History, the couch, and waffles

Here we are unexpectedly in Antwerp, Belgium just finishing a three night stay. Antwerp is a gorgeous city full of stunning architecture and plenty of great food. We arrived on Saturday night after a wonderful visit with a friend and his family in Amsterdam the day before. 

Our first night here in Belgium was one to be remembered... Or perhaps better forgotten. We were attempting to use Airbnb for the first time and thought everything was going smoothly until we learned in a 15 minute free wifi trial on the otherwise Internet-less bus from the Netherlands that our potential host had not approved our reservation for the night and had 24 hours to do so. Lesson learned: don't use airbnb for last minute situations! We arrived in the city homeless at 7pm and spent the next few hours emailing Couchsurfing hosts while considering the potential reality of sleeping outside on the street. Thankfully, we received two replies. One from a very nice girl who - absent from the city herself - was harassing her boyfriend to break from his night of partying to take us in. The second from another very generous girl whose profile described a "weird and free-spirited" flat with many residents. Choices. 

We decided to take the second offer and exhausted at 1:30am found ourselves learning from a soft-spoken, very stoned young guy from Uruguay that all of the decor and furniture in the small living room was found on the street. Admiring the thrift and longing for sleep, we gratefully said goodnight and pulled out the couch. There we discovered a filthy sheet covering an old mattress that smelled like it was saturated in cat pee for many moons; suddenly the prospect of a good night's rest didn't look so good and thriftiness was a value to be condemned. The terrible smell, matched with the low-battery shrieks of two separate fire alarms and the crazy-making buzz of some winged insect near our ears, made us pray for morning. When it finally came, we quietly snuck out of the house to carry on our very first walk of shame in search of coffee and breakfast. 

We agreed to treat ourselves to a cheap motel for the two nights following that adventure and are now well-rested, clean, and ready for the final third of our European tour! 

Let me quickly fill you in on where our journey had taken us before Belgium. Back in Poland, we left Krakow for the northern port city of Gdańsk and visited the European Solidarity Center. This incredibly modern building is home to a fabulous museum honoring the Gdańsk shipyard workers who in the second half of the twentieth century started a strike that would help bring about communism's end in the country. Solidarność is the organization that rose from this strike and it was hugely influential in bringing democracy to the Eastern bloc. We also really enjoyed walking along the sandy coast of the Baltic Sea in the nearby town of Sopot and spent Halloween night walking the 13km back to Gdańsk.

From Gdańsk, we took an overnight bus to Berlin, where we stayed with an extremely generous Couchsurfing host who regularly fills her small flat with travelers. We were very interested to see the historic and political sights in the German capital. We visited the Reichstag, which was set on fire when Hitler came to power and was therefore symbolic of Germany's fallen parliamentary system. We also visited the Memorial for Europe's Murdered Jews, a striking scene that reminds you of an expansive and timeless cemetery placed directly in the city's center. 

After Berlin, we spent one night in Hamburg and enjoyed the industrial strength of this historic port city. Towering cranes and large ships crowd the waterways just as tourists do the streets. 

Another overnight bus later, we were in Amsterdam. Wow, what an incredible city! We were lucky to have an amazing tour guide (thanks again Koen, we love and miss you!) and really enjoyed seeing the picturesque canals and houses along with all the bikes, coffeeshops (they really do exist!), and bookstores. The red light district was a unique experience as well! 

We then had the great privilege of spending a night in a smaller town on the eastern side of the country with what is probably the most wonderful family in the world. We watched as the famous Dutch trio K3 elected their replacement members on national television and walked through some beautiful forest land before taking off for Belgium, which brings us up to speed!

Maybe the most important thing we've learned from the past couple of days: Belgian waffles are a real thing and they are sooooooo delicious!! 

Love to you all, thanks for reading! Xoxo

Pigs, kids, and kittens.. Our time in Poland

It's nearly November and we have just finished our final volunteer stay until Iceland at the very end of our trip. We are now free in the world and preparing for some whirlwind travel through some of Europe's biggest cities! This morning, we woke in Krakow, Poland, a city that we had already visited once on the way to this last farm. From here, we will travel to the north of Poland to the Baltic city of Gdansk. From there, to Berlin for a few days, Hamburg, and Amsterdam. We will then make it to Paris by November 13th when we have a flight booked to Madrid, Spain. We've decided to test both our faith and our endurance by hiking half of the Camino de Santiago from Leon to the coast in the final two weeks of our continental European adventure. We now find ourselves mixed between ample excitement and an expectation of exhaustion that we are sure to feel while taking over-night buses and meeting new couch-surfing hosts across nearly 1,000 kilometers of unfamiliar soil.

That's where we're going, let me now tell you about where we've been! As I mentioned, we spent last night in Krakow - a beautiful, old city with a twinkling charm. I was very happy to introduce Kelly to some wonderful friends that I had met in New Mexico earlier this year. Our travels just happened to overlap here in Poland so we had the chance to enjoy some of this city together through its beer, dumplings, and historic sights. We arrived in Krakow from the smaller town of Opole yesterday afternoon, which is about 30 minutes from the village where we've spent the past two weeks.

Curly haired Hungarian pigs

We were very excited about this last workaway experience because their profile showed the heirloom breed of Hungarian pigs that they raise and mentioned pumpkin harvesting, apple picking and juicing, and other farm work. We were very surprised when we arrived to learn that we would be helping facilitate workshops with first graders(!), all of whom only speak Polish and come in classes of up to 35! Wow.. well, neither of us are exactly "kid-people," but somehow we survived all five workshops and gained a few carpentry skills along the way. We were primarily in charge of building bird houses with the kids and are happy to report that no fingers were lost in the process!

Our first attempt at the reed roof...yikes

By far the best part of this experience was working with a group of girls who all leaped backwards with terrified looks on their faces when we pulled out the power drill and then a few screws later were looking like rosy the riveters jumping for their turn at putting the wood pieces together! It was very inspiring to see the quick change and to feel like we helped them gain a small bit of confidence in their abilities as tiny humans and as girls in a patriarchal world.

During our time at the farm, we were also lucky enough to share a room with four little eency wincy kittens!! After much debate, we concluded to heed mom's warning and not take any along with us.. but it was not an easy decision with dreams of a little bundle of joy riding along in our pocket as we crossed the mountains of northern Spain..

Well, that's all for now. We are heading to explore more of Krakow this morning! Thank you for reading, we are sending lots of love home :) 

In search of dad's kolachi (and other things)

9 October, today we've been in Europe for exactly one month. I think we both agree that it's been the fastest month of our lives, even though the start of the trip feels like forever ago.

We spent a little over two weeks at the hotel for refugees in southern Germany and learned a lot from the experience. Mostly, it was important for us to see first hand who a refugee is. The media is in charge of informing our understanding of this subject and we were surprised to learn a tiny bit of what the real life of a refugee is like, at least for the 20 or so that we lived with. We left mostly with the understanding that people everywhere are simply that: people. It's deeply saddening that so many millions still have to live surrounded by war, famine, totalitarianism, and injustice despite our history with such things.. When will we learn? When will we finally decide that enough blood and tears have been shed and start working toward a peaceful and cooperative world? Unfortunately, we've also learned that everything is more complicated than it seems..

Yet, we travel on in reflection and with hope for our friends and for all of the refugees in the world just trying to make a new home after losing theirs to the ways and whims of violence, greed, and prejudice.

We are now working on what the owner calls a "disorganized small holding." Actually, "owner" was the wrong word because the land that we are on is held cooperatively by one large family all living and maintaining various projects on a few acres at the far eastern edge of the Czech Republic. A few minutes east you're in Poland, and just across the hills is Slovakia. We are amazed by the self-sufficiency and know-how of everyone here. The parents grew up under the oppressive thumb of the Soviet Union, but this history seems only to have made everyone here very capable and smart. We are helping with a few small projects: de-seeding sunflower heads for later use as oil, clearing fields and raised beds, moving wood for winter use..

Before reaching this beautiful place, we spent one week on some more touristy travel. We stayed one night in Salzburg, Austria in a hostel/restaurant located at the top of a bluff overlooking the entire city. We had fun seeing all of the Sound of Music references and really enjoyed the very popular Thursday Market which hosts hundreds of cheese, meat, bread, fruit and vegetable, and craft vendors.

   

 From Salzburg, we used our first bla bla car (an app that makes hitchhiking safe and more feasible for drivers) to get across the country to Vienna. There, we spent the weekend with friends (thanks again, guys!) who showed us some excellent parts of the city, including Naschmarkt (where you can find authentic Turkish falafel four for a euro..yum), the island (created when the engineering Austrians split the Danube), and some incredible vineyards overlooking the great old city.  We were also lucky to be in town for a huge public demonstration for the welcoming of refugees where a number of bands (including Die Toten Hosen, a popular German band that I learned about in high school and Conchita Wurst, who won Eurovision for Austria last year) played free for tens of thousands of people in support of asylum seekers. 

The next morning, we took a bus from Vienna to Prague, where we spent two days in love with the city's old structures and culture. We walked across the Charles Bridge, one if the oldest remaining stone arch bridges in Europe, about 17 times, each jaunt showing us something new either in the surrounding city scape or along the cobblestoned pass. Our favorite moment was discovering a small, smoky restaurant off the tourist path; reminiscent of the good ol' family restaurants in Wiscosnin, we sat at a long wood table sipping Prague's famous Pilsner (from the Czech town of Plzên) and ate some fried camembert cheese, oniony mashed potatoes, and a traditional garlic soup. We also spent much of our time searching for the sweet poppy seed treat of kolachi, a native of the Czech/Polish region, and found a few but none quite as good as the kind Kelly's dad makes from their family recipe. 

And now to work.. It's a chilly morning with a light drizzle and we are contemplating the sheep field in which we must go to clear some old sunflower stalks. As much as we enjoyed the big cities and the freedom to be tourists, we are so much happier here on this disorganized small holding where ducks run free and there's always a comfortable place to return to when the work is finished for the day. 

Thanks for reading! Hugs and love from both of us! 

Herzlich Willkommen

"Why are you here then? You are rich." Hands full of slimy, wet food from the kitchen sink drain where we just cleaned today's lunch dishes, this question stung me with surprise. It was asked by a young father living hundreds of miles from his family in Afghanistan as a refugee of the German government. He had just learned, with much shock, that Kelly and I are U.S Americans, not Europeans as he had assumed. A small silence filled the room and despite his deep missing of his wife and small children, he simply commented on the fact that there are "too many U.S soldiers in Afghanistan." Kelly and I nodded in agreement while muttering awkward apologies and then quietly went on with our cleaning of the refugee hotel where we are volunteering for two weeks here in the Chiemgau Alps of Southern Bavaria.

Biking in the Moor near the hotel

It has been an interesting and eye-opening week at the hotel. We got here after spending our first few days in Germany as guests of a friend's family near Nürnberg (Nuremberg) as well as in a small university town right outside of München (Munich). We've greatly enjoyed the people and the beautiful scenery, and have indulged in the affordable price of good cheese, bavarian pretzels, and bread! We also had an excellent time at a local Volksfest where the beer hall was completely packed with men in traditional lederhosen and women in stylish dirndls! We chose correctly by starting our trip in Bayern (Bavaria) because it is where almost all German stereotypes come from; and being Oktoberfest season, we are here at a good time!

The hotel that we are now working at is home to 22 young male refugees from Afghanistan, Eritrea, and Syria. It is really amazing at the dinner table when we are eating afghani food, hearing Dari and Arabic while speaking English and German with fellow Peruvian, Czech, and Albanian volunteers! So many cultures mixing in this small Alpen village. We've al so had a lot of fun dancing with a few of the afghani guys at an after-lunch tea party.

We will be here for another week and a half before heading eastward to Vienna and Prague! Missing home but also considering making this our new home ;) xoxo




Von meinem iPhone gesendet

T-minus 144 hours!

Hello again!

Us on roadtrip 2 in the great state of Texas

Us now in our nation's capitol of D.C 

For those unfamiliar, we are Kelly and Kassie and this was our blog from a couple of cross-USA roadtrips we took between 2011 and 2012. The first trip started when Kelly graduated college and was bound for the small town of Gallup, New Mexico to start a year of teaching with the AmeriCorps program Teach for America. During her time with the kids, Kelly learned that the classroom is a tough place, not only because of pre-pubescent youth but also because of America's atrocious education system that does very little to support students and teachers in their endeavors to succeed. (sorry for the strong words, but it's true.. we're struggling, folks). Since this experience, Kelly has worked predominately in the nonprofit field to secure funding for both environmental and social organizations. Kassie has been popping around, working for the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps in the western U.S. and learning what it takes to build a sustainable food culture while volunteering on various farms.

Here we are now, after a summer of working in the hot sun to maintain manicured gardens for the good people of Minneapolis, about to set off on a three month tour of Eastern and Northern Europe! We are excited to share our journey with you as often as internet access, time, and energy allow!

We depart from Minnesota next Wednesday, the 9th of September, and land in Munich, Germany the following day. We plan to explore Bavaria for a couple of weeks while volunteering at a refugee hotel, which should be very interesting seeing as Germany plans to have adopted nearly 800,000 Syrian refugees (read more here) by the end of this year. From there, we will explore Vienna, Budapest, and Prague before heading to Southern Poland for work on a farm that is home to a Mangalica pig that might look something like this:

Kassie has never been so excited.

After the farm, we will take some time to journey around Poland and Northern/Eastern Germany until reaching Saxony and spending a couple of weeks volunteering at a guesthouse with plenty of garden space and animals! We will spend the later part of our trip visiting friends in Amsterdam, eating some French cheese below the Eiffel Tower, and making our way to London where we fly out destined for a two week stay in Iceland before heading home to celebrate the holidays with our families.

We're very fortunate to have saved enough money and found the time in our lives to take a trip like this and we are excited to share our experiences with friends and family through this blog. Thank you for reading and stay tuned! xoxo, K+K