Some pics of my camino thus far… no lipstick or make-up… I´ll do that later when I have the chance… damn I miss my laptop…
More later… it´s painful trying to do this from the alburgue computers!!!
Chris
May 2012
Camino Day3 – Chris
Well, I managed to quite literally, ´hobble´to Pamplona, and am staying at the ´Jesus e Maria´albergue (7 euro)… bed #5 if you´re looking for me sweetie…
I am really enjoying the journey… walking for the most part in solitude, but chatting to people occasionally along the way, but at the moment, my feet feel like hamburger… blistered and bruised like they´ve never been before… my hiking boots are toast… (hmmmm… hamburger and toast would taste good right now…) 🙂
I tried everything today… changing socks, changing into my hiking sandles… nothing would give me much relief, until I put on the thickest pair of hiking socks, which make everything feel really tight, but they were the lesser of all evils.
Stores here will re-open at 5pm, and I´m going to go looking for a new pair of hiking shoes, and maybe some sort of medical rub…
Pamplona looks like a place I might just stay in for a day… a good place to explore and recuperate a bit… otherwise, I´m not sure if my feet would carry me down the road much further!
Until next time,
Chris
Camino Day2 – Chris
Had a relatively restful sleep last night… the accomodations were great!
Got an early start, I was walking at 6:25am or so… it´s actually nice to start early; it´s cool, and the sun is just coming up, so the lighting for potential pictures is fantastic!
My feet were still a bit sore from yesterday´s walk, and they got progressively worse today. I have blisters on the outside of both of my heels, so I was limping along by the end of the day.
I probably had breakfast at the same place as Christina, a ham and cheese sandwich and coffee, and another sandwich I purchased for lunch. I bought an apple and banana along the way, and stopped briefly for a second coffee.
It was relatively early in the day when I reached the point that Christina says she stopped at… can´t remember the name of the town, but I did stop at the crossroads, where I took of my socks and shoes, and shared my sandwich with a relatively hungry kitten…
From there, it was another 5km to my final destination, a little town called Larrasoana. The accomodations aren´t quite as nice as last night, but for 6 euro, I´m not complaining. The pilgrim dinner will be 11 euro tonight.
Upon arrival, I cleaned up, and did two days worth of really, really stinky laundry… then rested a bit, before sampling a nice big, ice-cold beer.
It´ll be another early night, I hope my feet heal overnight… if they are too sore, I´ll only go as far as Pamplona, a mere 17km or so from here.
Wishing I had brought my laptop… there are internet hotspots which would save paying 2 euro everytime I sit down at the hostél computer, but more importantly, I´d be able to dump my pictures to it, and work my magic with them… pretty hard to get pictures editted and posted with these limited computers… it´ll take me the month of July at Colin & Lynne´s to catch up… I was thinking of their place today… hoping there are a couple of cozy chairs, and a nice big HD TV to watch the Olympics on! 🙂
That´s it for now, dinner is ready in 5min, and I have to see if my laundry is dry yet!
Camino de Santiago: Day 2 (Christina)
From Roncesvalles to Zubiri (21.5 km)
I got an early start today, on the road walking at 6:30 am. I didn´t have the best sleep last night even though my bed was super comfortable and it was quiet in my little area. The Roncesvalles alburgue has been recently renovated and offers all the comforts and necessities a pilgrim could want. The beds are configured in pairs of bunk beds with walls between each pair giving you a sense of privacy aside from there being a stranger in the bunk across from you. At least you don´t feel exposed to the hundreds of pilgrims who are sleeping there. Still, I had some difficulty sleeping, but I have difficulty sleeping most nights so I wasn´t too worried about it. I felt pretty good physically – my quads were a little sore but otherwise no complaints.
The temperature was quite cool when I headed out and I was glad to have my base layer top to wear over my t-shirt. There was no food on hand that I could see so I munched on my cheese that I had bought in St. Jean Pied de Port and had a few bites of what was left of my day old baguette. It was enough to get me going but I knew I needed to get some provisions for the trail as soon as I came across a grocery store.
I was still in the Pyrennes foothills and the scenery was beautiful in the early morning light – rolling hills of lush pastures with forests in the distance. The trail today was still quite hilly and rocky and got the heart rate going in a few spots. I didn´t mind carrying my pack, although I was feeling some strain in my hips by mid morning (damn those weak hips of mine).
Pauline and I had planned to walk together again today. By chance we ran into Monique and we started out with her as well but she wanted to go at a slower pace so we got ahead for awhile. About 2 km in we came across a little town where we enjoyed our breakfast, European style which meant a coffee and croissant and orange juice – not exactly a hearty breakfast for a day of hiking!
We stopped again a few kilometres later for another coffee – actually we really needed to use the bathroom (probably because of all the coffee) and it was only available to paying guests. We didn´t mind getting off our feet and enjoying another cup of java. I learned how to order my coffee in Spanish: cafe grande americano con leche. Pauline speaks Spanish quite well so she handles the Spanish and I handle the French as necessary – good teamwork.
We found a grocery store at around 10:30 and by then I was starving. I bought some fruit, a stick of salami and some snacks like nuts, sunflower seeds and candy for a total of 9 euros. I think I may have some trouble sticking to the 30 euro a day budget! After another snack, we kept going. By now it was getting really hot and we had some pretty tough hills to deal with.
Conversation flowed freely between Pauline and I. I learned her life story today which was only fair as I had bored her with mine yesterday. But seriously, there seemed to be no end of things to talk about. It really helped to pass the time.
I was happy that the Camino was not crowded. There were people along the way but we enjoyed long stretches where there was nobody but us causing us to wonder sometimes if we had taken a wrong turn. But we followed the trail with no problem. The camino symbol is posted regularly so it really is quite impossible to get lost.
Our walking day ended at 1:30 when we arrived in the little town of Zubiri where we found a private albergue that had beds available for 10 euro each per night. The room is dormitory style with 4 pairs of bunkbeds. There are 7 girls in the room and 1 guy. A group had just arrived before us and were using the showers so we headed out for some lunch: tapas and beer – delicious! Back at the albergue I had a great shower (this is luxury compared to South American hostels) and I washed my clothes.
I saw Chris this morning before I left. I think he headed out before me but I haven´t seen him all day. I suspect he has gone on to the town ahead which is just half a kilometre away. But who knows, maybe I´ll run into him at dinner like I did last night. I could have walked further today, but the next town with accommodations is 20 km away – too far for me.
All in all, it´s been another great day on the Camino – good weather, beautiful scenery, lovely trail and good company.
Update at 9:30 pm: I have just discovered I have two very small blisters in the same place I get them when I run a marathon. Also my toes feel bruised from hitting to toe box in my shoe with all the down hill. I will switch to my hiking sandals tomorrow to give my feet a change. Hopefully that will help them heal. This is tough on the body!
Camino de Santiago: Day 1 (Christina)
From St Jean Pied de Port to Roncesvalles (31.7 km)
I began to walk at 7:45 under beautiful sunny skies and warm temperatures even this early in the day. I tried to get provisions for the day but most of the shops were still closed. I found a baguette and a piece of cheese and bought a small bottle of water. I hoped my 1.5 L of water would be sufficient. Turns out this was not a problem as there was potable water along the way. I walked on my own relishing my solitude for the first few hours. I felt really happy, really really happy. The scenery was gorgeous, the trail was not crowded, I felt good and my pack felt light. I revelled in the fact that I had no one to take care of but me. I can´t remember the last time – if ever that I have been in such a position. You see, when I was a child, I usually had responsibilities for caring for younger siblings (such is life when you´re one of the oldest in a large family) and then I got married very young and had my children young. It seems I have spent my lifetime caring for and being responsible for others. But today, I only had myself to care about and it felt wonderful.
My first Camino friend: Pauline from Ireland.
Just before the town of Orisson (8km), I met a girl from Ireland named Pauline. We both wanted to get a coffee as soon as we could, so when we arrived in Orisson we shared a table and enjoyed a coffed together. There was something about this girl that I liked and I felt a connection with her right away and we just decided to start walking together. Well, conversation came easily between us and we talked about many things. I ended up walking the rest of the day with her. I met another lady, Monique from Vancouver who we talked to briefly and then walked closely with her too, but she trailed behind us for the most part using us as her motivation to keep going. My first two camino friends 🙂
My conversation with Pauline became quite deep as she is very self aware and interested in people and the way people interact. I ended up telling Pauline my entire life story which I think sort of amazed her. She is just 32 but seems to be so mature and insightful for her age. I feel like I began living my life when I was 32 and it was sobering to reflect on all that has changed in my life since then. This conversation was not planned, it was quite unexpected actually. I thought I would walk alone today. I really like Pauline and we plan to walk together again tomorrow.
Only 763 km to go!
We arrive at Roncesvalles at 4:30 and after soaking our tired feet in the little stream before the town (so refreshing I don´t know why everybody wasn´t doing it) we checked out the hostel. We were both prepared to continue on to the next town but there was no need. This hostel is amazing. I think it is an old monastery but it has been transformed into a modern home for pilgrims. They have thought of everything. I will post pictures as soon as I can – you just won´t believe it.
The old monastery converted into a hostel exclusively for pilgrims.
After showering and doing our laundry we headed over to one of the two restaurants in town for a beer and dinner – we were starving. Who do I run into but Chris who was also having dinner at the same restaurant. We enjoyed dinner together and I met a couple of his friends from the States. We shared our experiences from the day and then we said our goodbyes.
My second Camino friend, Monique, from Vancouver, Canada.
These were the best laundry facilities on the Camino.
This has been a wonderful day, perfect in every aspect. I felt very in the moment every step of the way. I did not find the walk to be too difficult, although I am tired, my legs are sore and my feet ache. I went really slowly, stopping often for photos or just to have a little rest and a snack. It was a perfect pace for me. It was a perfect day on the Camino. And now I will go to sleep even though it is only 9 pm.
Getting to St. Jean Pied de Port
I´m a little behind but what´s new. I see that Chris has posted a blog entry already (isn´t he speedy!) which is great. I´ve completed my first day too, but before I write about that I wanted to tell you about getting to St. Jean Pied de Port as it turned into even more of a rigamarole than I expected. I wrote the following ¨journal¨entry while waiting for the train to SJPP:
We left the hostel at 8:15 am and it is now 6:30 pm and we are still in Bayonne. Our day did not go as planned right from the start. Imagine our surprise when we arrived at the post office at 8:30 sharp when it was supposed to be open only to find it locked up tight. Come to think of it, the streets were awfully deserted for a Monday morning at rush hour. As we stood in front of the post office looking rather confused and perplexed, a passerby called out in Spanish, ¨It´s a holiday today – everything is closed!¨ Great, now what were we going to do with all our stuff than needed to be shipped to Santiago de Compostela? Our gear was now reorganized and not easy to carry. After considering our options, we headed to the bus station with all our bags, not a simple task. If we could catch the 9:30 bus to Irun we may have enough time to post our baggage from there, assuming, of course that they didn´t have a holiday today too.
We soon discovered the 9:30 bus was sold out. How could that be when just the night before we checked on line and the bus was virtually empty? I guess there were more travellers with the holiday. All we could do was book the next bus, a luxury bus at more than twice the cost (29.50 euro instead of 13.95). Ahhh, but what luxury we enjoyed. These were quite possibly the most comfortable seats we have sat in since be began travelling eight months ago. And we had on-board service to boot! It was the best bus ride we have taken, even better than that luxurious bus between Buenos Aires and Iguazu Falls.
As we pulled into Irun, we kept our eyes peeled for a post office. Amazing – there was a post office just two blocks from where the bus dropped us off. When we reached the post office, it was open – no holiday in Irun! The lady at the post office did not speak a word of English but very patiently listened to my bastardization of the language as I tried to explain what we needed to do. Well, in no time flat she produced two large boxes, tape, marker, scissors and proceeded to package up our belongings. Within fifteen minutes we were on our way.
Now we needed to hurry to catch the train from Hendaye to Bayonne, but we were still in Irun. I thought Hendaye was just a short walk down the street but we learned it was over 3 km away. We needed to get there fast in order to make our connection. We went back to the train station where the bus had dropped us off. Imagine our surprise when we saw a train departing in just 10 minutes. When I tried to purchase our tickets, the man said, in French, we needed to go to the regional train station to catch that train. Just 300 m straight ahead and then turn right for 100 m. Sure, no problem. Now that we only had our Camino packs on our backs (11 kg for me and 13.5 kg for Chris – I know they are too heavy), we could really hustle our way to the station. In fact, I broke into a run near the end, only to see the tail end of the train leaving the station a full five minutes early. Now what?
A station attendant who only spoke Spanish (I was getting dizzy with the languages) said we could catch the local train to Hendaye – just 100 m ahead and then turn right and then something something. My Spanish is not very good. We found the exit to the station but could not find the entrance. Finally, losing patience and just focused on catching the damn train, I suggested to Chris we jump the exit barrier – we needed to catch this train. As I was hopping over the barrier (something I have never done in my life I assure you), Chris feebly observed there were security cameras watching us….but he followed suit anyways. We had been reduced to criminals but at least we were partners in crime!
Once in the station, we saw the next train left in 15 minutes giving us plenty of time to purchase our tickets. Now it was obvious where the entrance was so we headed to the entrance but we were stopped in our tracks. You needed a ticket to exit and you need to exit to purchase the ticket. The woman selling tickets came out of her booth to see what our problem was and I explained we did not have tickets but we wanted to buy tickets (this was in French). She said, ¨But where did you come from?¨ ¨From downstairs,¨ I replied innocently. She looked confused and then I explained we jumped the barrier. I apologized profusely assuring her we were not criminals and we now wanted to legitimately buy our ticket. She obliged us shaking her head in disbelief.
We arrived in Hendaye with 20 minutes to spare only to learn our 6:00 train to SJPP was cancelled. Why? A holiday in France of course. These holidays are killing us today. But there is a 9:00 train that will bring us in at 10:30. We buy our tickets wondering where we will sleep tonight as we know all the hostels shut their doors at 10:00 pm. Perhaps this will be our first night sleeping under the stars. Outside the station we met a mother and daughter who tried to persuade us to share a taxi ride with them at 110 euros. We declined and they found another person to split the cost.
I wrote the above while we were waiting for our train. The end of the story is as follows:
The train was on schedule and we arrived at 10:30 in SJPP to find the little village quite closed down for the night. We headed to the Pilgrim Office as we heard they sometimes stayed open for the last train. Maybe they could help us find a room for the night. On our way, a woman popped out of her hostel and notified our small group (about 10) that she had 4 beds available – a double private room and 2 dorm beds. We grabbed the private room sight unseen. We then went to the Pilgrim Office which was open to get our passports and general information and a shell, the symbol of the camino. We even managed to get a snack and a beer.
We crawled into bed at about midnight enjoying our last night together.
Note: I apologize there are not photos. I have a few for this post but cannot upload from this computer. Will do so later when I have better access.
Camino Day1 – Chris
Well, it was tough going at times, but I managed the 27kms to the first stop through the mountains in roughly 7 hours.
Passed Christina at the 7.5 km mark, even though I left a half hour later in a vain attempt to get my hair cut before starting… the barber was closed on Tuesdays.
I took far too many pictures to be sure… and realize it´s going to be hard to limit myself to 40GB spread over 30 days or so!
I´m chaifing a bit between the legs, and my feet or sore… possibly the beginning of blisters…
More later, I´m tired, and hungry, and my euro worth of internet is running out!
What to pack for the Camino de Santiago?
We have spent today getting ourselves organized for our month long walk doing the Camino de Santiago. Most people spend a fair bit of time getting themselves prepared for such a long journey even purchasing special gear. We will make do with what we have on hand, using our regular back packs even though they are much larger (65L) and heavier(2.5 kg) than they should be and we’ll wear our standard hiking clothes and shoes.
Weight is the big issue when undertaking such a colossal hike; we’re gong to feel every ounce that we are carrying for 780 km. The rule of thumb is to carry no more than 10-15% of your body weight. So my goal is to carry a pack between 7 – 10 kg in weight. I did a test run at Trove and was discouraged to find that I couldn’t get the pack lighter than 10 kg. I knew I needed to be more ruthless but I couldn’t see what should go.
Today I made my final decisions but it was a challenge without a scale. Chris devised a clever system to at least determine which item was heavier. While knowing the weight would have been better, this system did help me make some critical decisions. I think my pack weighs about 9 kg now but I can’t be certain. It’s definitely not more than 10.
For those of you who may be considering this hike in the future, click here to see my complete packing list. It seems pretty skimpy on the clothes. Basically, I’ll be wearing the same clothes each day and washing clothes each night. I’ll have one change of clothes for the evening. I will use one t-shirt and my running shorts as pj’s. I have a long sleeve base layer in case it gets cold but left the bottoms behind (tough decision, let me tell you). We’ll be traversing mountains and it can still get chilly – hope I don’t regret leaving the bottoms behind (ha ha). I’m bringing a sleeping bag and sleeping mat – total weight 2.3 kg. These items are not an absolute necessity because most hostels will have at least basic bed linen. But the sleeping bag will give me a lot of comfort because it is very warm and cozy so I’m reluctant to leave it behind. The sleeping mat will give me the flexibility to sleep outdoors (gasp!) in the event I don’t find an available bed one night. Anything I haven’t used within the first week, will probably be posted to Santiago de Compostella to hold until I get there. I’m also bringing my walking sticks – remember one of my poles snapped in two when I lost my balance during a river crossing in Patagonia? Luckily, my sister brought me a replacement pair when she came to Italy and took the old ones home.
Christina’s gear including what she is wearing.
The weighing system was pushed to its limit with full packs,
but it did demonstrate Chris’ pack on the right is heavier,
if only by a few pounds. He’ll also be carrying his camera around his neck.
Tomorrow is another travel day for us. But first, we must go to the post office to pack our extra stuff into boxes and ship them to the post office in Santiago de Compostela where they will sit until we pick them up at then end of June. It is called “poste restante” and apparently most post offices around the world provide this service. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that our stuff makes it there safely as we’re sending all our electronics (lap tops and extra camera equipment).
We will then travel by bus to a little town on the border of Spain and France called Irun (NOT to be confused with Iran). The bus will drop us off on the Spanish side and we’ll walk over to the French side where the town is called Hendaye. From there we catch a train to Bayonne and then another train from Bayonne to St. Jean Pied de Port. It’s quite a rigamarole to go less than 300 km, but hopefully we make all our connections so that we can begin our camino on Tuesday morning.
Buen Camino!
Off to Spain and the Camino de Santiago
We are now headed to Spain to walk the Camino de Santiago, a 780 km journey from St Jean Pied de Port, France to Santiago de Compostela, Spain. We have 29 days allocated (yes, that translates to approximately 27 km per day) after which we hop onto a plane and fly to London, England where we will be visiting relatives (Colin and Lynne) for a few days (my niece, Catherine’s in-laws) and then staying on at their place for the month of July while they travel to Canada. But I’m getting ahead of myself. First, we must complete our odyssey in Spain.
There are many pilgrimage routes that end in Santiago de Compostela but the one we are planning to walk, Camino Francais or The Way of St. James has existed for over a thousand years. It was one of the most important Christian pilgrimages during medieval times, together with Rome and Jerusalem, and a pilgrimage route on which a plenary indulgence could be earned. There are other major pilgrimage routes such as the Via Francigena to Rome which I mentioned we followed for a few kilometres while doing the walking tour of Tuscany a couple of weeks ago.
Nowadays, thousands of people embark on these pilgrim walks and they are becoming increasingly popular with each passing year. For example, according to Wikipedia, only 690 people walked the Way of St. James route in 1985 compared to 272,703 in 2010. Today, the reasons for doing a pilgrim walk are as varied as the people who do it. I’m still trying to figure out the reasons why I am doing this journey. I am attracted to the challenge of it both physically and psychologically in much the same way I was attracted to the challenge of running a marathon. The idea of having time to think, time to enjoy my solitude and the opportunity to meet people from around the world also appeals to me. Maybe the most tempting reason of all is having a legitimate excuse to ditch my husband for a month. That’s right, we plan to walk the Camino independently. So while we may start off together, or maybe we’ll stagger our start, we will each go at our own pace and walk our own Camino. We will meet up again on June 26th in Santiago de Compostela.
I have mixed feelings about walking the camino alone, especially as a woman. Part of me embraces this idea and thinks it is what I need. But part of me is really quite scared to venture out on my own like this. I’m following my own personal philosophy to “feel the fear but do it anyways” and will embrace this walk and all it will entail.
You may also be interested to know that as pilgrims, we will enjoy special privileges along the way. At the beginning, we will be issued an offical “pilgrim’s passport” that will be stamped at each albergue (hostel) we stay at. We will receive pilgrim rates at restaurants and hostels; some hostels only serve the needs of pilgrims. On average, we expect to spend about 30 euros each per day unless of course, unbeknownst to me, Chris packs it in after the first couple of days and checks into a five star resort for the rest of the month.
What does this mean for the blog? I have decided, after a lot of deliberation, not to bring my laptop with me as I don’t want the excess weight or the distraction. I would like to share my journey with our friends and family in real time so I plan to write about my experience along the way whenever I can find an internet cafe. I can’t promise a daily post, but will try to get online every couple of days. I’ll do my best with photos as well. Let’s put it this way, I’ll do what I can to share my experience with you as I live, or should I say, walk it.
I invite you to come and walk the Camino with me. Buen Camino.
Trove is a wrap
Our last two weeks at Trove have passed by very quickly. We house sat for the final 10 days of our stay while Barbara and Ugo were away on tours. During that time we got into a comfortable routine – waking up around 7:30 each morning, enjoying coffee and breakfast before starting our “work day” around 9:00. Mid morning we stopped for a coffee (and to give my aching muscles a rest) and then we would continue on until 1:00 or 1:30 at which time we would have our “shower” while the paid workers (doing the renovation work) were away on their lunch break. Then it was time to have lunch. After that, our time was our own to spend as we pleased: reading, researching, writing, photography, touring around, and going for walks. During this time we visited the town of Cortona which is the location where “Under the Tuscan Sun” was filmed.
As you know, my job was to get the garden under control. It was a large, terraced vegetable garden that was completely over grown with weeds. I was surprised to find so many plants under all those weeds – I think Ugo must have planted earlier in the springtime but then didn’t have time to maintain the garden. I was also tasked to purchase more plants – anything I wanted – to fill in the empty spots in the garden.
Following Barbara’s suggestion, we went to the Tuesday morning market in Sinalunga to purchase our plants. This presented something of a challenge as nobody spoke English and most of the plants were not marked, at least not in any way I could recognize. I bought what I knew although who knows if the pepper plants are green or red or yellow, or what type of tomato plants I bought. I guess they’ll find out later on in the season. The other challenge at the market was getting served. Barbara warned me about the pushy little Italian ladies who would have no qualms butting in front of me. Sure enough, a very old lady butted in front of me but I let it go since she was just buying one item. But when a young couple started to go next, I tapped the man on the arm and said in English, Excuse me but I am next in line, and then proceeded to point out what I wanted. His wife pulled him back and he had no choice but to defer to me, even though he probably had no idea what I just said. By the time I had decided on the plants and got them purchased, I was exhausted and had had enough of the market for one day.
I must admit I found it physically challenging to work for four hours in the garden each day. I tried to break things up by taking time to water the garden, do some weeding, do some planting and then some more weeding. The weeding was back breaking work, with weeds that were so tenacious I had met my match. By the end of our stay, I had cleaned up all the vegetable gardens and was quite happy with the results of my hard work. As an added bonus, all that physical labour was good preparation for the upcoming Camino de Santiago.
Chris had the task of refinishing the original windows in the kitchen – we’re talking windows that were hundreds of years old. At first glance, Chris’ gut told him the windows were beyond repair and should just be replaced but Barbara put forth the case that she was just trying to buy some time with them – just a few more years. And so Chris spent the better part of two weeks taking apart the old kitchen window, sanding it down and removing the layers upon layers of old paint, scraping years of gunk off the window panes, trying to flatten severely warped windows that were curved like bananas and grumbling throughout the entire process. He said it more than once: I could be spending my time making beautiful windows instead of wasting my time on a futile exercise, if only I had the proper tools and the proper environment and the proper supplies. I think that sums up Chris’ big challenge with the HelpX experiences so far: he finds it very frustrating not being able to maximize his skills and to have to settle for a mediocre outcome. In fact, it drives him crazy and he really struggles to cope in the situation. He puts pressure on himself by taking off more he can chew and then he tends to get caught up in working incessantly and forgetting to have fun in the process.
The end result: A refinished kitchen window that
Barbara thought was wonderful.
During the last few days of our stay, we enjoyed the company of the next pair of HelpXers, a young Aussie couple, Amber and Alex. We had been given the responsibility of picking them up at the train station and then showing them the ropes at Trove which we did. Lucky for them, the weather warmed up so having a “shower” was not such an ordeal. There have been some downright chilly days at Trove this past month which made us yearn for indoor plumbing. But this last week has been warm again. We did a few excursions with them since they needed to become familiar with the area and Alex needed to get used to driving Barbara’s car. One evening, we went back to the Abbey in Sant’Antimo in time to hear an unusual service: four monks clothed in white robes singing Gregorian chants. It was a unique experience to observe. The scenery on the way home was incredible as we were treated to a beautiful sunset over the rolling Tuscan hills. Magnifico!
Last meal with Barbara and Ugo before they entrusted their house to us.
The month at Trove passed by in a flash. It was the longest period of time we have stayed in one place and we both enjoyed having a break from being on the go. We soaked up the peacefulness and beauty of our surroundings, but I was surprised at how isolated I felt being out in the middle of nowhere with minimal social interaction. Equally surprising considering the picturesque landscape, I never felt completely relaxed at Trove. I found the circumstances we landed into, with the renovation and all the associated upheaval, to be a little unsettling and certainly not what I was expecting.
In spite of the minimalist kitchen, I enjoyed preparing tasty, nutritious
meals for us all month. My secret cooking tip from Tuscany:
add high quality olive oil (like that produced on the farm)
to anything and everything!
In the end, I think we made the best of the situation and turned it into a win-win: Ugo and Barbara expressed a lot of appreciation to us for our contribution and our ability to cope in somewhat trying circumstances. On our part, we got to experience living like a local in the Tuscan countryside in the springtime, we saved a lot of money since we had no living expenses for the month, and we got to meet some wonderful people and make new friends. On that note, Trove is wrap.