So Many Countries, So Little Time!: WWOOFing in Spain

After traveling to so many cities in such a short amount of time and getting my phone stolen in the process, I was ready for a bit of relaxation
, so instead of staying in Spain and volunteering at the first of two farms I was planning to go to, I decided to go back to Germany with Danielle instead. One of the nice things about my Eurail pass is that it allows me to change plans on short notice like that because I'm not locked into specific travel times like I would be if I was flying or using any other form of transportation that I had to book ahead of time. So even though it took me over 24 hours to get from Sevilla Spain to Karlsruhe Germany, it was worth it. I got to spend 4 days relaxing and it also gave me a chance to get a new phone and SIM card, which ended up being harder than I expected. I left it until my last day in Karlsruhe and it turned out that the place I was planning to buy the SIM card was sold out so Danielle and I had to go all over trying to find somewhere else that sold prepaid SIM cards. Finally we succeeded, and a friend in Karlsruhe gave me an old phone that was laying around his apartment, so I now have a phone again. It's not a smartphone so I'm not able to do nearly as much with it which means it's harder to travel from one place to the other because I can't look up a map if I get lost, but so far it's been fine. At least now I know I'll spend less money on it because I'll only use it to text or call people if I really have to.

After 4 days in Germany, I went back to Spain to the second of the two farms. The journey there also had some problems. It was supposed to take all day to get to Valencia, where I was going to spend the night and then take a bus from there to the town where I was meeting the family I was volunteering with. But the first two trains I had to take that day were regional trains which are much more likely to run late than long-distance trains, so of course they were late and I missed the high-speed train I was supposed to take to my next connection. There were no other options to get me to Valencia that day, so I had to settle for getting to Barcelona and spending the night there. Luckily I was able to call the guy we couchsurfed with when we were there before, and he took me in for the night.

The next morning I still had to get to Valencia in time to catch a bus from there to the town of Benidorm, so I searched all of the options I could think of and the only thing that worked out was carsharing with a guy who was leaving Barcelona at 6:00 am, and even then I had to change the time of my bus ticket to later in the morning. Luckily everything worked out fine with that, and finally I arrived in Benidorm and met up with the family I would be staying with.

I spent a week on the farm and it was a really good experience. The family was really nice and the two little boys were adorable! They live in a valley close to the eastern coast in a beautiful area surrounded by mountains. It reminded me a little of parts of Nevada and California. I went hiking a few times up the mountains around their house, and it was great to be out in nature again! I've really missed that since I've mostly been in cities during my travels. Unfortunately since I don't have a camera, I have no pictures of my own of the farm and the places I went hiking, but here are a few I found online for an idea of what the area looks like:

I helped the family with various things around the farm including planting (it's warm enough there to have a garden with certain plants all winter), plastering the walls of a small house on their property that they are fixing up, picking laurel leaves to make essential oils, and taking care of the animals (5 chickens and 2 sheep). They also told me a little bit about how their energy works. The reason I wanted to go to this farm is because they produce their own energy using solar panels for electricity and hot water, and their water all comes from collected rainwater. (They also have a generator that they have to use sometimes when there isn't enough sun, but they are working towards not needing that by adding more solar panels and wind power). I would love to live that way at some point in my life so it was great to see what it's like. It definitely made me think much more about how much electricity and water I was using, even though I am already more conscious of turning off lights and water when I'm not using them than most people. For the most part, it didn't feel much different because they have all of the modern conveniences like running water and internet. They don't have a tv, but I haven't had one for years either and I don't miss it.

Before I got there I had requested that they only speak Spanish with me even though they spoke a little bit of English because I wanted to be forced to practice. For the first few days it was really draining because it takes a lot of energy to have to think about every word I'm saying, but after a few days I got a little more used to it. It didn't get to the point where I could talk without having to think about the words (I think it would take a few weeks at least to get to that point) but I do think my Spanish improved while I was there. The mom of the family said my Spanish was really good, which was nice to hear, and now I know that I still remember enough Spanish to function in daily life without speaking any English. There is obviously still a lot of vocabulary I don't know, especially when it came to things around the farm that were very specific that I wouldn't have learned about in a class, but it felt like what I had lost more than knowledge of the words was the fluidity of my speech. I think 2 years of not speaking much Spanish made my accent much worse because I can remember the words but they just don't sound right coming out of my mouth. I know I always had an American accent, there's no way around that, but I'm pretty sure it used to sound better than it does now.

Another interesting thing related to language is that the family also speaks the regional language called Valenciano. Basically isn't exactly the same language as Catalan (the language spoken in Catalunya that I mentioned in my Barcelona post) but people just call it different names based on what region they are from. So sometimes the family would be speaking in Valenciano and I would only be able to understand a little bit of it. Also I'm pretty sure the younger boy, who was probably about 2, only spoke in Valenciano because I never understood anything he was saying (but that also probably had to do with the fact that he's little so everything he said was really slurred together). I picked up a little bit of the differences between the two languages while I was there as well as some words like numbers and the word for dinner because the older boy was sent to tell me it was dinner time one night and said it in Valenciano not realizing that I wouldn't understand haha. But I got the idea so it worked out fine.

After leaving the farm I went to a small town about an hour from Barcelona to couchsurf with a guy who had offered Danielle and I a place to stay the first time we were there. We didn't take him up on his offer then because we wanted to just stay in the city, but I figured since it was on my way to Venice I could stop and see some more places in Spain before leaving. He also didn't speak any English so it was one last opportunity to speak only Spanish for a few more days. He was really nice and generous, made me great food, and took me to see some cool areas around where he lived. We went to Montserrat one of the days but unfortunately it was a little rainy and cloudy, so when we got to the top we couldn't see anything because the top of the mountain was completely covered in fog. It was still cool to walk around and see the church and things though, and it was really interesting to hear other American tourists speaking English because I hadn't spoken English much for over a week. We also went for a short walk up to an overlook just outside the town he lives in, Artes. Then the next day we went to the town of Vic for the market, but it was raining so we didn't see much. Then his friend came over for lunch and the 3 of us went to a castle in the town of Cardona (I think). His friend is a history teacher so he had a lot of cool information about the castle. It was also raining for that but we walked around a little anyway.

My host took some pictures and emailed them to me, so I have pictures for this part of the trip!