Poland, Paris and Sicily

So long time no see.. A lot has happened at this side of the story since then. So after I left from Vrchlabí in the mountains, i luckily tested negative by the I went to prague for a few days. There I met some nice people in the hostel and even went to a jazz bar with nic music, which is always a lot of pleasure. I arranged to visit some friend's i knew from the Czech community I had been to and a friend of mine from wAgeningen, Moon, who just started her Erasmus in Brno. Before I left I met with a local girl from Prague who was super nice and showed me around some of the less touristic part of the city. She knew a lot about czech history and culture that it was almost an information overflow all she told me.

In Brno I had a really nice time with my friends. We went to a music concert of trans.. something and afterwards to a cool place where there were multiple jamming sessions in action and I met their friends. It was also really nice to see Moon and her roommates and one day Voytec showed all of us around in Brno and beautiful natural places. We visited their old home, the forest and I really enjoyed cycling to see this gorgeous bigger lake nearby. As I had already planned to do the a teaching week in Poland, i only stayed for a few days and then continued to Krakow.

From there the bus collected all polish youth and volunteers to bring us to a hotel together somewhere near Zakopane where we would stay for one week to teach them English and they would enjoy the Sting slopes nearby. The idea of angloville is to create an English speaking environment so everyday you would have about four hour long speaking sessions with one or two participants (between 13-18 years old) and then you could speak about anything you liked. In between there would be games and group activities planned and eating together. Although some were really shy in the beginning there English was mostly good enough to have good conversations which was sometimes really interesting. We talked mostly about hobbies, the school system, parenting, food, culture and traveling. In the evening after they had to go to bed we would chill with the other volunteers -10 from all different countries which was really nice to have such a diverse and open passionate group of people. Which was also super fun is that I also got to go to the sky slopes 1.5 days. I tried skying for the first time and after managing it quite well decided to go back to snowboarding for the last afternoon which I had already done a few times. Snowboarding is definitely more fun and challenging ;D. There was a wonderful sunset one day and the view on the snowy mountains was also great.

After this week I left quite exhausted with a few other volunteers who would continue next week to the same angloville week as me. We went out in ....... And got ready for the next week. This was somewhere in the hills in the forest, beautifully surrounded by nature. The second week was even more fun as more chilling with the volunteers was happening and also the participants were way more enthusiastic and interested engaged as the previous week. I had a lot of laughs, learned a really fun card game where it is forbidden to speak or explain any rules to anyone, also we could use the sauna every evening which is something I am quite missing now sometimes. I met some really nice people who i hope to keep some contact with.

After the finishing the week with the usual party, talent show and karaoke evening I spent one day with the other volunteers in Krakow, we did some nice dancing and ate ...... These are typical dumplings from poland Krakow filled with pork or potato and onion or other things. After that I went to Warsaw to visit a friend from the previous week of angloville. Warsaw was quite a beautiful city, very different from Krakow or the other typical city's as the center was super high tech modern with a castle surrounding the old historical centre.

Here i mainly planned the continuation of my travels and wandered around a bit which was good, as my friend turned out to be very busy with working life. I wanted to go south and visit a friend in Paris, so before going back I had to pass by one of my Czech workaway places to pick up some of my luggage. There i celebrated carnaval in a small party and danced on some crazy good jembe session and then took the Flixbus to Paris.

I visited Dounia, a friend in Paris for a few days. What a beautiful city! So many huge impressive buildings and diversity of people! Together with my friend I walked around the city, ate crepes, saw famous and less famous buildings. Sadly because of COVID it wasn't possible to visit any musea or eat out or anything but there was also enough to see just from thestreetside. Which was really nice was one evening I went with my friend to volunteer to collect left over food from shops and make and hand out sandwiches to the homeless people. This was a really cool way to see the city, help people and see what life can be like there. Apparently there are so many organizations giving daily food to the homeless people in Paris that they don't have as much hunger, more hygiene problems.

It was nice to catch up with my friend and also funny to see how quickly my French already improved in these four days.

Then I was on my way to Sicily! I had already planned a workaway adres there somewhere in the country side. Everything went smoothly with travels, the only sad thing was that it turned out I couldn't stay at the workaway place as long as I hadhoped,planned. The one week there was really good though! There was a group of five other volunteers who traveled together in a van and had a very possitive bright and crazy careless energy. We stayed with a family English Italian origin with two small kids who were building their off-grid paradise on these ancient lands. It was beautiful next to the river with loads of flowers, trees a garden, young chicks and some hills. We mostly helped with clearing unused parts of their land from brambles and bamboo which was actually a lot of fun. The food there was really good, home made pasta's and wild greens salad, picked from the weeds growing around. What amazed me about the land was that it is so rich in archeological remains of Greek and Roman times and in between. Even on their piece of land they found some golden coins and a few empty graves and remains of some church. On the side of the river an irrigation channel could be seen and the hosts also knew many things to tell about this. It was cool to see how they had build the house and everything themselves, after living in a yourt (big tent) for a long time. The kids went to some self organized school with the local community. With the other volunteers we went for pastries in the nearby village and did some singing, swimming and drawing.

After this week I continued alone to look for a new place to stay. I visited a beautiful cactus nursery and stayed in Siracusa some days to see the old town and try some more Italian food. I also talked to some of the guys selling self-made jewelry in the streets, many shells and also some with sea urchins. It was really cool to hear their stories. I have been trying to make some jewelry now with seeds and shells and they earn enough just to sell their stuff, and then they travel freely in the winter season.

I have been camping and hiking for a few days near Lido Di Noto with is also great fun. This is near the beach and a nature reserve with many flowers, beaches, some Greek remains and flamingos. Only the weather was not particularly good for camping as it was quite cold and rain and wind sometimes.

By now I was sometimes a bit tired of always having to find a new nice place through workaway which is quite some effort as not many people respond. That is also why I am looking for a place to stay a longer time like the last month or more until i will slowly travel back through italy to come back in the Netherlands by the end of may. There I will once again enjoy the feeling of home and close friends ;D. But now I am again in a new place which is quite a lot of fun and then the possitive vibes return quick enough.