A place to rest our heads

It’s amazing how much can change in a 24-hour period. By escaping the camel farm and retreating to Salzburg for much needed freedom, within a day Travis and I felt like ourselves again. After taking showers in a clean hotel bathroom and doing a very hot load of laundry to rid the horse smell from all our possessions, we were ready to take in some culture in “the city of Mozart.” The rainy weather lent itself the opportunity to visit museums we would usually pass by. With the gem of purchasing the “Salzburg card,” we had 48 hours of museum admission and public transportation costs covered. It felt like heaven to be doing city things rather than farm work. Who would have thought that Salzburg had over 30 museums to visit? Our favorites were Mozart’s birthplace, the panorama museum, Salzburg’s art & history museum, and the museum of musical instruments.

As the hours passed by and the more immersed we became in the city, the further our minds moved away from the miserable memories of Gerda’s farm. Knowing we couldn’t stay in Salzburg forever, a pit of dread began to develop in our guts again at the thought of our next plans. We had two more helpx farm stays lined up to work, travel and discover a slice of Switzerland and Germany. Regardless of the allure of seeing Switzerland and the magnificent Alps, Travis and I could not get ourselves to go to the train station to buy our tickets. For one, we discovered too late that train tickets to Switzerland were much more expensive than we first anticipated. What if we spent the money and took the 7-hour trip only to discover that these new hosts were wackier than Gerda? We’d be stuck again in a small town with no out and no freedom to see and experience the environment as hoped. Secondly, although we did have some fantastic helpxing experiences with some of our hosts in England and Italy, we had to admit to each other that we just plain didn’t want to do it anymore. The thought of standing on a train station curb one more time waiting for our new host to pick us up sounded unbearable. Seven times now we’ve lived through this scenario, silently wrapped up in our own worries of what type of personality this host might have, what the accommodations would be like, how much food we’d be served, and the question of how much access we’d have to the outside world while we were there. The thought of the work itself was never the problem as we have both enjoyed the variety of tasks we’ve learned and accomplished these last few months (with the exception of the horse manure). But these hosts… what might we encounter next?

With just one more night reserved in our hotel in Salzburg and our Switzerland hosts expecting us within a day, we had to do something, and FAST. But what? If we didn’t go forth with the helpx plans, what could we afford? Where might we be able to rest our heads for the remaining month of travel and still experience and enjoy the culture that surrounded us? Well, after hours of brainstorming together and working out our budget, what sounded most desirable to us was renting a short-term apartment in a nearby city. If we used the money we had originally planned for our traveling around Switzerland, we’d be able to swing a month’s rent (at the right price). Because our flight back home originates from Frankfort, Germany, to keep the prices of train travel down we wanted to settle somewhere between there and Salzburg. So, what’s along this route? Munich, Germany!

The Internet is an amazing thing. Thank goodness our hotel room in Salzburg had free wireless. We went right to work researching apartment rentals and sending out inquiries on everything from studio apartments on realtors’ websites to shared-flat rentals on Craigslist. Because it was Sunday, we had to be patient in waiting for reply emails, all the while knowing that we had to check out the next day and make arrangements for our next night somewhere, Munich hopefully. With much anticipation we woke up Monday morning to a full inbox of emails, and surprisingly availability and many good deals were to be found. But, this is before we realized that Craigslist is plum full of scammers. Wow- take great caution when using this classified search engine. We actually naively followed one lead and got ourselves to Munich that Monday afternoon to see a place. By a total blessing we discovered just in time that the place didn’t really exist, the deal was too good to be true, and the person behind the ad was only after our security deposit. We then examined the multiple craigslist responses more carefully and it became clear that all but one were well thought out scams. How disheartening. We felt tricked and deceived and wondered if we’d find a place after all.

So, now we were in Munich, had booked a hostel for one night, and wondered around the city streets trying to decide what to do. The city was lively and inviting, but what had we gotten ourselves into? We certainly couldn’t afford staying in a hostel every night (they’re not as cheap as you might think); should we have remained on the “helpx route” after all? Weary from travel and so tired of packing and unpacking our bags, we went to bed resting our hopes on that one email response that stood out from the rest. There actually appeared to be a real apartment behind the advertisement, and we made plans to meet the owner’s mother at the place the next morning. But, would she really be there?

With suitcases in hand (in expectation that we’d like the place), we boarded the train and took the 13 minute ride to the suburb town of Pasing, just west of the city center. We were met by Ms. Von Sivers, who gave us a warm welcome and a little tour of our new “home.” Yes, we were sold. At this point in our travels, I don’t think it would have mattered if the place had no beds or windows; all we wanted was to be in a place that was “ours.” No helpx host calling us on a cell phone, no random sister-in-law and her snoring boyfriend, no camels. Just the two of us, with the freedom and ability to end this year in the way we started it- living in a big city in Europe with the time to see and explore it’s many treasures. This felt like heaven.

This brings you up to date on where we currently are, and where we’ll remain until the end of the month when we return home. We’ve had a wonderful first week in Germany and have plenty to do and discover in our time here. So, to further drive the point home on why we wanted to make this stop in our journey the last of our year, here is the list of the day…


The number of beds we’ve slept in since August:

1. Madrid, Spain- Plaza del Sol apartment
2. Seville, Spain- Hotel Van Gogh
3. Granada, Spain- Rasputin Hostel
4. Paris, France- Hotel Bastille
5. LaAlberca, Spain- Pueblo Ingles resort center
6. Barcelona, Spain- AAE Hostel Subirats
7. Pals, Spain- Pueblo Ingles, Mas Salvi Resort
8. Barcelona, Spain- Barcelona Urbany Hostel
9. Lisbon, Portugal- Happy Hostel
10. Marrakech, Morocco- Riad Johanna
11. Marrakech, Morocco- Riad Dianne
12. Casablanca, Morocco- Hotel Ibis
13. London, England- Short-stay Holiday Apartments
14. Granada, Nicaragua- Hotel Corazon
15. Granada, Nicaragua- Homestay, Javiera’s house
16. Ometepe Island- Santa Domingo Cabanas
17. Leon, Nicaragua- Hostel Dona Marias
18. Las Penitas, Nicaragua- Coastal Cabanas
19. Matagalpa, Nicaragua- Hotel Fountain Azul
20. Matagalpa, Nicaragua- Homestay, Marlena’s house
21. Matagalpa, Nicaragua- our rented house from Angela
22. Granada, Nicaragua- Hostel Central (don’t EVER go there!)
23. Matagalpa, Nicaragua- J&L Hotel
24. Managua, Nicaragua- Managua Guest House (in February)
25. Antigua, Guatemala- Homestay, Juan Carlos & Johanna’s house
26. Panajachel, Guatemala- Mario’s Rooms Hotel
27. Quetzeltenango, Guatemala- Homestay, Ester’s home (we’ll NEVER return)
28. Antigua, Guatemala- Respeter’s short stay apartment/hotel
29. Guatemala City, Guatemala- the super-safe Airport Hostel
30. Managua, Nicaragua- Managua Guest House (in March)
31. London Heathrow, England- Yotel (4 hr. stay in airport hotel cubical)
32. Wymondham, England- Farmstay, Steve’s honeybee farm
33. Norwich, England- Seasons Hotel
34. Cambridge, England- Ryan & Kelly DuBois’s home
35. Attleborough, England- Farmstay, Rob & Robin’s home
36. Rome, Italy- Metro Hotel
37. Carassai, Italy- Farmstay, Hans & Lisa’s Agritourismo B&B
38. Rome, Italy- Hotel Luciana
39. Velletri, Italy- Farmstay, Paul & Paula’s B&B
40. Sorrento, Italy- Ulisse Deluxe Hostel
41. Monterchi, Italy- Farmstay, Peter & Lucy’s Villa
42. Siena, Italy- B&B
43. Padua, Italy- Al Ponte B&B
44. Padua, Italy- Guest House of nice Italian lady
45. Branik, Slovenia- Farmstay, Tjasa’s B&B
46. Lake Bled, Slovenia- Traveler’s Haven Hostel
47. Ljubljana, Slovenia- Hostel 3M16
48. Vienna, Austria- Happy Hostel Apartments
49. Melk, Austria- Farmstay, Gerda’s Camel Farm
50. Salzburg, Austria- Hotel Turnewirt
51. Munich, Germany- Hotel Modern
52. Munich, Germany- our apartment in Pasing!