After a relaxing 2 weeks in Valencia, it was time to get down to business...for those of you who don´t know about WWOOFing, it´s basically working on an organic farm in exchange for accomodation and food, no money involved. From my last experience in France 5 years ago, I expected fairly repetitive work, basic but healthy food, and lots of quiet hours sitting in a field with my book....I could never have anticipated what I got instead! El Jardin Tropical is a ´finca´(small vegetable/fruit farm) nestled in the grand mountains of Almuñecar, so far south of Granada that you can see [View Full Entry]

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The camino has left me limping, feeling sorry for myself, and unable to continue...so where to next in beautiful Spain? Not wasting a minute, made a quick call to English friends Clare and Steve in sunny Valencia, and I´m booked in for two weeks of intense Spanish lessons to fill up my September. And intense they were! Valencia, birthplace of paella (originally made with rabbit, not seafood), surprisingly lacking in cheap fresh orange juice, but sufficiently student-ridden and laid-back, was the perfect place for my language sabbatical, made all the more welcoming by the chance to hang out [View Full Entry]

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When I jumped on a 7am train to Pamplona, bleary-eyed after 1 hour sleep from my stay in Madrid´s sweltering heat, I was pumped. I´m going on the Camino, a centuries old pilgrimage through the north of Spain, and this is the first stage! After a day wandering around the quaint old town of Pamplona, including a turn down the Encierro(where the bulls run), this electricity in my veins turned into anxiety...uh, why am I doing this? After looking at a map of the entire length of the trail, 700km to Santiago de Compostela, it seemed a little overwhelming for little [View Full Entry]

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