Flora and Fauna

Maybe you will pick the location of your next Vacation Home Exchange, because it is near some wonderful display of either flora or fauna. There are many world famous zoos you might want to visit. Or maybe you want to see some of the many scenic gardens all over the world. The United Kingdom for one has spectacular gardens which many go to visit annually. In addition, England has their National Trust which is an expansive network of wonderful old homes and elaborate gardens. In fact, this network is well documented in the History and Landscape: The Guide to National Trust Properties in England, Wales and Northern Ireland by Lydia Greeves and HRH The Prince of Wales (Feb 1, 2006), available on Amazon.

I’ve also “just happened upon” very interesting displays of both fauna and flora in my travels. I delighted in walking around the corner in Crete on hot summer afternoon to find six dogs sleeping in the shade or the many cats we spotted on Santorini. Last summer on Sardinia I found a wonderful birding trip on an eight person boat, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and I am not a “birder”! The Italian “tour leader/boat owner” totally enjoyed the birds, and his enthusiasm was contagious. Luckily he had a good DK bird book in English, so the English speakers on board knew what we were seeing! The two donkeys pictured were working in Momenvasia, Greece.    

So for me, the fun of flora and fauna has usually been unplanned, but you will find many wonders of both to delight you!  I' love to hear of any flora and or fauna that have brightened your trips!

....And if I don't get back to this blog before February 4th-which I hope to-it is because I am away in Utah enjoying the Sundance Film Festival and some skiing at Deer Valley!

Next blog topic will be FOOD!!!

Friends you will make…..

No, I do not know who you will meet when you do a Vacation Home Exchange! But I can tell you about a few of the very interesting people I have met through exchanges and hope you will meet people like them!

Gloria walking her daughter's dog in Nice.

I had emailed Gloria, who had a lovely place in Genoa on www.homeforexchange.com. Then I decided that I didn’t want to go to Genoa by myself based on what I read on-line.  But Gloria and I stayed in touch, so when she was ready to buy a studio condo on South Beach in Miami, she emailed me for some advice about her contract. Last spring as my plans to travel to Italy came together, I emailed her to tell her in case we might meet. It turned out that she was going to spend August in her apartment in Nice, France, and she invited me to come spend three nights with her. We had a lovely visit; she was most charming and gracious! I told her she was like Martha Stewart, as she made some wonderful meals for me and some of her other friends. Now I hope that she will come visit me someday!

Earlier I had talked about the great fun of CouchSurfing! Recently I received emails from three other CouchSurfers (from India, Italy, and Germany). They were really just asking me some questions about CouchSurfing, rather than actually surfing! Barbara, who lives in Germany, is ten minutes from Stuttgart where my mother’s family is from. So next September, when I go to Europe, Barbara’s house will be my first stop!

I also mentioned in a previous post the three delightful British couples who lived in our neighborhood in Aquilas, Spain. This was the dinner party for Kathy's birthday party (pictured). I am in touch with one of them still and hope to meet up them either here or there one of these days! Tony loves New York, so I hope they will come to Boston!

Dinner with our Italian neighbors the day after the Disaster!

When I was in Cheltenham, UK, we met neighbors only when we went into the cul-de-sac to get water, since we lost water shortly after we arrived. Actually we mostly met the kids who were sent out for water! But the day before we left, the next-door neighbors invited us for tea, as we did meet one of them picking up water! They were very hospitable, and I wished that we had met them earlier, so I think it is a good idea to introduce myself when I arrive. It was certainly a VERY GOOD thing we had met the Italian neighbors in St.Raphael, France, last summer BEFORE the disaster occurred!

So I hope you will be on the lookout on your exchanges, and you also will make some wonderful new friends!

Next post I will talk about the flora and fauna!

Expectations….

Before you commit to your Vacation Home Exchange, you will want to think about what you want to do in that particular location. Sightseeing?  Enjoying local amenities such as boating, beaches, swimming, golf, horseback riding, or? Look carefully where the town is located so you will have enough to do. When I decided to go to Aguilas, I had not looked carefully at what the area had to offer. While l  did enjoy my exchange there, it was really off the “beaten path”, and there was not really much to do nearby.

Once you have committed to the Vacation Home Exchange, you will need to decide what you will use for transportation. In a major city, you would probably want to use public transportation. If you rent a car, then you need to decide what kind of car to rent, what company to use, etc. (For car rentals in Europe, I like http://www.autoeurope.com/. It is based in Portland, Maine and will ususally match prices from other rental agencies.)

Frances Mayes explains in her book A Year in the World how she and her husband took a year to travel around Europe. As they travelled, one of them wanted to sample different cheeses along the way, and the other one was trying desserts. By the way, this is a great book for travelers to read with wonderful descriptions of all they see! It certainly  made me want to follow their itinerary!

Whatever your expectations might be as you set off on your trip and exchange, you know that there will be many totally unexpected pleasures!

Next post will talk about the friends you will make when you do a home exchange!

 

Disasters-Natural and "Man made"!

Before I start talking about disasters as they relate to Vacation Home Exchanges,  I want to express how badly I feel about the Tucson tragedy and its victims! The horror of it all continues to confound us all. The only bright spot is the fact that Congresswoman Gabby Giffords seems to be making some amazingly positive progress. We can only hope she continues to heal!

Since I was an English major in college, I will often go to the dictionary to help start what I am about to write. The Oxford online dictionary defines disaster as “a sudden event, such as an accident or a natural catastrophe that causes great damage or loss of life”. Perhaps this definition is a bit strong for the “D” of my “A to Z”, but sudden events WILL happen during a Vacation Home Exchange.  The 1986 Oxford Dictionary defined disaster as a “a sudden great misfortune”, which I prefer! If the disaster does involve your exchange host, you will want to present to him or her what happened in a factual, unemotional way.  Accidents happen, and rationale people know this! Sometimes a disaster may only involve you or the people you are travelling with.

One day-actually the only day as it turned out-in Aquilas, Spain, Karen and I went to the beach for a swim. Unfortunately Karen connected with a jellyfish (or medusa in Spanish)! We had had no idea that there were any jelly fish at that beach until then! It was so painful for Karen! Luckily Jean, one of our British neighbors, knew what to do! She took a credit card and scraped it across Karen’s back to press out a stinger. It still hurt, but it did alleviate the pain somewhat! Kathy, our next door neighbor, had the pharmacist’s cell phone number, so she called him for help. He told us we needed to get After Bite (pronounced After Beetay), whose primary ingredient is ammonia. (Pharmacies in Europe often have some terrific remedies for minor aches and pains that we do not have here.) This was a natural disaster which could have happened to anyone. Here it was a case of “it’s who you know, not what you know!” Luckily Jean and Kathy had had experience with these dreadful stings to help Karen. If we had not known Jean and Kathy, we probably would have gone to the pharmacy or found a medical center.

Base where legs had "buckled."

In August 2009, my daughter Melissa and I did an exchange in St. Raphael on the French Riviera. We had been there less than a week when we experienced our “sudden great misfortune”, as we heard the most ungodly crash from inside the house. I rushed inside to see that the wall oven and the particle board cupboard it was on had fallen to the floor! Everything in the cupboard and glass from the wall oven was all over the floor. Luckily our next door neighbors had arrived that day, so I went over to ask if they could help pick up the wall oven. They came to our rescue fortunately! This was an accident; the wall oven had not been properly installed. My host did not see it that way, but that was the truth of the situation. (Remember when I said earlier to run, not walk, if you have any questions about your possible exchange host?)

This was very stressful for both of us, needless to say! Shortly before we left-and we did leave early-I emailed my host and told her what had happened. I expressed my unhappiness at what had happened, but I did tell her we had not used the oven. Nonetheless, she blamed us for what happened! Eventually her insurance company contacted mine, but we were innocent, as we had not caused this disaster!

So when or rather IF you happen to experience anything like a disaster, stay calm to sort out what has happened. The majority of Vacation Home Exchange hosts are rationale and understanding and totally ready to work through any problems that do occur. As Angela in Rome had said, “If something happens, let me know.” The implication was we’ll figure out a solution! So don’t worry about what might happen; enjoy your Vacation Home Exchange!

Actually after I returned home, I emailed two people with whom I had been emailing about future swaps to say that we had experienced this disaster, and I really could not think about a future Vacation Home Exchange right away. They both said they understood. Several weeks later, I emailed them that I was now ready to plan my next exchanges!

Thank you for your comments! My next post will talk about expectations for your Vacation Home Exchange.

About Clothing and Laundry on an Exchange

Probably one of the greatest advantages of doing a Vacation Home Exchange is that there is usually (at least) a washing machine available to wash your clothes. Personally I am not crazy about hand washing, although it is certainly better for our clothes, so I will always opt for a machine where possible!

When I was in Paris with Snagglepuss , I learned how to operate a European washing machine, which is different from the ours here in the US. Hopefully your exchange family will have left directions on how to use their machine, as Angela did for me in Rome last August. She even had pictures! It is not, as “they” say, rocket science, but it is different, so be on the alert for that!

I have also come to feel very comfortable with a limited wardrobe to simplify things. Not only does this keep my luggage weight down, but also it makes it easier to figure out what I am going to wear! (KISS!) I have read enough articles about packing and coming home with clothing you never wear! I am fine with the black pants and variety of tops to get me through my trips.

And when all else fails, if you need another article of clothing, you CAN buy it along the way!

I am still delighted that last summer I managed for three months with one expandable suitcase; it measured 9 ½” X14” X22”, the smallest in the set of three! Originally  I was using such a small suitcase because I had some flights on Ryanair, which requires your checked bag weigh less than 15 kilograms or about 33 pounds. Exceeding this caused a steep fine at the time. At this writing it appears that they are charging people 35 euros or roughly $50 per bag.

Most people use drying racks rather than driers, which, again, does save the wear and tear of our clothes. I’ve only traveled in the summer, when it has been easy to put the drying rack out in the sun. In the winter, I’d need to put the rack inside near the heating source and hope things would dry quickly! The pictures shows where we put the drying rack in St. Raphael, France.

I hope this has given you some ideas about clothing and laundry. My next post will look at possible disasters –both natural and man-made-when you are doing a Vacation Home Exchange! 

Check out Another Home Exchange Website!

Well, another "C" just jumped into my "A to Z" plan....as I wanted to let you know that there is another home exchange website http://homeexchanger.blogspot.com if you want to check it out to get another perspective! The author is based in New York City,which is fascinating in itself to me, as I love New York too!

And Then There Is CouchSurfing!

I had read about CouchSurfing but finally signed up for it last spring before I left for three months in Italy and Spain. Becoming a Couch Surfer really made my wonderful trip even more wonderful! Thanks to CouchSurfing, I met and made seven new and most interesting friends along the way! The following are just four of the hosts I met. I had a delicious lunch with Rita, a retired school teacher,  in her home near the Vatican in Rome. On a hot Sunday morning last August, Gianni (pictured)  invited me to see the biggest flea sale in Rome; then he helped me figue out how to get tickets for theBorghese. Monica, who has a weaving business,http://www.textilesoleil.com/ invited me for a gellato in Rome. Francesca asked me to spend a Sunday with her and her exchange student, as all of them spent day learning about and touring beautiful Sassari, Sardinia. (The picture show a Monarch butterfly on a bougainvillea in her yard, where she also has sixteen different fruit trees.) I spent three nights with Anne from Manchester, England, who has "retired" to a delightful sixth floor apartment over looking the ocean in Palma, Mallorca. 

Their website defines CouchSurfing as “an international non-profit network that connects travelers with locals in over 230 countries and territories around the world. Since 2004, members have been using our system to come together for cultural exchange, friendship, and learning experiences. Today, over a million people who might otherwise never meet are able to share hospitality and cultural understanding.”

CouchSurfing members share hospitality with one another. The hosts get to meet people from all over the world without leaving home. "Surfers," or travelers, stay with the host for no money and can experience the host’s life. Or, if you have a “couch”, as I did for most of my trip, you can meet for coffee or a drink. Many are put off by the name; I would guess that the majority of hosts have separate rooms for the surfers, rather than couches!

EVERY couchsurfer that I met was interesting and open to sharing their home, their city, and their story with me. They added an extraordinary dimension to my trip! Oh, I heartily recommend exploring couchsurfing to see how you might enjoy this experience! 

My next post will talk about Clothing and Dress Matters from the Exchange Point of view.

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Computers and Your Exchange....

And a very happy New Year to you and your family!

Often your Vacation Home Exchange partner will be leaving a computer in your exchange  home. Internet access is actually listed on the exchange information page on www.homeforexchange.com. This is much easier-and certainly cheaper-than going to an internet café! 

On my recent trip when I did three exchanges, two of the homes did have a computer I could use. At my first stop in Rome, I had wifi and PC access at all times.

In Sardinia, they had left their laptop with an air card, but it turned out that online access was very dicey, so I really could only get on line either late at night or early in the morning. It had to do with their internet carrier, which clearly was overloaded. (It reminded me of dial-up days!) They bought a finite amount of time; when they had used up their allotted  time in the month, they would not get internet access until the start of the next month.

 In Aguilas, Spain there was no computer and no wifi in the house. I had to be really creative to stay in touch with the “outside world”. I had been told that there were two bars nearby where I could use their wifi; all I needed to do was buy a drink-or in this case a tapas. My English neighbors told me about the library in Aguilas where anyone could use the computers for free. I went there several times and never even needed to get a library card! There was always someone there who could at least tell me the password, even though they did not speak English-and I, of course, spoke no Spanish!

During these exchanges I took my new-less than three pounds-Acer Aspire One, which was perfect for this trip! It did not have an E drive, but I really did not need it. I loved the lightness of the Acer!

Depending on how long you will be away, you might want to sign up with a local internet provider and getting an AirCard. An AirCard connects to your laptop via an USB port, PCMCIA card slot, or Express Card slot. Some time these AirCards are also called “WiFi dongles”. I tried to do this in Spain, although I had been warned on-line that wireless plans in Spain were ever-changing. In addition, with my very limited Spanish,  I could not understand what I was buying. So I went with the library and the neighborhood bars!

 You will find much more information on line about AirCards.

 In my next post, I will talk about couch surfing. If you want a preview, you can check out www.courchsurfing.org