Two Weeks in Germany - Life on the Farm

If you'd like to travel and experience different countries outside of the major touristy cities, you might consider doing a help exchange. You can find the website here.

June 10 - Leaving Copenhagen. Waking up at 5:45 made for a long day but I was excited to head off to my help exchange in Germany! Jake took me to the main station where I got some food at...Lagkagehuset! So sad that this would be my last stop there. I boarded the train and made my way to Hamburg...

...where I had a few hours to wait. Julie had contacted her friend Lea who lives there to see if she had time to meet and spend time with me. She met me at the platform of the train station and took me to a park...

She wasn't able to spend a lot of time with me but it was nice to have someone there to show me around a little bit. 

I had a train booked from Hamburg to Lüneburg, and from there to Dannenerg, where I would be picked up. There was only an 8 minute window to make the connection, which normally wouldn't be a problem since the trains were pretty much side by side. However, the train from Hamburg left 16 minutes late. Thus, a problem. I found a bus leaving an hour or so later and called Hans and Lisbeth to let them know I'd be arriving late. The bus ride was really enjoyable as I rode through small towns and country-side in Northern Germany...

Hans met me at the bus stop and took me out to their little farm in the little village of Prabstorf, population 37. But guess what?! It has a public trampoline! 

There's a town nearby called Gorleben , which is home to a controversial radioactive waste disposal site and attracts a lot of protests. The people around here hang big yellow X's on the homes and businesses as a sign of protest...

This is a really beautiful area of the world...

I spent two weeks helping Hans and Lisbeth with little projects on their farm and had a great time! I can say that I'm no longer afraid of bees. Lisbeth would probably disagree, as she saw me running away from one like a mad woman! But when it's a queen bee and like 6 inches long then ya, I'm gonna run away! 

My days looked like this...

7:15am Breakfast

8:00am Projects begin

11:00am Tea/snack time

11:30am More projects

1:30/2:00pm Lunch time, then free time.

Some of my projects...

Make strawberry jam...

Muck out a goose pen.

Clear out all the old and poopy hay...

(Representing Canada...)

Let the chickens inspect my work...

Lay down a layer of sawdust and new hay and...all done!

Ivy. Is it pretty? Yes. Functional? No.

So out come the shears and we have a door that easily opens now...

Plant tomatoes...

Basil...

Lettuce...

Do some epic weeding...

Rake some hay...

Stack some wood...

Trim a hedge. Before...

After...

Mow the lawn...

Drop a load of bricks...

Pick the currants. Stems off for jam...

Stems can stay on for juice...

Which we turn into jelly...

Herd the geese...

I spent many a day in gumboots and behind a wheelbarrow...

And left just as the raspberries began to ripen, how sad for me...

So basically, single farmers...line up! I know what I'm doing!

A few of my friends from the animal kingdom...

These little ducklings were born just a day or two before I arrived and it was amazing to see how much they changed in two weeks!

Hans and Lisbeth have a great outdoor kitchen with a wood burning oven, and they hosted a fabulous pizza night one night. There was a lot of preparation and work involved but we all had a great evening. We enjoyed some great food, and watched the Germany vs. Ghana game on the big screen in the barn. 

Ya, I know how to throw pizza dough properly...

(PS - I'm totally just pretending, in case you didn't catch on!)

I made Nanaimo Bars for dessert, and they were a big hit!

I mostly spent my afternoons just hanging out on the farm, or playing with Johann. 
This kid is so cute...

There were a few times when I biked 3km into Dannenberg and walked around town or got ice cream and the best and only ice cream place in town...

The 3km stretch...

I also had weekends off and took one day to bike into Hitzacker, which was about a 30km bike ride round trip. The weather was gorgeous and Northern Germany is pretty flat so it was pretty easy...

Over the course of two weeks I spent here I went from being called Lyshot, to Lysha, and then on my last day Johann finally got all three syllables down and full out yelled "A-LY-SHA!!" It was pretty wonderful! I had a great time with Hans, Lisbeth and Johann in Prabstorf and will miss them and my time there. They are a wonderful family and made me feel so comfortable and right at home.