The countdown begins.
For those of you who may not have heard, we are traveling to Europe for ten weeks to participate within the WWOOF Program. Short for “World Wide Opportunities On Organic Farms”, the WWOOF Program connects participants with hosts to work on organic farms in exchange for shelter and food. The places we decided on were the Netherlands (Hallo!) and Finland (Hei!).
In less than one week we will be working for a macrobiotic market distributor Peaceplanet Netherlands located in Castricum, Netherlands. It is run by a man named Hansa and his wife. According to their website, we will be filling bags with grains, watching grandkids and making pies with no sugar. Basically, our whole lives have led up to fulfilling these tasks.
After our four weeks in Castricum, we have two weeks to do anything in Europe. Really, anything–with all of terror and excitement that comes along with being alone in foreign lands. Our sights are set on Germany and possibly England or France.
Our next destination will be Korpilahti, Finland to work on a bee farm. They harvest delicious honey and make all sorts of bee related products–which you can probably buy from their website here (but we’re not sure as we don’t speak or read Finnish). It should be an exciting experience–especially for Brian as we are not sure if he is allergic to bees or not! Luckily, there are a few gardens and greenhouses that need maintaining as well.
Due to all of the traveling, we have been reduced to taking one carry on bag each. For ten weeks. We have spent a few days trying to determine what necessary materials will fill our two backpacks. Stories of washing our clothes in hostel sinks and skeevy laundry-mats are soon to come. We expect to morph with our packs at some point over these next ten weeks.
OUR LIVELIHOOD
Before we arrive in the Netherlands, we will be stopping in Reykjavik, Iceland (Halló!) for a free 3 day layover. With less than 48 hours before our departure, we are still have no idea of what kind of adventure we have set in motion. But we are exciting to share our adventure with you along the way.
-S.B.
Stone and Brian Left 