During our Europe backpacking trip, one of the loveliest and most meaningful moments we had were at the three volunteer jobs in Croatia and Montenegro. We didn’t just spend time with nice people and did fun things together but we also learnt a lot of useful things.
The first job we got from WWOOF Independents was harvesting olives in Potirna, Croatia. The jobs was not paid. The host just provided us with accomodation and food.
After saying goodbye to my parents-in-law, we took a boat from Split to Vera Luka. I got so sick when arriving because there were a lot of wind and the waves were so strong that day. Markus, the host of the job, had been waiting for us at the deck already when we arrived. He said many people got seasick like me because there were often such strong waves.
My first impression of Markus was he looked like Rubeus Hagrid in Harry Porter, except he was not as tall and his hair has more grey. He looked fierce from the outside but he was kind and fun. Markus has a wife and a son nearly one month old. They were not Croatian but Dutch. They bought a land in Potirna to built a house and raise some animals and an olive field. Markus also had a partner, Zan who looked real Dutch. After I got enough fresh air, Markus took us to Potirna. The trip from Vera Luka to Potirna didn’t make me feel better at all because the road had many turnings. The first week, there were only us as volunteers. But after that, two other French and a couple of Australian arrived. Even we are quite different but we had a lot of fun when living and working together.
Because the house of Markus were still under construction so his family stayed a bit further at a beautiful beach where his wife’s friend lent them her house. And us, at first we stayed in the caravan of Zan because he was not there. But after two weeks, we moved to a big tent at the back yard.
The land of Markus was quite large. Before the under-construction house was a garden with some flowers and vegetables. Behind the house there were a yurt served as a living room, a library and a kitchen; an outdoor dining place, lounge and cinema, two warehouses, a bathroom, a toilet and a mini-farm for raising poultry and cattle. We loved the yurt. It looked cool and interesting. We would love to have one for ourselves later. The bathroom was a bit uncomfortable for the season because there was a lot of wind at that time but it would be a nice idea for summer. The toilet was an environmental friendly one. It was a sawdust toilet. You may think “eurr, it’s dirty and stinky” but no it’s not. Try to do some research about it. I think its the best idea for saving the water resource because the water is not unlimited. In Somali, people are in thirst and we use a lot of water to flush the toilet. Such a waste. But of course it’s quite difficult to apply widely.
The routine jobs were feeding the cats (there were 5 cats or more including the wild ones), having breakfast, feeding the chicken, walking the goat, feeding the dogs, harvesting olives, working on the vegetables, walking the dogs, feeding the goats and milking the goats. Sometimes, we cleaned the farm as well. Usually Markus prepared lunch, I did that sometimes but for dinner we took turn to prepare with the food provided. In the evening, we usually sat together to have a drink, talked about the day and had some jokes.
Each of the dogs, cats and goats there had its own name. After 2 days, we already could recognize and remember the names of the goats. They were smart and had their own characteristics. The most interesting job for me was milking the goat. I was the only person who was trained to do this job. I was a bit scared at first because the goats were quite aggressive as they didn’t know me and I didn’t know how to milk. But after some days, everything went well. The milk would be kept to make cheese or to be sold. I learnt how to make my very first goat cheese there.
Harvesting olives was very fun even it was quite hard at first because we were not used to it. Markus told me that “You would dream of olives after some days.” At first I laughed at that but after some days, I realized that it was true. I dreamed of harvesting olives and started to be addicted to the job.
Our first result of olive oil harvesting was 55l oil out of 330kg of fruits. The percentage of the oil from the fruit was 16.5%. We were really happy because that's pretty high. So we had a small oil tasting party. Real fresh and good. I think it was the best olive oil I have ever eaten.
And one of the most interesting experiences I had there was bringing the olives to the mill. The smell of olive there would take your breath away even when you just arrive. I would love to stay there the whole day to enjoy that smell. Amazing.
On Wednesday, we usually had some bbq party for lunch in the field. It was wonderful. What could be better to eat bbq, drink some beers and had good talks under the olive trees?
For the evening and weekend, we were free so we could go to Vera Luka to do some shopping, to discover the place; to the beach in Potirna, collecting some figs or madrones (a type of berry) to make jam, hiking together or simply watching a movie together at our outdoor lounge.
We had a great end season party together when the parents of Markus and the neighbors also joined us. The main food of the night was the bbq goat legs. Markus and I marinated them the day before. And that day, we had them bbq on fire that afternoon while listen to the music provided by DJ Markus. It was such a fine party evening we had.
We also helped some neighbors of Markus to harvest their olives as well. We didn’t get paid for that but they offered us delicious local dishes for lunch or or dinner.
After the Australian couple and the French guy left, only us and the French girl stayed to help Markus with the grape and vegetable field he had in Blato. It was not as fun as the time harvesting olive because it started getting colder and colder and there was rain as well. But we didn’t stay there too long because we had to leave due to our visa. We were there one month totally.
The second job we got from HelpX was doing gardening in Virpazar, Montenegro.
This time we stayed with a nice British couple with three cute kids. We stayed in a villa which were rebuilt from a badly damaged stone house. This villa was next to the house that the hosts lived. The villa was served as accommodations for rent in holiday seasons. Because of that, it was a very nice and comfortable place for us. We were not paid for the job but they gave us some remuneration for food shopping and we cooked ourselves. They even let us use one of their jeep for transportation.
And the villa had a wonderful view over the village and Skadar lake. It was great to wake up with such a wonderful view everyday.
We just worked from 8am to 4pm from Monday to Friday so we could discover the area during the evening and the weekend. There were a lot of beautiful places in the area. At the last weekend we were there, the host took us to a very special place, the Starceva Gorica Monastery on Starceva Gorica island next to the western shore of Skadar lake by kayaking. I wrote about Virpazar in another post. We stayed there two weeks totally.
The second host introduced us to their friends (British and Australian) in Stari Bar, Montenegro to do our third job, helping them to do some work for completing the building they were working on. Their project was a great one, a hostel which was renovated from a badly damaged big stone building and it were opened the following summer. They did a lot of things themselves.
The working time there was flexible. If we were not on the mood, we didn’t need to work and could do whatever we want. But we would love to help them as much as possible. It was great when we could stay, get to know those young but energetic, humorous, talented people, enjoy the time with them and their delicious food as well as learn from them those precious skills. We did admire them for what they could do.
Actually, we just wanted to do volunteer jobs to avoid staying in the thin and small tent we had in winter, to learn different skills and to experience the time with local people at first. But in the end, we didn’t stay with any locals (there were almost none local people offer volunteer jobs in these countries) but we gained priceless experience, learnt a lot of things, met nice people and had a wonderful time as mentioned. What’s more to ask for? If anyone asks me if they should do volunteer jobs when travelling, we would definitely say yes. And of course we would love to do it again in the future with our kids as well.
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