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!