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Published: August 13th 2013
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Goodday from Pietra Ligure, Italy!
For those who didn’t know yet: “I left my job in Curaçao and left the island for another adventure”! I will be travelling and working around the world...just doing what I love to do! I don’t know yet for how long that would be, so I paid an insurance just for two years. Since I finished my first work & travel trip from 2007 to 2009, I always said I really wanted to do it once again. If everything goes as planned, after Italy I’ll be visiting 15 countries from September until February….then I should be in New Zealand, where I want to stay a couple of months to travel but also work and save some extra money. In July I got my Working Holiday Visa for New Zealand approved, which means that I’m allowed to stay up to 12 months in the country and work legally, but not for longer than 6 months for the same employer. It’s the same kind of visa I had for Australia back in 2007/2008.
Leaving Curaçao was harder than I expected….leaving family and friends behind, especially my nephew and niece! But I’ll be back soon!!!
The reason why I made such a drastic decision is just to do what I love to do: “Travel the world”! I’d prefer to say that I’m going on a long field trip to improve my Geography knowledge, haha! There’s still too much out there I really want to see and experience. I’m also really looking forward to meet some friends and acquaintances during this trip.
I left Curaçao towards Amsterdam, where I spent about 10 hours at a cousin’s house and I met my sister too. Later that night I flew to Milan where I spent one night in a hostel. The next afternoon I took a train towards Pietra Ligure in Liguria. That’s the name of the little city where I work, located along the coast at the so called “Riviera dei Fiori”. There are several little cities along the coast, including Sanremo, Alassio and Savona. All of them are somewhat touristy. Having cities like Turin and Milan in their backyard means that this coastal area will be always visited by city dwellers seeking sun and sea for a short period of time without having to go too far from home!
Last February I
had a job-interview through Skype with a Dutch company who recruits employees for camping-sites around Europe. Language knowledge is important since I had to tell about myself in English, Italian and Spanish….the interview itself was in Dutch of course. I was immediately accepted and the company found a camping-site for me. I’ll be working here until the end of August. I work as a receptionist and my tasks include: Answering phone calls, answering e-mails, check-in the guests, give general and touristic information, show the guests their mobile home or available spots for a tent or caravan, late in the evening I drive around the place with a golf cart to check if everything is all right and especially to make sure people don’t make too much noise after 23:00. There is a little variety in the job which is great. I have one day off a week, during which I just relax or visit attractions and other little towns in the area. I went to Finale Ligure for example, where the beaches tend to be a bit nicer and the water is clearer! With some other people on the camping site I visited a waterpark in Ceriale called "Parko Acquatico
Le Caravelle" which was cool. Those who know me well, know that I like waterparks a lot!!! A visit to the caves "Grotte di Borgio Verezzi" was also worth it: Big and impressive caves, very interesting!
In the beginning it was a little bit difficult being here, as the camping-site is very boring: Little animation / entertainment, lots of elderly people and little kids. There are not many colleagues and those who are here, go home and sleep after work so I didn’t really have people to hang around with. I was happy to host three Italian friends who came to spend a few days here and they came with some of their friends, a Dutch friend also came along and also two family members came for a couple of days. All of them are friends I met while travelling in Australia and in Croatia. During their stay we went out, went to the beach, cook and eat together. After about two weeks I got a bit more familiar with some people and families who are staying the whole summer on the camping-site.
On the 15
th of August it’s “Ferragosto”, a national holiday in Italy with its origin
dating back to the Roman Empire. Most Italians have some days off before and/or after August 15
th and for this period we’re expecting a lot of guests, therefore we won't have any day off during this week. All by all, it is a nice experience being here and my Italian improved quite a lot!
Pietra Ligure itself is a small city with a bit less than 10.000 inhabitants. It has a nice, colourful historic centre and it’s right at the beach. The beaches are ok, the water is clean and clear but not as beautiful as in Curaçao of course. There are two clubs nearby which I visited but since I work until late, especially during weekends, I’m not able to go anymore (which is not a problem because it’s a bit expensive). The weather is mostly warm and dry…we’ve had temperatures up to 40°C. So far I saw some rain only 4 times during the 6 weeks that I’ve been here so far.
In the meantime I had time to book and prepare some other stuff for the trip! In the next blog I'll be telling about my lasts couple of days at work and
about my visits to Genoa in Italy, Monaco and Nice in France. On September 1
st I'll fly out of Milan to another country!
Thanks and till the next time!
Elton
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Narda
non-member comment
:)
Hey Elton, fijn dat je je draai hebt gevonden in Italië, maar het zal niet lang meer duren, nog tot maar 1 september! Ben heel benieuwd waar je daarna heen gaat. Misschien kunnen we ergens ontmoeten, want ik denk dat ik die week een weekje vrij ben. En dan wil ik nog wel een paar dagen weg. Dus laat me weten wat je plannen zijn en waar in Europa je dan bent! Misschien kruisen onze paden :)