So this kinda sucks not being able to post pictures and it definitely makes this blog less interesting, but I guess I have to deal with it....hard to describe what's going on here though without really seeing it.
Kristian and Maja have a place that they own on the coast of southern Spain in Almerimar, very close to Almerìa. Last weekend we went down there for a couple days and it is absolutely great. Right next to the beach and on a clear day you are able to see the mountains in Africa! The only thing not great about it was the humidity...take 95-100 degrees and add in 85-90% humidity and it's just ridiculous. It was nice to be there for a couple of days though and enjoy it all. Kristian and Maja even took me out to a nice restaurant to celebrate their anniversary with them. They are absolutely some of the nicest hosts I've had while in Europe.
This past week we worked really hard on getting the infrastructure for the electricity installed. Right now we are on solar and generator power and Kristian and Maja finally got the papers for electricity after so many months and so we worked on building a house for the circuit breakers and also digging trenches for the cables and everything else that is needed. Hopefully they will have real electricity here in a week or two!
I've had a great time here in Spain though and I'm sad to go. What's interesting is that I'm starting to really not care about the main tourist attractions and big cities and instead I'm more focused on really living how people do out here and seeing what it's all about. I'm really only like an hour away from Granada here but I never got to see it because I was really having so much fun in the mountains. I'm sure I'll be back to Spain and to "Cortico Medico" to visit the mountain bike hotel when it's finished and I'll see the big cities, but for now it's really great to just take everything in like a local would.
Next up is southern Portugal where there is even less luxury. I'm staying with a woman west of Lagos in a national park very close to an unspoiled beach, definitely a change of pace from the mountains. She uses wind/solar power and rain water but everything seems to have been established for a few years and I think I'll be helping with smaller jobs around the place. Internet will be limited I'm sure so I'll post if I can, and hopefully some pictures this time!
Take care everyone, be home in a month!
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Fiestas and Friends
I figure the day after a big fiesta is as good a day as any to update the blog. My hosts here are Kristian and Maja and yesterday was Kristian's birthday. We had a big fiesta here at "Cortico Medico" with lots of friends, it was quite a lot of fun.
I had quite a journey from Germany to London to Spain, quite a whirlwind of travel. From Germany to London it took about 13 hours from start to end, and London to Spain it was 25 hours. Many things happened in between Germany and Spain, including staying with a work friend of my Mom's and he took me to what is regarded as best restaurant in London (Scott's) for drinks and dinner. Turns out Leonardo DiCaprio and director Ridley Scott were sitting a few tables away discussing their new movie they are working on. Definitely a fun night, but the next day I was back to traveling and got to Spain on the 13th, the middle of August when every single day here is hot as hell between 95 and 100 degrees with total sunshine...
Spain is fantastic though! My hosts are Kristian and Maja, a Scandanavian couple who live here at "Cortico Medico". They have been here for 4 years and a lot of that time has been waiting for permits to get permission to build and also put electricity in. The Spainiards are extremely casual about everything and never in a rush to do anything, sometimes it can definitely get annoying if you aren't used to it. But Kristian and Maja purchased the 36 hectares here with over 4,500 almond trees and now they are ready to start building their house and everything else. The plan here is for a house and also a hotel based around mountain biking. This is a perfect place for it and plans for everything look really good!
So far here I've done quite a bit of cementing, built a new dog fence area for the puppies (there are two), helped out around the place in general, and also seen quite a bit of the Sierra Nevada Mountians here in southern Spain.
Not so much time here to really type because we always seem to be busy doing one thing or another, and when we are just relaxing the three of us are always sitting around the table outside with a beer having conversations. I'm having a wonderful time though and a week left until I set out to Portugal. Hasta luego!
For some reason I can't post any pictures while I'm here in Spain, so maybe in Portugal I can post them up...adios!
I had quite a journey from Germany to London to Spain, quite a whirlwind of travel. From Germany to London it took about 13 hours from start to end, and London to Spain it was 25 hours. Many things happened in between Germany and Spain, including staying with a work friend of my Mom's and he took me to what is regarded as best restaurant in London (Scott's) for drinks and dinner. Turns out Leonardo DiCaprio and director Ridley Scott were sitting a few tables away discussing their new movie they are working on. Definitely a fun night, but the next day I was back to traveling and got to Spain on the 13th, the middle of August when every single day here is hot as hell between 95 and 100 degrees with total sunshine...
Spain is fantastic though! My hosts are Kristian and Maja, a Scandanavian couple who live here at "Cortico Medico". They have been here for 4 years and a lot of that time has been waiting for permits to get permission to build and also put electricity in. The Spainiards are extremely casual about everything and never in a rush to do anything, sometimes it can definitely get annoying if you aren't used to it. But Kristian and Maja purchased the 36 hectares here with over 4,500 almond trees and now they are ready to start building their house and everything else. The plan here is for a house and also a hotel based around mountain biking. This is a perfect place for it and plans for everything look really good!
So far here I've done quite a bit of cementing, built a new dog fence area for the puppies (there are two), helped out around the place in general, and also seen quite a bit of the Sierra Nevada Mountians here in southern Spain.
Not so much time here to really type because we always seem to be busy doing one thing or another, and when we are just relaxing the three of us are always sitting around the table outside with a beer having conversations. I'm having a wonderful time though and a week left until I set out to Portugal. Hasta luego!
For some reason I can't post any pictures while I'm here in Spain, so maybe in Portugal I can post them up...adios!
Monday, August 17, 2009
Still More Germany
I’m trying REALLY hard to update as much as possible, but I think I’m just having too good of a time out here! Right now I’m in Spain, but I think I left off in Germany and I had just visited Salzburg. Well I finished off in Germany by mountain biking in the German Alps for almost 5 hours, going to Munich, and having quite a great time around the farm!
About a day or so after my last post (the 5th) I headed to Garmisch, Germany to do some mountain biking in southern Germany. Some of you may have heard of it, Garmisch hosted the 1936 Winter Olympics and is very well known for its winter sports and outdoor activities. It’s very close to the Austrian border and absolutely beautiful! I was just blown away by all of the great mountain scenery….it was fantastic! I headed over to the Trek pro shop that they have there and rented a mountain bike, not really knowing what was in store for me. As it turns out after three hours of climbing up the mountain and a straight hour and a half of rocky downhill, it was one of the best times I have ever had on a bike! I was dead tired and covered in mud, but I couldn’t care less because those 4.5-5 hours were absolutely some of the best I have had in Europe. Just makes me miss home a little bit more though so I can get back on a bike!
One of the funniest parts of the bike ride thought was at the hut I turned around at after climbing up the mountain. I sat around for 20-30 minutes before going back downhill, but as soon as I sat down a helicopter came up to drop some supplies off. Then another came, and another, and another, and finally one more! The rest hut/oasis is so isolated that the only way to get supplies is a helicopter and when I was there it was just a constant stream of helicopters every 5-10 minutes dropping off supplies…..and of course the only supplies you need in Germany (as you can see from the picture) are kegs of delicious beer!
Two days later I headed to Munich to see the sights and was actually pleasantly surprised by all it had to offer. I honestly didn’t know what to expect but after walking around the city, it’s really a good-looking city that has a lot of character. There’s one main pedestrian street in the center with tons of shopping and everything like that where you find plenty of tourists and on the outer edge of town are the main sights like some of the churches and historical buildings. I don’t have much money so I didn’t go into any places except a church or two and some gardens, but I really liked Munich, too bad I wasn’t there for Oktoberfest!
Very close to Munich, only about a 20-minute train ride to the north is Dachau. At Dachau is where the Nazis had the first and largest concentration camp during World War II. Being there and seeing how large it was for myself, walking through the museum and memorials that have been set up there was a very humbling experience. I learn about all of these things in school about American history and the history of World War II and the Nazis but seeing it in person up close really turned everything I learned into reality and showed me how the war really was. The museum at the camp is in one of the buildings at the camp and all of the information and artifacts that are inside were just too much to look at with the time I had. To really see everything there I would say I needed at least 3-4 hours, but I only had 1.5-2. Dachau place I wish I had spent some more time at, but the time I did spend there was definitely worth it to see and put things into quite a different perspective.
The rest of last weekend Marlene and the kids had gone to northern Germany for a family thing and so for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday it was just Martin and myself on the farm with a little bit of help from the friends of the family. What made it an interesting weekend is that Martin speaks about 5 words of English and I speak about 5 words of German. So needless to say it was an interesting 3 days. Still lots of fun though as he took me to the beer garden in Tutzing and also a festival that was happening on Sunday. As long is I understood “Bier in Keller” (Beer in the cellar), it was all good.
Monday was my last day in Tutzing and I was truly sad to go. I had a great stay and met many people, but I’m starting to realize that two-three weeks at a place is a perfect amount of time and I was also excited to head to London for a night and also to go to Spain. Germany overall was fabulous though and I will definitely be back one year for Oktoberfest!
I’ve been in Spain now since the 13th of August, high in the mountains of the Alpujarras. It’s fabulous and the projects for building here are really incredible. I’ll post more in a day or so. Take care all!
About a day or so after my last post (the 5th) I headed to Garmisch, Germany to do some mountain biking in southern Germany. Some of you may have heard of it, Garmisch hosted the 1936 Winter Olympics and is very well known for its winter sports and outdoor activities. It’s very close to the Austrian border and absolutely beautiful! I was just blown away by all of the great mountain scenery….it was fantastic! I headed over to the Trek pro shop that they have there and rented a mountain bike, not really knowing what was in store for me. As it turns out after three hours of climbing up the mountain and a straight hour and a half of rocky downhill, it was one of the best times I have ever had on a bike! I was dead tired and covered in mud, but I couldn’t care less because those 4.5-5 hours were absolutely some of the best I have had in Europe. Just makes me miss home a little bit more though so I can get back on a bike!
One of the funniest parts of the bike ride thought was at the hut I turned around at after climbing up the mountain. I sat around for 20-30 minutes before going back downhill, but as soon as I sat down a helicopter came up to drop some supplies off. Then another came, and another, and another, and finally one more! The rest hut/oasis is so isolated that the only way to get supplies is a helicopter and when I was there it was just a constant stream of helicopters every 5-10 minutes dropping off supplies…..and of course the only supplies you need in Germany (as you can see from the picture) are kegs of delicious beer!
Two days later I headed to Munich to see the sights and was actually pleasantly surprised by all it had to offer. I honestly didn’t know what to expect but after walking around the city, it’s really a good-looking city that has a lot of character. There’s one main pedestrian street in the center with tons of shopping and everything like that where you find plenty of tourists and on the outer edge of town are the main sights like some of the churches and historical buildings. I don’t have much money so I didn’t go into any places except a church or two and some gardens, but I really liked Munich, too bad I wasn’t there for Oktoberfest!
Very close to Munich, only about a 20-minute train ride to the north is Dachau. At Dachau is where the Nazis had the first and largest concentration camp during World War II. Being there and seeing how large it was for myself, walking through the museum and memorials that have been set up there was a very humbling experience. I learn about all of these things in school about American history and the history of World War II and the Nazis but seeing it in person up close really turned everything I learned into reality and showed me how the war really was. The museum at the camp is in one of the buildings at the camp and all of the information and artifacts that are inside were just too much to look at with the time I had. To really see everything there I would say I needed at least 3-4 hours, but I only had 1.5-2. Dachau place I wish I had spent some more time at, but the time I did spend there was definitely worth it to see and put things into quite a different perspective.
The rest of last weekend Marlene and the kids had gone to northern Germany for a family thing and so for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday it was just Martin and myself on the farm with a little bit of help from the friends of the family. What made it an interesting weekend is that Martin speaks about 5 words of English and I speak about 5 words of German. So needless to say it was an interesting 3 days. Still lots of fun though as he took me to the beer garden in Tutzing and also a festival that was happening on Sunday. As long is I understood “Bier in Keller” (Beer in the cellar), it was all good.
Monday was my last day in Tutzing and I was truly sad to go. I had a great stay and met many people, but I’m starting to realize that two-three weeks at a place is a perfect amount of time and I was also excited to head to London for a night and also to go to Spain. Germany overall was fabulous though and I will definitely be back one year for Oktoberfest!
I’ve been in Spain now since the 13th of August, high in the mountains of the Alpujarras. It’s fabulous and the projects for building here are really incredible. I’ll post more in a day or so. Take care all!
Monday, August 3, 2009
Germany, Part Zwei
Alright, so here after a rainy day in Tutzing I can finish my update. Wednesday was fishing, Friday was the big party, and Sunday was Salzburg. There ya go, finished. Really though.....
About half of the riding done at Greinwaldhof (the farm) is therapeutic riding for kids with learning disabilities or behavioral problems. There is a school down the road called Tabaluga, which is where most of these kids go. Friday (the 31st) was the last day of school for all kids in Bavaria, they have a crazy school schedule. But now they are all on holiday and every year Martin and Marlene throw a party for the kids and also so that some of them can show off their riding that they have been practicing over the year, usually about 150-200 people come for the party. It's a really cool event for the kids, and was a really great event for me because there were tons of homemade German cakes and tons of grilled pork, sausages, and fish.....and a couple barrels of beer also! Me and the other helpers, Richard and Nina, helped with a lot of the setting up for the party and the drinking of the beer, good times all around.
Sunday (yesterday) I went to Salzburg, Austria for the day and have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the city. I wasn't expecting too much but it's a nice place to be for a day. They have some nice gardens and it's also where Mozart was born so the whole city has somewhat of a musical theme centered around Mozart. It was able to sucker 10 euro out of me to see the house where Mozart was born and also the house where he grew up. The best part was at the end of the day I was able to find the Augustiner brewery and have a nice, big 1L stein of beer in the beer garden.
So it's been a good past week here in Germany, I've really enjoyed my time here. The area around here is so beautiful too that I've gotten plenty of good running in also. For those who don't know, I'm going to be running the Loch Ness Marathon in Scotland on October 4th before I fly home, so I have plenty of training to do! Tomorrow I'm hoping to go mountain biking in the German Alps and later in the week head to Munich to see the city. Then off to Spain! Hope everyone is doing well at home!
About half of the riding done at Greinwaldhof (the farm) is therapeutic riding for kids with learning disabilities or behavioral problems. There is a school down the road called Tabaluga, which is where most of these kids go. Friday (the 31st) was the last day of school for all kids in Bavaria, they have a crazy school schedule. But now they are all on holiday and every year Martin and Marlene throw a party for the kids and also so that some of them can show off their riding that they have been practicing over the year, usually about 150-200 people come for the party. It's a really cool event for the kids, and was a really great event for me because there were tons of homemade German cakes and tons of grilled pork, sausages, and fish.....and a couple barrels of beer also! Me and the other helpers, Richard and Nina, helped with a lot of the setting up for the party and the drinking of the beer, good times all around.
Sunday (yesterday) I went to Salzburg, Austria for the day and have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the city. I wasn't expecting too much but it's a nice place to be for a day. They have some nice gardens and it's also where Mozart was born so the whole city has somewhat of a musical theme centered around Mozart. It was able to sucker 10 euro out of me to see the house where Mozart was born and also the house where he grew up. The best part was at the end of the day I was able to find the Augustiner brewery and have a nice, big 1L stein of beer in the beer garden.
So it's been a good past week here in Germany, I've really enjoyed my time here. The area around here is so beautiful too that I've gotten plenty of good running in also. For those who don't know, I'm going to be running the Loch Ness Marathon in Scotland on October 4th before I fly home, so I have plenty of training to do! Tomorrow I'm hoping to go mountain biking in the German Alps and later in the week head to Munich to see the city. Then off to Spain! Hope everyone is doing well at home!
I'm Still Alive!
I'm sure some of you have been wondering what I've been up to, maybe thinking I'm lying in a ditch somewhere on the side of a road. It's been 3 weeks since my last update and I'm happy to say that I'm doing just fine. I made my way through France, saw the Tour de France twice, hitchhiked with quite a few different people (most interesting was a charter bus full of French boy and girl scouts), found out how great Girona, Spain is for a day, and finally arrived here in Tutzing, Germany!
For those of you wondering about France, I've got plenty to tell and it was great but I'll try to fit it in some other time to keep this short.....so on to Germany!
I arrived in Tutzing, Germany on July 27th and when I got here I was absolutely amazed. Tutzing is a small town with about 10,000 people and it sits on Starnberger See (Starnberg Lake) about 30 minutes south of Munich. Looking at the lake from the train and the farm is just an amazing view with the blue water and the mountains in the background. The farm isn't on the lake itself, but driving up a road with lots of normal looking houses you come up to this huge farm on top of a hill that can see everything looking down, it's great!
I'm staying with the Greinwald family, Martin is a fisherman and Marlene takes care of the horses on the farm. They have two daughters about my age, Kati and Sophie, and Xaver is their 11 year-old son. So far everyone here has been really welcoming to me and has made me feel like a part of the family. It's hard to think that I've been here a week already, the time has really flown by! Anyway, there are about 30 horses here on the farm and the land they live on seems to stretch forever. Martin's family has lived here on in Tutzing for the past 500 years or so (not exaggerating) and everyone in Tutzing and around knows the family.
There were two other helpers here, a couple from England, but they left on Saturday. It's never lonely here though, people are always coming and going on the farm....from horse trainers to the kids' friends to all of the kids that ride to the owners of the bigger horses. Very busy here. My daily routine is pretty simple....we have breakfast around 8:00 and then bring in the ponies from the fields (They are really big ponies actually). We then have to muck out the stables of the ponies and if the big horses have been in the stables then we clean those as well. After that just make sure they have food and water and do whatever small jobs there are until about noon. Then in the evening we bring the ponies back to the fields (horses are always in the fields) and clean up their area. Pretty simple and not as bad as it sounds with the cleaning up shit part.
Wednesday the 29th I got up early to go fishing with Martin. He only has one net and usually puts it out the night before. Woke up about 5:30 and left the house for the boat. Oh, and they also have a boat house on the lake! Could it get any better? It's a really simple operation though...Martin has a small boat and one net about 300-400 yards long. What's funny though is that he barely speaks a word of English and lots of times you try to talk to him and end up using hand gestures and making sentences with one word, he's great. Our day fishing caught us about 120 fish, which is a great catch! Afterwards we brought them back and scaled, gutted, and cleaned the fish to bring to the shops and restaurants around the lake to sell. Crazy to think that a fish I caught in the morning is going to be eaten by someone for lunch or dinner! It was a ton of fun though and I'm sure I'll be back fishing a couple more times this week!
Almost time for breakfast now, so I'll make another post this afternoon.....I promise.
For those of you wondering about France, I've got plenty to tell and it was great but I'll try to fit it in some other time to keep this short.....so on to Germany!
I arrived in Tutzing, Germany on July 27th and when I got here I was absolutely amazed. Tutzing is a small town with about 10,000 people and it sits on Starnberger See (Starnberg Lake) about 30 minutes south of Munich. Looking at the lake from the train and the farm is just an amazing view with the blue water and the mountains in the background. The farm isn't on the lake itself, but driving up a road with lots of normal looking houses you come up to this huge farm on top of a hill that can see everything looking down, it's great!
I'm staying with the Greinwald family, Martin is a fisherman and Marlene takes care of the horses on the farm. They have two daughters about my age, Kati and Sophie, and Xaver is their 11 year-old son. So far everyone here has been really welcoming to me and has made me feel like a part of the family. It's hard to think that I've been here a week already, the time has really flown by! Anyway, there are about 30 horses here on the farm and the land they live on seems to stretch forever. Martin's family has lived here on in Tutzing for the past 500 years or so (not exaggerating) and everyone in Tutzing and around knows the family.There were two other helpers here, a couple from England, but they left on Saturday. It's never lonely here though, people are always coming and going on the farm....from horse trainers to the kids' friends to all of the kids that ride to the owners of the bigger horses. Very busy here. My daily routine is pretty simple....we have breakfast around 8:00 and then bring in the ponies from the fields (They are really big ponies actually). We then have to muck out the stables of the ponies and if the big horses have been in the stables then we clean those as well. After that just make sure they have food and water and do whatever small jobs there are until about noon. Then in the evening we bring the ponies back to the fields (horses are always in the fields) and clean up their area. Pretty simple and not as bad as it sounds with the cleaning up shit part.
Wednesday the 29th I got up early to go fishing with Martin. He only has one net and usually puts it out the night before. Woke up about 5:30 and left the house for the boat. Oh, and they also have a boat house on the lake! Could it get any better? It's a really simple operation though...Martin has a small boat and one net about 300-400 yards long. What's funny though is that he barely speaks a word of English and lots of times you try to talk to him and end up using hand gestures and making sentences with one word, he's great. Our day fishing caught us about 120 fish, which is a great catch! Afterwards we brought them back and scaled, gutted, and cleaned the fish to bring to the shops and restaurants around the lake to sell. Crazy to think that a fish I caught in the morning is going to be eaten by someone for lunch or dinner! It was a ton of fun though and I'm sure I'll be back fishing a couple more times this week!
Almost time for breakfast now, so I'll make another post this afternoon.....I promise.
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