I Was Doing WorkawayI arrived at Workaway in Torri in Sabina, around 70km north-east of Rome without much of a plan. I said I would stay at least a week and beyond that wasn't really sure what I was going to do. The Swedish One Year Working Holiday Visa I applied for was still pending and in my head I really wasn't going to cycle all the way back to London. The German man in La Spezia, Arne was of the opinion that I shouldn't do something just to say I'd done it, so if it's better for the trip to just cycle for a while then fly back to London, that is what I should do. So I settled in with the idea that I would see how it goes here and make that call when I need to. The actual work I was doing was basically gardening and handyman type jobs. It wasn't too difficult, though it was very hot. The schedule was very laid back which wouldn't normally suit me, but in this case it worked out really well. It was probably the best I've eaten for three weeks in my life. We built steps, put a bench in to the side of a hill, weeded, cleaned, repainted tables, repainted bars, went to Rome to help out in a hotel restaurant and threw sticks for Winston the hound. In my spare time I was learning Spanish, reading Robinson Crusoe and I Am Malala, and eating. And napping. Basically every day we worked from around 9am - 1pm then it was siesta time until maybe 5pm. The main people I met in this time were: -Martin and Alex the hosts. Martin was the outgoing super friendly one. He does voice overs. And most of the cooking. Alex was less cheery, but when he said something, people listened. -Luke. A 19 year old English physics student from Leicester who was staying there for the first two weeks I was there. We hung out in Rome a bit too when I went there. I was there when I witnessed the man pooping in the busy street next to the main station in Rome. -Finley and Edward. English couple who were also workawaying when Luke left. Ed introduced me to many ideas, including that nuclear weapons have actually done a lot to prevent wars. Finley and I had many interesting conversations, most notably regarding responsibility in the case of English tourists getting cheap flights to and cheap accommodation in Tunisia then getting blown up. -Florian. Mamma Mia. Florian was an animal. He was basically the gardener/handyman/caretaker. He is Romanian. I don't know what else to say. -WInston. Winston eats dirt. After two weeks I booked a flight with my bike to London. Everything just seemed to be in favour of doing that. I didn't enjoy cycling in Italy with the roads and the difficulty camping. I didn't love the idea of cycling for another month which is the minimum it would take to cycle back to London. This would also give me two more weeks relaxing at workaway with which I could plan my next moves. I Am In LondonLast Thursday (27th August) I took my bike to Rome and flew to London. My laptop worked for a bit then decided it couldn't connect to the internet. I wouldn't take it with me to South America anyway because it's a million kilos, so I bought the cheap cloud based HP Stream which I can take with me. I also bought flights to Madrid then Lima for the 8th of October. While I'm in London I'll be hopefully learning lots of Spanish, catching up with all the people, going to the Tram, watching the Hawks Threepeat and winning cricket next weekend. Carn the Wood. I Will Be In South AmericaWhen I arrive in Lima I'll head up to Trujillo which is about 560km to the north, still on the coast. I have a workaway planned at a school there teaching disadvantaged kids. This is the place. I'll probably stay there for around a month, then head somewhere else to do more workaway, maybe in Ecuador. That's pretty much how I plan on spending six months in that continent. Then who knows. The Future Of The BlogI've decided that I enjoy writing things and a blog is a good way for me to keep track of what I've done, so I'm going to keep going with it. I think I'll change the style to make it more exciting for the reader and the writer. I'm not sure if I'll start a new one or just change the name of this one. I have no subscribers because I haven't added a function for that, so it should be easy enough to start again with a new one.
1 Comment
Lilly
1/9/2015 08:38:48 pm
You are a brave and wonderful gent.
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Chris JonesJust a guy going for a bit of a documented ride. Archives
May 2018
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