After our relaxing vacation on Crete we took an over night
ferry to Athens.
We had two short days there. The only thing we had planned to see while there was
the Acropolis. Like Pompeii
we ended up going in a back entrance, although this time we didn’t try to sneak
in and were honest civilians. We paid a tour guide so we could learn about what
we were seeing. Paying extra for the tour was well worth it, she was good and
we learned a few things from her. The following day we had a flight back to Rome.
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| The Acropolis |
The farm we were at for 31/2 weeks before we went to Greece invited us to come back and stay for a
few days before our international flight to San Juan,
Puerto Rico. The location of their farm was
easy and familiar to get to from the airport. I was unable to use my computer
at their farm so I haven’t blogged about our stay with them yet.
They are a family of 3 including Sanda, Guilliume and 31/2
year old Son Dario. Sanda is from Serbia
and Guilliam is from France.
They met in Italy
and decided to buy land and build a life together there. We all found it very
easy to be in each others company. Dario took an instant liking to both Lucas
and I. He’s an intelligent little boy who speaks French with his Father, Hebrew
with his mother, Italian with both of them, and by the end of our stay he was
communicating with us in English. His favorite phrase is “do you want to play?”
He says it in such a way while shaking his head yes and sometimes winking at us;
we were unable to say no to him.
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| Our pal Dario! |
Our biggest attraction to this farm was that they are
building their dream house using “green” principles. They are also doing most
of the work themselves. I find this remarkable since neither one knew a thing
about building before starting this massive project. It’s taken them a long
time but they are finally nearing the end. The old house that was there before
was built with stones found on the land. They have a massive pile of beautiful
stones we would pay a fortune for in the States. With Lucas being a stone mason,
He and Guilliam came up with the idea to use some of those stones to build a
large retaining wall. Lucas spent most of his time there working on the wall. They
also asked him to use instead of cement something called Calce. This product is
similar to cement but stronger and less toxic. It’s what the ancient Romans
used years ago to build all the things that are still standing today. In Italy there is
a company trying to bring the use of Calce back. This stone wall turned out beautifully
and it will hopefully still be there in 500 years!
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| Lucas is putting in the final stone. |
While Lucas was busy building the wall I did other work.
Sanda has a large beautiful garden. With all the energy she puts into being a
Mom and the house the garden was a bit out of hand. I spent a lot of days
weeding and clearing out beds for winter seeds to be planted. I also helped
with the olive harvest, which took two full days. When finished we went with to
the plant to see the extra virgin olive oil made. For the first time we got to
try truly fresh olive oil. We were surprised how spicy it is. It’s amazing how
much flavor oil looses after just one year.
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| Doing the olive harvest |
This was the perfect farm stay to end our Europe
trip. After our streak of bad farms we needed a place we could feel at home.
Although there is many countries we would have liked to visit that we didn’t
have time for, Lucas and I are looking forward to a change. The Caribbean sounds glorious now that winter is here.
