B L O G O N H O L D

I’ve got my blog on hold at the moment until the day I get my computer back, I just don’t feel I can write well through my phone, and I have so so much to write about. My next post will be like a small book. 

Since I last posted from Siena: Becky left for home and now Ireland; I was in Rome for a few days and made friends with the amazing Netta; I passed almost two weeks at Heartland, a yurt campsite that I arrived at via workaway, but that was not at all a typical workaway experience; I left for Pescara with Jonah and Christina, two new friends from Heartland, and am still with Christina now. I had plans to go to another workaway host in Italy, return to Siena to get my laptop back, and then head up to Poland for a couple of weeks to visit friends there, but.. somehow it got decided that me and Christina should go to Ropato together (Sam’s land in La Creuse). He is looking for people who want to live there and Christina is looking for somewhere exactly like that to live for a while. I decided to skip my plans in Italy and go directly to Poland, for just 10 days or so, then meet Christina and take her there. Then I found I really didn’t want to hitchhike all the way up to and across Poland alone, just to have a rushed visit, so I cancelled Poland too. So we are sticking together, and we are currently in Stuttgart to visit some friends and family of hers and get some of her things before we go to France. 

We had a chaotic journey, we hitched together, I lost a bag which has my camera in it, and all my materials for my new jewellery making project. I am working on getting it back. All is possible. We’ve had thunderstorms following us the entire way, and after such intense experiences at Heartland (to be explained!) this is quite crazy. 

I feel so up in the air at the moment and confused to have suddenly changed all my plans, and to have lost my things, and to be going back to La Creuse AGAIN. But I am answering some kind of calling and I know that whatever is meant to be will be. 
Amongst all of this I have realised something: I don’t want to travel alone anymore. I don’t want to hitchhike alone, I don’t want to camp alone, I don’t want to feel like all the connections in my life are momentary, and I don’t want to feel lost. I don’t feel any negativity or sadness, but I’ve realised that it’s time for another chapter. I think I know all I need to know from travelling in the way I have done for the past couple of years. This has happened so suddenly, and is something I need to think about (and write about) a lot more. But that’s where I’m up to at the moment. 

So, I’m in Stuttgart, heading for ‘home’, and rolling with whatever is supposed to be. 

I’m exited for things to fall into place better, and to write. A lot. I think it’s time to start a book. 

I have a request for anyone reading this: please focus, in any way that seems right to you, on the idea of me getting my bag back! I know the place of work of the woman who’s car the bag was left in (she a process engineer at Phillip Morris Bologna), and that’s all the info I’m working with at the moment, and I really believe it can come back to me if we focus enough energy on the idea! So, your help would be appreciated 🙂 

I’m really looking forward to writing a full post about all of these recent experiences. Until then, I’m leaving my blog on hold. 

Love & Light. 

S I E N A

I’m feeling very frustrated at the moment as I wrote a very long and heartfelt blog post the other day from Florence, Italy, and just as I finished it my computer died and is refusing to switch back on. So that post may be lost forever, and my computer is broken. Not great really but I’m hoping I can get it fixed soon. 

So at the moment I am in Siena, living a life very detached from my standard principles, and starting to feel frustrated by that, too! We’ve been partying every night, generally just drinking and spending money. It’s been very fun, but I need a garden and some hard work very soon. 

This has all occurred because I arrived in Italy to meet Adam and Becky, and Adam’s friend Philly who had joined them, without a plan. We were hoping to organise a workaway host for all four of us, but we hadn’t succeeded by the time I got there last Thursday evening, and we weren’t even sure where we were going to sleep that night. As if by magic, we met Simon and Iva on the street, who told us about the squat they were staying in just outside of the city with a group of their friends, and told us if we had tents we could go and sleep there too. So we did. 

In the morning Adam and Philly wanted to move on, but me and Becky really liked the place and all the people there, so we decided to split, which I think was the best thing in that moment. 

So it turned out that me and Becky stayed at the squat for almost a week, just chilling out, spending time with the people there, and popping into Florence sometimes for a look around – a beautiful but too touristic city. (I’ve written all about the squat in my lost blog post, which I can hopefully retrieve and post! For now I just want to write a quick update!) 

We arrived in Siena on Wednesday night, and after sending some failed couchsurfing requests and faffing around on wifi, we had resigned overselves to the fact that maybe we’d have to move out of the city and camp, when we met Sahil and his friends in a bar, who offered to host us. We’ve been here three nights now, staying with him, admiring the beautiful city, and going out partying at night. It’s a student city and everyone’s graduating at the moment, so the city is like one big party. All such a lovely experience, but as I say, I am so ready to reconnect with nature. 

So that’s all for my mini-update, I just wanted to get something down before I move on again – we are going to Rome today or tomorrow, and Becky is leaving on Wednesday night to visit home for a week, before going to Ireland to continue her travels. I’m going to miss her so much (again, something I’ve wrote a bit about in my lost post!) 

I feel surrounded by amazing people at the moment, I’ve met a lot of very generous and warm hearted people who have gone out of there way to help me, or us, and to show us friendship and kindness without any gain for them. So although I’m not living my workaway lifestyle, I feel I am still learning and living a lot of important things at the moment. 

Everyone please cross their fingers for my poor computer, and I’ll try and post a more interesting and detailed update soon! 

Ciao x

M I L L A U

I’ve had a nice few days in Millau, workawaying at Christophe’s place again with Ellie – a workawayer who I met at Steve’s place last autumn. It’s been really nice to see them both, and Christophe’s girlfriend Jaqueline and her daughter. I also said hello to some new friends, Deedee and Fiona, who I met in La Creuse in February, they live here. So it’s been a nice social time.

We’ve been helping Christophe to construct an up-cycled windows and doors structure in the garden, which he will use as another greenhouse-come-gallery space, for an exhibition here. It’s very cool to spend time in a place where everything is made in such a creative way. Everything either IS art, or is covered in artwork, or both. Being here makes me want my own place (again!). I want to create something. I really want to start some artistic and ecological projects, and I know I need a base for that. And I know that if I pick a good base that itself will be the artistic and ecological project. Obviously I get to contribute to so many interesting projects travelling and workawaying, but it would be so nice to have my own place. I go in and out of this feeling so often, but I’m sure that in the next year or so I need to start to work towards getting some sort of base that is my own. Even just a van. I have wanted a van for as long as I can remember, and I’m more sure than ever that I’m going to make this happen soon! (I need some money!). I don’t want to stop travelling, but I want to feel productive. I believe in the way of the universe and I’m sure she’ll send me something soon! 😉

I’m popping back to La Creuse for the weekend before I go and meet Becks and Adam in Italy. Seems a bit silly, to go all the way back, but after I was invited I realised that actually I would really like a couple of days there to re-ground myself before I continue. That’s the closest thing to have to somewhere that feels like my own home, and I know I need that for a couple of days at the moment. I feel very unfocused and busy, mostly thinking forward into the future, and struggling to be in the here and now 100%. I need a completely still moment. So I’ll have that on Monday, a nice lonely day in my own space. And then I’ll be off to Italy.

The journey from Harvs and Lola’s was fun. We decided to go to Arles all together for one last little adventure before we split. We set off hitching really late but it was successful. The first car that stopped was a citron saxo (always!) with three people in it, who were somehow convinced they could take all three of us. It was hilarious. I sent Becky and Adam ahead alone! Then I was in my first ever hitching car crash! I joke- it was just a tiny bump, but still. Then my driver tried to do a runner from the old man who wanted to make papers for the insurance. So I ended up in a car chase. It was quite funny actually. Eventually he has to stop and pretend he’d been looking for somewhere good to pull over. (“Wow he drives quite fast for an old man!”).

I met Becky and Adam in an Irish pub in Arles. I was only about ten minutes behind them. We ended up organising an airbnb as the weather was pretty bad for trying to camp anywhere, and it was getting dark. Our airbnb host was a really lovely English guy called Mark, who we had dinner and a couple of glasses of wine with. In the morning (the sun was back out – yay) I had a lovely walk with Becks before setting off on my way to Millau. Her and Adam decided to visit Avignon because Mark was driving there and offered to take them. I think they’re in Nice now, and Genoa soon. We’re all meeting in Florence, or near, on the 13th.

I had a beautiful journey to Millau. My first lift took me to Nimes via the national road, which was quite scenic, and then I chose to take the national road to Montpellier too, rather than stand at the paeage barriers and go on the motorway. I’m so glad I made that choice, because the man who picked me up took a beautiful road along the coast, past all the lakes just south-east of Montpellier. It’s a bit longer, but it was easy to understand why someone would want to take that way, rather than pay to go on the ugly and expensive motorway. The views were just beautiful. We even stopped for a couple of minutes at the beach and I walked into the sea. The man was kind enough to go out of his way to put me at a good place for continuing towards Millau, and I got an easy lift right to the centre of town here (people who want to avoid the toll on the giant viaduct have to pass through the city). That was another very scenic road, up and over the plateaus with a beautiful view down over the whole of Millau as we arrived.

I’m looking forward to another day of hitching tomorrow. Bizarrely, it turns out Ellie is also hitching up to Montlucon, to visit a couple she met when hitching a little while ago, so we’ll be going up together. She hitched for the first time back in October after I convinced her that it was the best way to travel, and she’s never looked back! I thought that was pretty cool.

So I’ll sign off for now. There’s a few good pictures from working today, but I don’t have them yet. I’ll upload them soon.

Sunshine, a long summer, and all good times ahead.

Amy x

C H A N G I N G P L A N S

I’m still in (a very rainy, today!) Provence at the moment, getting ready to leave tomorrow or Monday. The other day I had a message from Christophe, a workaway host in Millau who I stayed with last autumn, saying that he’s currently hosting a friend and fellow workawayer of mine, Ellie, and they’d realised they both knew me. We all decided it was a good idea for me to visit whilst Ellie is still there, so my plans for going directly to Italy with Adz and Becky are on hold for a bit. We’re all going to split for a week or so and then maybe meet back up in Italy. I also had news from my mum that for mine and my sister’s birthday in July we’re all meeting up in Lisbon! So that changes my time frame a bit, and means I’ll probably do some workawaying in Spain and Portugal over the summer. This is exciting as I’ve still not been to either of those countries. But I still want to visit Romania at some point, and make it to John and Ola’s in Poland, too. Every corner of Europe is waiting for me this summer!

I’m ready to get moving now. It’s been so crazy to spend 24/7 with people. It’s been great here, but I’m looking forward to having some time alone at some point now! It’s going to be strange to be by myself, even just for the hitch up to Millau, but it will be good for all of us (me, Becks and Ad) to have a little break. We’re lucky to all get on so well, because we really have spent ALL of our time together, and I’ll probably feel like I’ve lost a limb for the first few hours! But I think it’s time for some personal reflections. Headspace is super important for me, it’s one of the main reasons I choose to live the way I do, and I know I need some time out at the mo, just to reflect and ground myself again.

Just in case anybody missed it (I’ve already posted this on my faces & places page and my about section), here’s me building a glass bottle wall the other day! I’m so happy to have finally got to do this!

That’s all for now! Updates from more French adventures soon!

Building a glass bottle wall, Provence, France, March 2017

A I X

Lyon seems like a distant dream, after only ten days! I’m writing this from our workaway host’s, just outside of Aix-en-Provence, where we’ve been since last Thursday. Getting here was a bit of a challenge, but we had some fun. We struggled to hitch out of Lyon; we had to walk for ages and eventually arrived at a spot that wasn’t very good. We waited a long time, but eventually we got going with one lift who took us to a town just South of Lyon, I don’t remember the name, on the road to Valance. We waited there for a really really long time, trying to stop cars on the red light in what was actually not a bad spot. At some point a guy in a bright pink glittery car passed us, and we somehow managed to sense a connection with him. He was smiling at us at he went by and we were obviously loving his home-painted car. After about half an hour he passed again in the other direction, then we saw him down the line of traffic – coming back for us! It was close to evening by the time he stopped for us, so when he asked us where we were planning to sleep for the night and we told him we didn’t know, he immediately offered to host us at his flat, a little way outside of the town. Remi. What a legend. After popping to the supermarket for some beers and food we had a nice little evening, drinking, swapping travel stories and playing cards. The next day we set off really early, but waited at the paeage barrier for … three hours. It was awful. But we had some laughs there. We really do have a lot of fun most of the time; I’m enjoying travelling in a group. Eventually we gave up on the paeage and took the small road instead, which worked out fine in the end. We arrived here around three in the afternoon. Our last lift was in a citron saxo, which already had two people in the front seats, and a full boot. So we were three in the back seats with all of our bags. You can only imagine! Funny times.

So, here. We have our own little apartment in the building, next door to our hosts Hervé (Harvs) and Lola’s, which is cool. We’ve had a great time so far. The area is very populated, we’re just off the big road through to Aix, which I don’t really like, but it’s really cool to spend time with people like Harvs – activists who are making changes from within suburban / ‘normal’ places. Seeing how Harvs is making small changes in a place like this just shows how you don’t have to go and live on an old farm in the middle of nowhere to make positive ecological changes (although of course that’s what I prefer! It’s just great to be immersed in a different kind of environment).

We’ve helped mostly in the garden, building a big trench as part of a small permaculture project. The place belongs to Hervé’s family, but he’s sort of in charge of the site (a big apartment building and some workshop spaces) and gardens now, and is in the process of clearing up old storage spaces, and starting to build a veggie garden. We’ve generally drank loads and had lots of small parties here, it’s a really social place. They have lots of nice neighbours living in the apartment building, and at the saw mill next door where Lola works. There’s always someone around, hanging out in Hervé’s workshop or at the garage. Harvs and a couple of friends have acquired three broken down vans that they are slowly turning into two working vans, so there’s normally someone in the garage in the evening working on them and having a beer. It’s a great atmosphere here. At the moment I’m writing amongst a small apéro, waiting to go to a big party, so I’m going to sign off for now. Sorry it was only a quick overview, but I felt like a post was overdue and I don’t get much reflective time at the mo! It’s all just beers and parties and laughs, and digging. We’re hoping to build a glass-bottle-brick chicken coop before we leave, which I’m excited about. We certainly have enough glass bottles!

We had a day out in Marseille on Tuesday. It was glorious weather, a nice day for exploring the city. We split up for a bit, just for us each to have some solo time, so I walked around with my camera and got a couple of good architectural abstract shots and some general snaps. I’ll post them soon, along with some photos from here, but for now here’s one of me and my crew at Sam’s house a couple of weeks ago, I feel like it sums us up pretty well!

H O S T I N G ; H I T C H I N G ; L Y O N & T R A V E L

I’m in Lyon, at my normal halfway-house, Laz & Louise’s. We (that’s right, I am no longer a solo-traveller – my friends Becky and Adam are here with me) arrived here yesterday, early afternoon, and had a lovely day wandering in the sun. We hitchhiked here all together really easily and quickly, a great success. They’ve not been to Lyon before so I gave them a little tour. It was a really nice day. We had a nice evening here too, sharing a meal and some wine with Laz and Louise. Simple, beautiful days 🙂

I feel very surrounded by friends at the moment. I’m with Becky and Adam all of the time, and I left La Creuse with lots of friends around, and arrived in Lyon to be hosted by more friends, and even bumped into someone who I met in La Creuse in November here in Lyon yesterday, whilst sitting at a bar on the Rhone. That was a big coincidence! I just feel a really good energy about people and connections at the mo, which is lovely. Maybe it’s because I’ve met so many great people recently. It was Sam’s birthday on Monday and so some of his friends came round and had a small party with us. He’d decided he didn’t want to have a party because he has a job now, and had to be in work super early on Tuesday morning, but in the end his friends just turned up anyway, and in typical French style there was somehow enough alcohol and food to go around, a meal was prepared and everyone had a great evening. It was a lovely way to end my time there. I feel like I’m now officially part of the Creuse crew.

Since Becky and Adam arrived at Sam’s we did a lot more work in the garden, planting even more trees and berry bushes. The land is really starting to take shape. As I know the place and the project so well, and have been so involved with the recent work and plans, whilst Sam was at his new job I took on the role of host. Directing and explaining things to Becky and Adam made me realise how much I have learnt since I started out. I can really see a big progression in my gardening knowledge, which has made me feel purposeful! I really enjoyed playing host, I found it interesting to organise everything and structure the days, and make sure I explained things well to Becky and Adam, and make sure they felt positive and were enjoying themselves. It was a cool experience to switch roles and be the leader, and it’s made me more sure than ever about having my own project. Maybe I just enjoy being bossy, haha!

So I best finish this now, because we’re about to leave Lyon to head to a workaway host in Aix-en-Provence. The weather is fine, and can only keep getting better. We have a cool group dynamic, and lots to look forward to. Positive vibes!

 

 

T I M E F L I E S

Yes, I feel like time is going over so quickly! I’m still here at Sam’s in La Creuse, and still really enjoying my time here. It’s really just like home for me now, and it will be strange to leave. But, leave I must, and that’s going to be on the 14th, with my good friends Becky and Adam who are arriving in the next few days. Although I’m going to miss it here, I’m ready to throw myself out of my comfort zone again. I’m excited for my travels.

It’s difficult to know what to write about when I’m not in a moment of change, but I wanted to write just to document how I’m feeling at the mo, which is quite content. I feel like I’ve got lots of space to think, and to be sensitive to my emotions, my reactions to things. If I’m feeling really good or sometimes a bit moody or sometimes a bit sad, I have time to acknowledge these feelings and think about why they happen. I’m enjoying this and I think it’s quite powerful. It might sound a bit over sensitive but actually I think it’s just the normal everyday ups and downs that we all have constantly, but don’t always take time to acknowledge. I’m quite sure being more in tune with these little ups and downs is important for feeling balanced, which I am feeling at the moment 🙂

It seems I haven’t done much writing recently, but actually I’ve updated my new shiny blog site here with some extra info about me and about workawaying. I’ve also been working on building up my photography portfolio, papping new friends, again! From now on I think I’ll be adding lots of pics to my new places & faces page. There’s some new photos of a lovely English family who we met at the weekend at a village community bbq – the lady, Kerry, heard my accent and got chatting to me, and it turns out she is from just around the corner from where my family live now, and she went to my school. Small world, as always. There’s also some pics from the day we went to Sam’s friends house, to bottle beer that we had made there the week before. We had a little party in the evening (again) which was really nice (and I suffered the day after!).

In terms of practical learning, recently I’ve learnt a lot about trees – we’ve been taking all the trees from the tree nursery in Ropato, a lot of which Sam has grafted himself (attaching a cutting of one tree onto the strong roots of another tree to grow different varieties), and planted some up here. I now know a little bit about good ways to plant, and mulching, and the needs of the different trees. All things that will come in useful one day I’m sure.

I’ve been really feeling the need to find my own little base relatively soon. I am excited for my travels and feeling positive, but I am looking forward to a time in the future when I will feel the way I feel about this place about somewhere that is actually mine, and I will be able to work towards my own goals; even though I do of course enjoy helping other people with their’s. I have days where I feel a little bit useless in the world, like I don’t have anything to show for myself. But then I think about the freedom I have, and the time that I value so much, and I know that I’ve got time to get to where I’m going.

Time for bed, soon. I started writing this a while ago, but then Sam came in to the house and spontaneously baked a gloriously fantastic chocolate cake that I feel deserves a mention here… It was an invented recipe which turned out something like a (vegan and gluten free) fondant, with added chocolate sauce. So that’s made my evening. Since I left and came back Sam has gone completely vegan, so I’m enjoying eating completely vegan at the mo, too. Ethically, vegetarianism/veganism is something I feel more and more strongly about. I haven’t eaten meat for quite a while now, and I’ve even started to officially call myself a vegetarian. The idea of eating animals is becoming more and more strange to me. Even though it’s difficult (as I’ve been raised eating meat and I still automatically see it as a food), slowly but surely the association of death and of the entire industry is becoming more vivid for me whenever I see meat. The environmental impacts are insane, and just the sheer brutality of the way it happens on a global scale. Fair enough, if society ate meat in a sustainable way, I’m still at a stage where I can accept that animals are farmed and eaten. But the large-scale industry as it is is completely ludicrous, and a lot of people eating meat do so in total ignorance of that. I’m beginning to find it more and more difficult to understand. For a long time now, if I’ve eaten meat, I have been very mindful of where it’s come from, and I’ve tried hard to not contribute to the mass-produced supermarket meat industry; but now more than ever I feel quite passionate about this, and about making sure I live in a sustainable and fair way. And, as it’s all the same industry, I would like to slowly phase out animal products as a permanent choice, too. I certainly don’t miss most things at the moment; milk alternatives are so varied that it’s quite weird how much humans feel the need to exploit cows… But I have to say that, particularly being in France, I do miss cheese. I can’t imagine it will be a quick process for me to go hardcore vegan permanently. But anyway, I thought I should give this a little mention as something that I’m thinking a lot about at the mo! Be sustainable!

So, it’s definitely time for bed. I’ll leave you with a picture of Sam in a wheel barrow to laugh at:

 

 

 

H E L L O, W O R D P R E S S

Over the past few days I’ve spent some time transferring to WordPress, and building up a nice new blog site here. From now on I’ll be posting everything through this site. There’s more pics, more info, and soon-to-be more reflections (of a workawayer!). 

I CAN SMELL THE SPRING

I’ve decided to sit down this morning and force myself to write a blog post, even if it’s just a little one, because I’ve been completely avoiding it the last couple of weeks whilst constantly thinking, ‘I really must write a blog post soon’. So here it is.

I’ve been back in La Creuse for 2 weeks now, and I’m really enjoying it. I caught the ferry from Portsmouth at night time on Saturday the 4th, after driving down to Uncle Bernie’s with my parents who were going down for a visit. We had a nice pub meal there before I got very kindly dropped at the ferry terminal by Uncle Bernie and mum. I slept on the floor of the lounge area on the ferry, which actually wasn’t too bad, and got off in the morning in Ouistreham, the place I left France from in December.

I was hoping to arrive at first light but actually I had to do a bit of dark hitchhiking, which I never like, but it was okay because I knew the day was coming soon. After someone helped me to get past Caen and onto the good road for the direction of Tours, I was super lucky to get one lift who took me all the way to Potiers. From there it was an easy hitch across in the direction of Montlucon. I got really lucky that day with easy and quick lifts, and arrived here by about 3pm.

It was immediately nice to be back. Friends of Sam’s were visiting for the day, and his brother, who I met last time. I felt like I was back in a good place for me. However, for the first few days of being here and settling back in, I had a few wobbles and I didn’t know how I felt. I think that arriving here very quickly, in such contrast to being at home where there is so much going on at the moment, was quite a big change in energy to take on at once. I’m sure of this now, because I’m feeling super positive again, but for a few days I felt quite sad and unsure of myself at some points. It’s not surprising really, because there is a lot going on in my family at the mo, which I haven’t had much space to reflect on. And I think I also put a lot of emphasis on this place, and on Sam to an extent, because of the massive change that happened in me last time I was here. I think my negative feelings were just due to settling in to a new phase of the same place. I’ve had a lot of reflective time, which I think I needed, and I’m now really grateful for. Sometimes it’s really difficult to slow down and step back, but I’m thankful to have a place to do that at the moment, and to be able to get back into the swing of my own lifestyle again.

So, so far it’s been all garden work, digging holes to plant trees on the land. It’s exciting but slow, with only two of us, but we’ve finished the holes now and will get the trees from Ropato over the next couple of days. For the last week or so the weather has been absolutely beautiful, and as the title of this post says: I can smell the spring!

I love that feeling when you know spring is coming, it makes me feel like everything is possible. I am really looking forward to the year ahead. (Saying that, it’s already nearly the end of February – how time flies!).

A few days ago we went to Sam’s friend’s house to help to make beer, which was fun. We arrived early in the morning and passed the whole day there, mostly spent eating and drinking outside in the sun. It turned out to be a right little party, and we stayed until about 3 in the morning. It was like a summer’s day and I really enjoyed myself. I love being here in La Creuse and just constantly meeting lovely, welcoming and like-minded people.

I think that’s all for now. I’m going outside, in this glorious sunshine, to finish making the wire fences for the baby trees. I haven’t taken any photos yet, (because I managed to bring the wrong camera charger with me, correct one is in the post now, thanks Dad!) apart from this one of Cali; In her normal position on the window ledge, next to the poor cold little plant. I’ll post some more exciting pics soon!

Now I’ve posted this, I promise to write more frequently again! When I get around to it I’m also going to transfer my blog over to wordpress and make more of a deal of it, with more info about workawaying and more interesting writing!

Pretty soon I’ll be on the road to Italy with my friends Becky and Adam, so there’s lots to look forward to.

Happy (soon to be) Spring everybody!!

F E R R Y

Blogs from the road coming soon.

I’m on my way back to France