Tour Cycling, CouchSurfing and WWOOFing

WWOOF is something that I have though of doing since I was told about it in 2007 by my boyfriend at the time, Peter. The concept is to work on an organic farm in exchange for food, accomodation and potenially other kick backs such as, internet.

CouchSurfing is a community where one can find accomodation for a night or two in many places with a host.

Tour Cycling is a great way to meet people, stay fit, learn languages and experience a culture.

-------------------------------------------

During the 2009/2010 winter, I was working in Kvitfjell in Norway. This is about 50 or so kilometres north of Lillehammer where the World Cup site for Down-Hill Skiing is. Here I worked in Gudbrandsgard Hotell (GGH) as a bar tender. It was my second season. I had to plan what to do for summer. Although I had 100 000 plans or ideas, I chose my first concept of cycling around Scandinavia.

Last year I cycled and took the train from Gøteborg in Sweden to Balzano in Italy and to Frankfurt in Germany. The goal was to learn and improve on my German an Italian while I was studying them at University, work a little and buy a little time while I waited for my second season at GGH to begin. Overall it was an AWESOME life experience. I am especially glad to have practiced my Germand and Italian, but I was dissapointed for several reasons.

One - I took the train and used hostels more than I needed to.
Two - I did not explore Norway.
Three - I did not give myself to freedom to work where ever I wanted to and obtain multiple visas.
Four - I felt I did not meet real people from each country in general.

I wanted to change these negative outcomes and build onto a new exciting adventure. This was the feeling during and after my stay in Kvitfjell...

After my second season at GGH, I felt dissapointed. Do not get me wrong, I met and made friends with the most wonderful, kick-arse people; I went off-piste skiing, I practiced much German, improved my Norwegian a little, went snowboarding and enjoyed myself. But, I ended the season not at all experiencing the Norwegian culture and interacting with Norwegians as a majority. Sure, I had Lars and Vips, but I worked and lived with every other nation other than Norway. This left me a little ambitious to meet more Norwegians. I wanted to learn from this and add to my adventure to obtain MY OBJECTIVES of waht I WANT to gain from my adventure in Europe. So - Plan A: Cycle Scandinavia.

I thought of ways I could meet people in Scandinavia. Of course, cycle. How else?!?! I decided to try CouchSurfing and WWOOFing. I must admit I was very scared to try this. I do not know the people. Would I be waking up with one less kidney? Would I be used as slave labour?

After swallowing my fears, I tired it out. I conacted my first CouchSurfing host after Daniel in Belgium. Constanza, a wonderful woman from Uraguay. This experience definately gave a standard of what CouchSurfing was to be. On the way I met many people. These people gave me a wonderful experience of Norwegian culture and also helped me to learn and improve my Norwegian. After my trip along the coast of Norway, I went along the coast of Sweden and now am in Denmark. All of these people have helped with my language skills and my unerstanding of the European cultures. This is my summary of them - I hope it is okay and not at all offensive or incorrect (please tell me if it is):

April 2010 - Norway
Geithus with Constanza - the two immigrants
A farm in Gol with Embrik - the farmer

May 2010 - Norway
Haugesund with Knut - the young worker
Flekkefjord with Lasse - the fisherman
Kvinesdal with Erling - the teacher
Lyngdal with Sandra - the young traveller
Mandal with Beate - the single mum
Kristiansand with Ivar - the bible school students
Arendal with Nathalie - the international student
Skien with Guro and Inger - the recent RUSS students of 2010 and 2009
Tønsberg with Hilde - the hippies
Fredrikstad with Aina - the young family
Halden with the Joakim - the enthusiastic traveller

May 2010 - Sverige
Grebbestad with Lars - the Swedish farmer
Stenungsund with Martin - the stylish one
Gøteborg with Gustav the Great - the party man

June 2010 - Denmark
Ålborg with Felix - the masters student

CouchSurfing has been the best way for me to achieve all of my goals. Next WWOOF.

WWOOF is a wonderful concept. I lost my virginity to on a property in Nordjylland (North Jutland), near a place called Horne. I stayed with newly weds, and his three children. The experience was about ten days. We fixed a fence, maintained a small vegetable garden, mowed and wipper-snipped the lawn and tore down sections of wall in the house. It was labour work and a great pause from studying - exactly what I wanted on these two fronts.

What I want to do now is find another host. However, I have learnt to find hosts that offer what you want. As one can read I enjoy languages and being active. The host I had in Horne only spoke English, which took a large goal away that I wanted. Yes, it was refreshing to talk in detail about some subjects, but not essential and at the same time, I am cycling around in order to learn Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and to improve my German and potentially improve my Italian. Athough my English will be weaked, it will never be completely lost. I enjoy the sense of understanding where people talk to me in another language. That was the major negative about my experience in Horne.

The WWOOF experience left me wanting more. The language thing is one. Also I want to work on a large farm. I want to learn how to maintain crops or care for animals. I have not done this before, perhaps I will love it and want to do more of it. I want to experience many fields of work, subjects of study or arts and so forth. Life is short, I am not desiring to be wealthy, but I desire to live my life as much as I can and I know cycling around, using communities such as WWOOF and CouchSurfing will allow for me to achieve this!