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!