there and do an unguided tour, but if you’re booking the day before like we were you risk having to wait hours if you don’t go with a tour company. The day was very informative and immersive, but quite harrowing! We visited both Auschwitz I and II (Birkenau); it was very moving walking through the camps and absorbing the atmosphere of such a significant place.

After 3 days in Krakow we boarded our train to meet our new hosts in the small artists’ town of Kazimierz Dolny. We felt really welcomed by our host family from the start, and have been treated like royalty since (we’re beginning to wonder if there are any bad hosts on Workaway!). Most of the jobs so far have involved helping the two girls, aged 9 and 11, with their English (not difficult following our Italian and Slovakian experiences), and helping about the house and garden. Kinga and Piotr cook lovely food with fresh ingredients bought from the little town’s market, and I don’t think my glass has been empty since arriving!

We talk over dinner about everything from politics to music. Our hosts are very interesting and interested people, they are keen to share their knowledge about Poland’s communist past, and equally keen to learn about our home and culture in the UK. They were particularly enthusiastic about trying a full English breakfast, so one morning we cooked them our best approximation using Polish ingredients- it came out pretty well, if we do say so ourselves! Although the family live in Warsaw for most of the year, Piotr’s hometown is Kazimierz and he seems to be acquainted with every artistic drifter type in the town, which is really cool.

So, our host family are once again great (must be down to our expert Workaway-surfing skills). We’ve enjoyed many an ice cream, day at the beach, bonfire, music, and laughs (our British pronunciation of the Polish city of Wrocław as ‘Row-claw’ rather than the actual pronunciation of ‘Vrot-swav’ was something the family found particularly funny) in just our first week here. We’ve also spent a few evenings with a guitar in a bar in the main square singing Dylan and Hendrix songs until the early hours, which the locals seem to enjoy and has earned us a few free beers! Poland is proving a lot of fun and surpassing our expectations so far!





Things we've discovered:

- Krakow would make a great long weekend away.
- Good, cheap Polish beer- we recommend unpasteurised 14-day Tyskie in Krakow.
- There are beaches in the middle of Poland!
- Kielbasa (Polish smoked sausage) is delicious and can be eaten for any meal! We'll be looking out for this in the Polish section of the supermarket at home.

Total joint spend: €1644

Week 15 (Slovakia): Angloville

We spent this week teaching on an English language immersion course organised by Anglovile in the High Tatras of Slovakia, near the border with Poland. Angloville focusses on improving English through conversation with native speakers (thats us! and about 25 others from England, America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) so our job this week was to chat to the 40 Junior participants (aged 10-18). In exchange we got to stay in a 4* hotel, with food and a pool, spa, gym, squash court, bowling alley... and more besides! Sounds horrible right??

After a 7 hour train from Prague to the hotel we were shown up to our room with amazing views out over the High Tatras. This was total luxury!




The days at Angloville were pretty long (9am-10pm), but we had so much fun and it wasn’t at all stressful. We were each assigned mentees at the start of the week, and we met with them every day for 45 minutes to help them prepare a presentation to give in front of everyone at the end of the week. By the end of the course you really get to know them and feel pride in their progress.We also had around 3 other one to one speaking sessions each day where we were provided with conversation topics if we wanted to use them. A couple of the participants were shy/unenthusiastic and brought to mind the phrase ‘blood from a stone’, making the 50 minute sessions feel particularly long. However, we were totally impressed by most of their English, and had conversations covering everything from cats to climate change. We could also make use of the hotel facilities during the speaking sessions; the games room with bowling, air hockey, table football, table tennis, and pool table served as a good ice breaker or reward at the end of a session!



We also had group activities and creative time, where groups of Juniors worked together on various projects, such as creating and describing a new invention or country, or performing a play. The Juniors were surprisingly enthusiastic and these sessions were always a good giggle. Not all of the English tutors were needed for the group activities, so on Tuesday I got to head down to the pool and spa while everyone else was busy deciding which celebrities should survive a sinking ship. The spa had about 8 different types of steam room, a sauna, plunge pool, and jacuzzi. It’s a hard life.

After dinner we kept the Juniors occupied with “social time”. These sessions were up to the tutors and consisted of anything and everything we could come up with: dance lessons, yoga sessions, games, and a scavenger hunt. 10pm was the Juniors bed time, and this was normally when we would head back down to the games room with the other English tutors. The native English speakers were a great group and we all got on really well, hopefully we will see at least one or two of them again!

This week food-wise we discovered the sweet dinner: dumplings stuffed with jam and topped with icing sugar or with crushed poppy seeds. Apparently this is a typical Slovakian dish, and was interesting to try. However, after dumplings 3 times in one week (two sweet, one savoury) we aren’t in a rush for dumplings again soon!

As a travel experience we would say it is worth doing at least one Angloville week, as it’s a chance for interesting conversation with local people you might not otherwise meet, all while staying in luxury accommodation that can be few and far between while travelling! They have courses all over Europe (Poland, Czech Republic, Romania etc) and can offer a free TEFL qualification if you do a few. We definitely had a fun week, and my initial concerns that it might be stressful were quickly dispelled. Find out more here: https://angloville.com/home/


Amount spent between two so far: €1456 

Week 14: Florence - Bologna - Venice - Prague - Slovakia

A busy city-hopping week it has been. In a way this was our first taste of what most people probably pictured when we originally handed our notices in and announced we were travelling Europe. We’ve hardly slummed it, but perhaps this week has more closely resembled the traditional gap-year backpacker type of travel, as we’ve carried all our belongings on our backs through 5 destinations in as many days. It has been fun, served as a nice change and also reminded us that our usual means of travel really is the ideal way for us to experience Europe.

Florence is a beautiful city, we could see that even in our short walk from the train station to our hotel. And that’s not a typo - we found for most cities in Italy that a basic hotel room was cheaper than two beds in a hostel, so never assume that hostels are the most economical option! Highlights of the city for us were the artisan sandwich shops on Via dei Cimatori, and of course the Uffizi gallery housing Da Vincis and Carravaggios. We didn’t see Michelangelo’s David (which lives in Galleria dell'Accademia), but did see the replica standing in the main square in the position of the original. La Ménagere was a nice bar recommended by Anna’s hosts in Italy, and the Central Market proved a good, reasonably priced spot for a pasta lunch. This market opens out onto long lines of outdoor stalls, selling (mostly all the same stock of) touristy Italian leather goods. Florence is not the most travel-budget friendly of places, especially considering tap-water in restaurants isn’t a thing (we accidentally ordered a €7 bottle of water once, ouch!), but it is a gorgeous and historic place to be. We found simple pleasure in just sitting on a wall enjoying a supermarket beer and gazing down the river.

Our Italian tour continued with one night in Bologna. We saw the Palace of Archiginnasio, the first unified seat of the University of Bologna, which is the oldest university in the western world. The interior is unbelievably ornate, decorated with thousands of coats of arms of the students and staff of the University, and contains the 17th century Anatomical Theatre of the Archiginnasio. There are some gems of cafes and bars in Bologna’s romantic streets, we enjoyed wandering and stumbling across a place for a piadina or a drink.

A short train-ride and we were in the Floating City. This was an interesting one; Venice’s reputation precedes it so it is difficult not to have preconceptions on visiting. We would recommend staying on the cheaper mainland (Mestre) close to the train station, and taking one of the very regular and quick trains back and forth to the island as needed. We also opted out of getting the 24 hour water taxi pass (saving around €40) and spent our time wandering the narrow streets and walkways of Venice instead. We saw the Rialto Bridge, the main square, and the Bridge of Sighs, however, we didn’t fall for Venice in the same way as other Italian destinations. Perhaps it was always going to be difficult to live up to the hype, but (at the risk of sounding pretentious!) we found it difficult to overlook the touristy atmosphere. Also, there are very few benches/places to sit in Venice so you are more reliant on the pricey cafes to take the weight off your feet after a days exploring, which is less budget friendly. We also slightly resented having to spend €2 to spend a penny!

Next stop was Prague, which for us earned the accolade of most flying visit. This was just a short (<24h) stopover for us because it served as the pickup point for the next leg of our journey, a week-long English language immersion course (Angloville) in Slovakia. A tour of Prague organised by Angloville helped make the most of our short time there. The Jewish history of the city is very interesting, we were told that a theory of why the Jewish monuments of the city weren’t destroyed by the Germans is that the city may have been intended to be preserved by the Nazis as a sort of Jewish museum following victory in the war. We’d have loved to have spent more time in Prague, we were too tired (after a 12 hour night bus to get there) and pressed for time to really make the most of it, so we intend to go back in the future. We certainly didn’t miss out on the great Czech beer though, we sampled a fair few following the city tour and with dinner.

After being cheated out of 60 Koruna change at Prague train station (sadly some people take advantage of tourists in a hurry for the train), we boarded a train bound for Slovakia with about 30 other native English speakers. This week has been a lot of fun, and we’ve got to add a few more names to our tally of visited places, but it has re-affirmed our belief that Workaway is one of the best ways to travel. We haven’t got to know each place and its customs like we have through conversation and days out with hosts, and this week alone has cost way more than the average Workaway week. Out of interest we added this up and our week travelling around Italy and to Prague cost us €1085 between us, and our average spend across the 12 weeks we have been workawaying, including transport, is €60 a week.


We are looking forward to having a full week in one place in Slovakia and not moving around every couple of days!


Things we’ve discovered:

- Good luggage storage is important in hostels/hotels, if like us you like to make the most of that last chance to explore the city between check-out and actually leaving.
- Public toilets are hard to come by in Italy!
- Don’t use the yellow ‘GPS’ stamps for postcards in Italy. Slow. Expensive. Unreliable. My postcards are yet to arrive 3 weeks after posting them.
- We recommend Osteria del Sole- the oldest pub in Bologna. Full of locals and friendly staff, cheap drinks, and you can take your own food in for dinner (we opted for a piadina).
- On the whole, we love Italy!



Total spend so far between two: €1456

Week 13 (Italy): from classroom to coast

Our second week of teaching was similar to the first. Less children attended the second week of camp so we each had slightly less children (I had 11 instead of 18), although Craig still had the biggest class of 15 students. The smaller class sizes made a big difference and my classroom was definitely quieter than the first week (but I’m not sure Craig’s was). However, the Italian helpers weren’t around as much so it was a little harder to get ideas across to the kids. On Wednesday we watched Monsters Inc (in English with Italian subtitles) because it was monsters week and there were exams going on in the school so we needed something to keep the little angels quiet! Towards the end of the quiz I came up with a few simple quiz questions to help with English practise after the film, but without the Italian helpers the class really struggled, even though the questions were based around English that they know, such as colours and numbers. Me and Craig have both found that the Italian helpers repeating what we say in English with an Italian accent seems to be a lot easier for the kids to understand.

A reporter called by the school and took some photos and an article was published in a local newspaper “Gardaweek”. I have no idea what the article says though. 

On Tuesday I went out for pizza with my host family to a place called Revolution in Desanzano del Garda, a beautiful village on Lake Garda. The pizza was amazing! Quite a thick, crispy base, topped with sicilian sausage, mozzarella, tomatoes and pesto! Soooo good. 

It was sad to say goodbye to the other tutors and Antonella on Friday, it has been great working with them for 2 weeks! But Sandhra and Alice are both studying in Edinburgh so we might just see them again in the future! 

I met Craig at Desenzano train station at 10am on Saturday and we hopped on a train to La Spezia- a town near Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is made up of 5 coastal villages in a National Park. They are pedestrianised towns that you get to via train or by hiking between them. We chose to stay in La Spezia as it was cheaper than staying in Cinque Terre itself, and is only a 10 minute train ride from the towns so seemed like the best option. In La Spezia we stayed in an Airbnb apartment, partly as a treat to ourselves after the teaching and partly because it didn’t really cost any more than staying in a hostel. The apartment was great, it was so nice to have our own space again with a kitchen and living room, and it was only a 3 minute walk to La Spezia train station. 

On Saturday afternoon we got the train from La Spezia to Manarola. There were ALOT of tourists around! We walked through the village and along to the marina. There was less to the village than I was expecting- just one short main street with a couple of shops and restaurants. We walked up the hill to the right of the marina to Nessun Dorma, a restaurant I found online before we arrived and had been dreaming of all week at Summer Camp! There was a bit of a queue to get in, but it only took 10 minutes to get to the front. And I am so glad we waited! We got a table with great views, I had a limoncello spritz as a treat (prosecco, limoncello, and mint) and we ordered way too much food. We had the meat and cheese sharing platter, and some bruschetta with pesto, tomatoes, and cheese. The Cinque Terre area is known for its pesto, hence the bruschetta choice. The food was amazing. We ate and ate and ate. We left the restaurant at about 7.45pm and the queue was much longer than it had been at 5.30pm so I was glad we opted for an early dinner. We'd definitely recommend Nessun Dorma for drinks and/or food to anyone heading to Cinque Terre/Manarola. After dinner we grabbed a beer from a little shop and sat out while the sun set so I could take a picture of Manarola after dark.

We started on Sunday by getting the train to Riomaggiore - the most southern town of Cinque Terre - and the plan was to work our way north from here. The queues to buy train tickets were quite long and we only just made our train, even though we allowed 20 minutes. We bought the Cinque Terre card that lets us hop on and off any trains going between the towns. This was €16 and so was just slightly cheaper than buying singles all day (at €4 each). We headed to Riomaggiore first and sat out on the rocks and watched the waves crashing. We headed to Corniglia in time for lunch. After getting off the train at Corniglia you climb ~300 steps up to the village on top of the cliff. Corniglia had loads of narrow little streets with loads of cafe, bars, and shops. We found a nice little square with a few cafes for lunch and chose Caffe Matteo- a slightly more budget option. The waitress at Caffe Matteo was amazing, she really made a good lunch spot great. We ordered our drinks (€6 for 1/2L wine) and they arrived with olives and crisps to snack on. Craig had lasagne for lunch and I went for Focacce with proscuitto, goats cheese, tomatoes and rocket. It was perfect. 

After lunch we headed to Vernazza. We walked down to the Marina and found a little spot for a swim. The weather forecast for the day was thunderstorms but although it was cloudy and humid the rain held off until Vernazza, where we had a couple of showers. The water was the perfect temperature for a swim and it was great to cool off from the very muggy air! 

Last but not least we headed to Montorosso. Monterosso is a lot more beachy than the other towns- we walked along past the beaches and into the village centre. We found a nice wine bar for an evening drink before heading home and cooking tortellini with pesto in our apartment. 

We really enjoyed our trip to Cinque Terre. Our favourite village was definitely Corniglia even though it's less photogenic than Manarola.

We didn't make plans for the rest of the week in Italy. We have accommodation booked in Venice for Thursday night, but we left Monday-Thursday free. On Sunday night we decided that on Monday we would get the train the from La Spezia to Florence. The good thing about Italy is that regional trains are a set price so no need to book in advance. Trains from La Spezia to Florence change at Pisa so we stopped here for a few hours to see the leaning tower (of course) and grab some lunch.

After arriving in Florence we had a nice chilled walk into the centre and down to the river and along Ponte Vecchio, a bridge lined with jewellery shops. Our hotel was in a great location, just a couple of minutes walk from the duomo so we didn't have far to go. It was scorching on Monday and after carrying our bags and walking around Pisa at lunch time it was nice to have a relaxed walk (without heavy bags!) and get a feel for the area with nothing particular in mind. For dinner we found a little sandwich shop (these are really common in Florence) tucked away on Via dei Cimatori (we can't remember the name but it was next to the pizza place). The staff were great and gave us some tasters of the meat before making us up a sandwich each. We sat outside and had a couple of drinks and enjoyed a nice budget, but very yummy dinner! 

We've been loving Workaway but it's also been nice to have a few nights to ourselves.

Amount spent between two: €1025

Week 12 (Lonato): work hard, play hard!

And so continues our first week teaching at Summer Camp in Italy.

Summer Camp starts at 9am every morning, and we start the day singing lots of songs with actions in a big circle in the courtyard. Paola di Rosa school is huge, it has 4 different schools within it, for ages 6 to 16. In the mornings we do group activities and games, like dodgeball, crafting pirates and races. After lunch we go up to the classrooms and have a couple of hours of teaching before finishing for the day at 4pm. We usually have worksheets to give the children, which might involve colouring in a picture by following English instructions, labelling pictures of pirates in English, English word searches, writing a message in a bottle etc, however, there are often periods where the worksheets have been completed and we have to think of ways to keep the children busy! We have found that hangman can work well but can also descend into chaos, with some children playing very intensely (standing up, shouting out, etc) and some children not interested at all. It is really hot here (around 30 degrees) and the kids want to be outside playing not in the classroom, which is why they have a 3 month summer holiday. As the school is a Catholic school the tutors all have to wear long trousers and tops that cover our shoulders- no vests! We didn't know this when we packed in March so we have been teaching all week in 30 degree heat wearing jeans. It's thirsty work. The other English tutors are really nice, and we have a lot of fun chatting with them when we aren't in the classrooms.



The English varies among the children, along with the enthusiasm, so the results of each activity are always very varied! When asking my children to pretend they are a pirate stranded on an island and to write a message in a bottle the results varied from "Help me!" to "Help me! I am the Captain of the Black Pearl and I am stuck all alone on an island near Brazil.". They also seem to struggle to understand "Be quiet" and "Sit down", funnily enough! But I shouldn't paint them all with the same brush, some of them are very quiet and well behaved, regardless of their level of understanding English. And all of their English is much better than our Italian! The Italian I have learnt consists of:
- Basta (stop/enough)
- Seiditi (sit down)
- Avete capito? (you have understood?)
- Io non ho capito (I do not understand)
- Ascolta (listen)
- Silenzio (silence)

All the essential teacher vocab.

Craig's evenings have consisted of being spoilt with food; having carbonara, tomato pasta, pizza, loads of fresh fruit and even all-you-can-eat sushi at an amazing Sushi restaurant. 
My evenings have consisted of sunbathing by the pool and eating nice fresh dinners with my host family- fish, proscuitto, salads, cheese and bread etc. Everything in Italy comes with a good glug of olive oil.

I spent most of the weekend with Craig's host family. On Sunday we went to Gardaland, a theme park by lake Garda, with Damiano and Niccolo. It was so much fun! And there were no queues so we got straight on all the rides! In the evening we went to their Aunt's pizza restaurant and I had my first taste of Italian Pizza. I went for the calzone with mushrooms, ham and artichokes (a recommendation from my Dad) and it was amazing!



On Sunday we went sailing on Lake Garda with Craig's host family. We sailed for a couple of hours, then we stopped near the shore and had a swim. We had a picnic lunch on the boat consisting of lots of lovely breads and mini foccacias, prosciutto, pancetta, and fresh fruit. After lunch we docked at a town called Malcesine and hopped off the boat and had an ice cream (me and Craig shared a Chocolate Sundae) and a walk through the narrow streets. For the sail back the boat was at a 45 degree angle most of the way and we sat on the edge dangling our legs over to counter balance.

Monday was the start of Monster week at Summer Camp. My team are called Super Monster School and Craig's are the Multicolour Monsters. Let the fun begin!



On the whole we are really enjoying Italy when we aren't surrounded by screaming children! The scenery and the food have been amazing so far. I'm sure we will be returning to Italy many times in the future!

Total amount spent between two: €891