Citizens of the World: A Stoic Podcast for Curious Travelers - Workaway:How to Live Like a Local and Travel the World Through Work Exchanges

Episode Date: November 3, 2018

My friends Daniel Bakken and Alinne Fernanda have been traveling the world together for nearly two years. They saved up their money before hitting the road, but its volunteering through a hospitality service called Workaway that’s financially enabled them to keep traveling as long as they have. If you listened to my episode on house-sitting your way around the world and other free accommodation tips, you heard a little about Workaway.   In exchange for a few hours of work a day, the hosts you find through Workaway will give you free room and board. But this experience is not just about scoring free accommodation or providing free labor. This is a cultural exchange in which the hosts and the guest workers get to learn from each other.    On this episode, Daniel, Alinne, and I talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to work exchanges. But it’s mostly good. Fantastic, in fact, according to Daniel and Alinne. By the end of the show, you will know how to travel the world via Workaway. And I’ll share Daniel and Alinne’s top tips for making Workaway a great experience on postcardacademy.co I’ll also share photos of them literally working their way through Europe, and they’ve been to some pretty unforgettable places.    Thank you so much for listening to this show. I know you’re busy and have many listening options, so it means a lot to me that you’re here. You are the best.   I’m your host, Sarah Mikutel. Ready to travel? Sign up for my newsletter and get your free guide to cheap airfare.    This podcast is brought to you by Audible. Not a member yet? Postcard Academy listeners can get a FREE audiobook and a 30-day free trial if you sign up via audibletrial.com/postcard   This podcast is also brought to you by World Nomads. Need simple and flexible travel insurance? Get a cost estimate from World Nomads using their handy calculator at postcardacademy.co/insuranceDo you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free Conversation Cheat Sheet with simple formulas you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you’re in a meeting or just talking with friends.Download it at sarahmikutel.com/blanknomore and start feeling more confident in your conversations today.

Welcome to the Postcard Academy. I'm your host, Sarah Micatel, and today we are checking in with my friends Daniel and Alini, who have been traveling the world together for nearly two years. They saved up their money before hitting the road, but it's volunteering through a hospitality service called Workaway that's financially enabled them to keep traveling as long as they have. If you listen to my episode on How Sitting Your Way around the World and other free accommodation tips, you heard a little bit about Workaway. So in exchange for a few hours of work a day, the host that you find through Workaway will give you free room and board. But this experience is not just about scoring free housing or providing free labor. Workaway is a cultural exchange in which both the hosts and the guest workers get to learn from each other. On this episode, Daniel and Alini and I talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to work exchanges. But it's mostly good. Fantastic, in fact, according to Daniel and Alini. By the end of the show,

you will know how to travel the world via Workaway. And I will share Daniel and Alini's top tips for making Workaway a great experience on Postcardacademy.co. I'll also share some photos of them literally working their way through Europe, and they have been to some pretty unforgettable places. If you like this episode,

I would love it if you subscribe so I can share more great stories and travel recommendations with you. This episode is brought to you by Audible. Not a member yet? Why not? What are you doing with all of your travel time? Hopefully you are listening to this podcast,

but if you are looking for another great auditory experience, try Audible. You can get a free audiobook and a 30-day free trial if you sign up using the link, audibletrial.com slash postcard. And if you try out Audible, please let me know what you choose for your free book. I love hearing recommendations.

Now into my conversation with Daniel and Alini. Welcome, Alini and Daniel. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Thank you for having us. Thank you. Could you introduce yourselves? Where are you from? And how did you guys meet?

Okay. I'm Daniel. I'm from the United States from Wisconsin. My name is Alini. I'm from Brazil. And I'm a kindergarten teacher. That is so cool. So how did you guys meet?

Well, I was. working down in Brazil as a stunt coordinator and Alini was friends with one of the actors I was working with and so we met actually the first time during carnival.

What kind of stunts? Was this a movie or a theater and tell me everything? So this was a play and it was a zombie play. It was very successful, so it kept getting remounted, and I kept having to travel back to Brazil to remounted. What do you mean remounted?

So at first, this play was performed. It takes place in an abandoned nightclub, and we found an abandoned nightclub to kind of perform him as a found space play. And then that did well enough that they moved into a small theater a few months later. And then that did well enough that it moved into one of the biggest theaters in the city. And actually next summer, I'll be returning to Brazil because we're making it into a film. Oh my gosh. This production is like a zombie. It just keeps coming back. I still don't understand what you mean by Mount.

So you mean you're like helping to organize the set? What are the stunts you're talking about? Ah, so I choreograph and direct all the violence. Okay. It goes on in the play. I teach actors how to perform it realistically yet safely. What was your background for that? How did you get into that?

Oh, I was working as an actor for many years in Chicago and San Francisco. Cisco and I got really into stage combat. I would, because a lot of Shakespeare plays actually involved. You know, there's usually a sword fight or some kind of battle or two in any given Shakespeare action. And so I got really interested in stage combat, learned as much as I could about it. And now I teach it. Very cool.

And so Eleni, what do you remember about me? We didn't have so much conversation. It was a short meeting. We eat a burger together. What were we dressed like when we first met? Oh, that's fun. Was dressed like zombies? Daniel was a turturf zombie.

And I was dressed like Morticia Adams. So this was a zombie party? Yes, definitely. It was a carnival party and in Kurochie they do a giant zombie walk. A lot of zombies. How did you guys end up deciding you wanted to travel around the world together? So that started when I have my visa to US the night.

So then we look for another options to stay together in different places. And we decided it was just easier to travel together than to, you know, go through all the rigmarole of getting kind of a long-term visa in either one of our countries. Okay, so you guys had been dating for a while and decided you wanted to be together. Yes. Okay. And so, God, that's awful that things are so complicated for people who want to stay together that they end up just having to become nomads across the world.

But it sounds like it worked out for the best. Yes, I'm actually really pleased with the way it worked out. We've been traveling together for about a year and nine monks now. And yeah, I still love it every day. It's so different experience. We stay together in different situations and different countries. Where are you guys right now? Right now we are on the Greek island of Cirrus, working at a cat sanctuary called Cirrus cats.

That is so cute. I love cats. So how did you end up there? And how did you find this job? Ah, so we find all of these places through a website and program called Workaway. And that website is Workaway. Info. And what it does is just pairs up travelers with people who need a little extra help. And in exchange for about 25 hours of work a week, you'll generally get a place to stay

and meals to... I would love to talk a little bit more about how Workaway works. So you get room and board, but you guys don't get paid, right? No, there are some hosts that pay for extra duties, but in general, yeah,

you're just working for room and board. And it's about 25 hours a week, you said? Yes. Each, you know, you work out differently with each host, but in general, it's, yeah, five hours, five days a week. And Alini, how did you discover Workaway? How did you find that this was an option to help support your travels? In Portugal, in our first country, this friend, just saying, hey,

do you hear about Workaway, have some nice programs to help in your travels, to expand less money, and then we start research. And so how do you find Workaway jobs? So first, first, we decide which place we want to visit which country. And then in the website, you research first the country. And then there you put the kind of job you want to do work with animals, with kids, and farms, with elder people. Tell me about your favorite experience so far. So my favorite experience was in Italy and this Benedictian monastery.

And we worked there with 15 nuns. Everything there was surprised. We never imagined that nuns can be so open mind and so curious about your life. The way you travel, everything you know was really nice. What were you doing with the nuns? I was helping at the kitchen, helping with breakfast and preparing lunch. And Daniel was helping at the garden. and also general maintenance of the place.

We have many different jobs there because the nuns are pretty old, so they really need help with everything, like changing rooms, painting, cleaning, cooking. So it was a little bit about everything. And this was in Italy? Yes. The name of the city is Fabriano, up north, Italy. And how many other people are usually with you,

other volunteers are with you on these jobs? Is it usually just you and Daniel, or are there other workers too? Depends where they have more space like hostels or big farms. They accept more volunteers. So depends every place we work. Now we are working with another three volunteers. So we are five. What are your sleeping quarters like there?

So here we have our own little apartment. we're sitting in the little kitchen and living room right now, and we have a bedroom and a bathroom. And, I mean, that's generally how it goes. Sometimes you're in the house with your host, and you just have a room. We've worked cleaning holiday cottages, and we get to live in a little holiday cottage while we work there.

And sometimes we've been in, a large tent in someone's backyard. Or a caravan. Or a caravan. We've stayed in lots of caravan. Where was the big tent? That was in Scotland. In a city called pit lockery.

Ooh, it gets cold up there. I hope it was, yeah, it was the summertime, right? It was actually in the autumn. So it was just turning cold, but there was a little wood-burning stove in the tent. It was a very big tent, almost like a glit. Okay. Style tent. Like there was a king-sized bed and a dresser and television and a chair.

Electric blanket. Oh, an electric blanket, yes. They kept us very warm. So it was cozy. Yeah, that apartment you're in now sounds pretty swank. When we met in Sarajevo at the doctor's house, you guys were living in the laundry. in the laundry room. That's true.

And you never know. You never know, you never know, you know, really how it will be. Yeah. But gosh, that time, I had such a nice time with you guys over those two weeks that we were in Sarajevo. That city is just so special to me. And I don't know, maybe you experience this all the time. But I don't know. It just felt like such a.

family atmosphere. Like, I felt like I had spent a lot longer there than I did. I also felt like you guys had been there for a while. And I think you actually got there after me. But Daniel, you especially spoke with such authority that I was like, oh, this guy is the expert on everything. Is an actor. No. So I really enjoy those workaways where, you know, there is a social aspect to it. And the work away that we had done before, it was very isolated. Also an animal sanctuary. But in the middle of nowhere, Croatia.

And the host didn't have a car. So we were on this ranch for a whole two weeks straight. And I was just ready to get to know people and make some friends and have some human interaction. So I guess that's a good thing to keep in mind. for other people looking to do a work away type experiences. What are you looking for? Are you looking for something social? You know, in addition to the type of work, like, are you looking for something social?

Or maybe you do want to have like a little retreat by yourself and you want to be in the middle of nowhere? Yeah. And there's all different kinds of work on work away. And really what narrows it down is we choose a region that we want to visit. And then we see what kind of work is there. Like, we love working with animals, but even every so often need a break from them. Like, after this, we'll travel to the island of Milos and just kind of repair holiday rental places in the off season for a few weeks. And then we'll travel on to Crete for the olive harvest.

That is so cool. Do you have a profile on the site where posts can find you, or is it you mostly finding jobs that you want? It's mostly us working, though we've been on it so long now and have so many references and recommendations that hosts have started contacting us. Every year, I get really nervous about where we're going to be during the holidays because I always imagine people don't want to host, you know, people during the holiday. But luckily, someone reached out to us and asked if we wanted to come. said, we would love to, can we come during the holidays? And they were very excited about it. Where?

This will be in Tunisia. Oh, cool. So you guys will be in Tunisia for Christmas. Yes, Christmas in Tunisia. The city we're near is right on the ocean. So I have no idea where our specific house will be. And then we really won't know until we get there. It's an animal sanctuary and also an orange robe. Are there reviews for the jobs there?

Like if you have worked somewhere, is there a place for you to write up your experience? Yes. And if you look at our profile, not only will you see all the reviews of us, you'll also see all the reviews that we wrote of other people. And do you find that those are pretty honest, the ones that people write? No. Okay. Because here's the thing. I find that they skew very positive.

Yep. Okay. People are afraid to like. Right. Because like I write, you know, a less than stellar review. What I fear then is that the next person I contact to work will look at my profile, see that review and be like, whoa, this guy's going to come here and like, make a terrible review for me. I don't want So we

adopted the policy if it's not a five-star place we just don't review them at all. Okay, okay. If you have some problem in the halls, like the place you are, really

you can report to work away and actually need to do that because they really need to know what happens in a place. So if you have a problem that put your safety in risk, you should contact work away and tell what happened. If they also are not providing the things they put in their profile, you should contact work away. What would work away do? Would they just take them off the system? Or have you had any experiences like this? Yeah, we've had a few less than positive.

experiences. And one was so bad, we were going to write a review. We gave ourselves a few weeks to, like, cool off. We're like, all right, let's take this guy down. And then we went to his profile and it had already been taken down. Tell us what happens. Oh, sometimes people bring you on and they don't want to get to know you. They're not interested in you. You're just there to work for them. Yeah. Because the work away, they have disdivate. They have this in the profile is a cultural exchange. So as far people know each other

know the country, the cultural and sometimes this don't happen. People just want like a free worker some easy hands things like that. So this guy treated you badly?

Yeah, we feel like a little bit slaves there. Yes, the living conditions were less than ideal. Oh, come on, Daniel. Just tell us. Tell us what happened. He shut off the hot water.

Okay. Well, yeah. We didn't take a warm shower. And there were cold days where you're working out in the cold and you get dirty. Then you have to go take a cold shower. We have breaths in our room.

And I remember every day, every day, it was the same soup. for lunch. And the soup, I mean, it was good. That first, those first few days, I was like, all right, the soup is all right. But, man, day in, day out, always thing to. I imagine you chopping wood in a very frosty place and then living in a basement with rats and then just coming out for your soup.

Yeah. And a lot of times it comes down to like the personality, you know, of the host. Like, we'll overlook like lots, you know, we'll go, we'll do the work and, you know, put up with less than ideal situations if you like the person, you know, that we're working for. Okay. Is easy work with nice people? Yes. Yes.

But general, people are nice. Yes. Yes. Yes. Most experiences are absolutely positive. But yeah, that's a good tip, I guess. If you only go for the five-star ones, because if they don't know five-stars, then you don't know exactly. People may just be too scared to say anything. Yes.

So very good tip. Is there a fee to use Workaway? Yeah, it's generally about for a couple's account, it's 40 euros a year. I don't know what it is for a singles account, but it would be something around that. Twenty-five years, may. Maybe. But, I mean, that pays for itself within your first week of working away. And so does Workaway manage visas or anything like that?

Not at all. And my advice is you are crossing a border or going to immigration. Do not mention Workaway. Okay. Another great. Because, yeah, some countries, you know, get very strange about travelers coming into work in their country. So we always just say we're here, you know, as tourists, and we have some friends that we're going to go stay with. Yeah, good idea. And I mean, I guess technically you're not getting paid, so you're more volunteers than anything else. Yeah.

And I'm guessing you have to navigate the Schengen zone. I have a podcast episode all about that. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. And that's why we ended up in the Balkans. And generally when we enter the Schengen zone, we like to spend our whole three months just in one country. Okay. That makes sense.

Get as much out of that country as we can. Visiting the places just like a tourist for so long. especially for me I do enjoy so much I like when we work we have a few hours we have some jobs

I found more meaning and then visiting the place because otherwise you know you're hitting the museums you're going to see the fortress what restaurant's number one

on trip advisor but here it's much deeper into the culture so which countries have you spent a full three months we were three months in Portugal and then we had to leave the shang

and we went to the UK which allows you to be there for six months on a tourist visa so we stayed for six months went to all four kingdoms and then Ireland uh huh went to Ireland for three months

then bopped down to Italy for three months and now we're in then we went through the Balkans to kind of recharge our Schengen viability and now we're in Greece.

And we're just doing the Greek islands for three months. That sounds amazing. So how far ahead do you plan where you're going to be? I generally like to know where I'm going next. So I always have one workaway in the future lined up. And sometimes, you know, mostly that's a good plan. But sometimes you're somewhere you want to extend. And you can't because some of the,

work away is expecting you. But that ensures that we explore all the parts of the country that we want to. We try don't fly so much. So this makes our plans more flexible because you don't have the right day to travel

our tickets already by we try to make plans flexible. Yeah, we're more bus and train people, I suppose. Love a good train. I've started to get into the bus this year with Flixbus is all over Europe from major cities to major cities. And that's super cheap. I went from Berlin to Krakow for like 27 euro and Slovenia to Venice. Like, yeah, super affordable way to go. What are you guys doing for travel insurance since you're a proper world nomads and don't really

know where you'll be a few months out? We have insurance in our credit cards, right? Yes, through our credit cards, we have travelers' insurance. Okay. That's basic plans, not so much. Yeah, nothing special, nothing fancy. And not good, we haven't needed to use it yet. You did go to the dentist, Daniel, in Vassum. Yes, I did go into the dentist.

But that was all kind of out of pocket. Okay. I had two root canals done in Montenegro. Oh, God. I know. It started in Bosnia. Oh, that's right. Yes, I started in Sarajevo with a lot of tooth pain.

And it was until I got to Montenegro. They were actually able to get in there and root at canal. Was that out of pocket as well? Yes. So I don't know how much a route canal cost in the state. In San Francisco, it was like $700 to $1,000 for a root canal. and it was less than a hundred euros in Montenegro. I know a great dentist in Budva speaks greatlyingly.

Well, good to know. So, yeah, I guess speaking of money and saving and all of this, so that sounds like a great deal. But since you guys are working for room and board and not making money, how are you budgeting for your trip? Did you just save a lot when you were in Brazil? Yes, we saved a lot before we started traveling. I ended up selling my car.

And really, discovering Workaway has really allowed us to kind of travel open-ended. We would not be able to do this without the Workaway programs. So what kind of work were you doing to able to, as you were planning your trip? Oh, well, I was living in Brazil, working as a stunt coordinator and in various other jobs in film and television and theater in Kurosciba. If you've ever taken a foreign language class and, you know, watched some terrible videos like, I'm going to the city. Do you want to come with me? I was making those in Brazil. And, oh, I loved it.

And I thought I would be doing that job forever. But the studio ended up moving to South Paulo. So all of a sudden, that job just dried up. Were you starring in these films? I was an actor. And they had their little troupe of actors, and they used the same ones for every project. So the first one was this kind of comedy sitcom. sort of

a rip-off of the office you know when we're all kind of like looking to the camera and you know having little asides and then the next one was a time travel adventure

where I was Vincent Van Gogh and then the next one was a kid show for really young kids and I was the dad And Alini, all this time, you were working as a kindergarten teacher. Yes, I was a teacher assistant with kids four years old. Very nice, like, ecological school. I was really happy working there.

So what kind of luggage are you guys traveling with these days? Are you backpacking it? Yes. we each have one large and one small backpack. And what's your most prized possession since you have been going about a year and a half with just two backpacks? Oh, man. My most prize possession is this big, comfy sweater that Alini knitted from scratch. Wow.

And it's very, and it's lovely and warm. and I haven't needed it for the past six months, but I carry it in my backpack anyway, because I love it so much. So you're currently in Greece, taking care of the cats. How do you spend your time when you're not doing your work? Ah, that's a good question, because that's really, I feel,

what the other half of work away is. You know, you do your five hours of work a day, and then I feel, I feel with the rest of your time, you should be exploring, you know, the place, you know, that you're staying. So we're here at Ceros, you know, that's an island. So, but it's quite a big island. There's quite a few villages.

And we've been to all of the villages within a hiking distance. And there's one big town, Arbopoulos. And we tend to go there every time we have a day off. The port is there. And so Cirros and Nirmopolis is the capital of all the Suclades Islands. Well, a lot of other islands kind of shut down in the off tourist season. Cirrus is going all year round. So there's a movie theater.

There's, you know, a proper stage theater there. Lots of bars, restaurants, things to do. Because, you know, sometimes out here in the sanctuary, it can get a little isolated. Well, that town sounds pretty cool to hang out in. So for the past three days, I haven't had cat cleaning duties. I've been harvesting olives because the landlord kind of poached me. Well, he asked the lady, you know, running the sanctuary, he's like, do you have a volunteer? You can spare to help me harvest olives.

That is really cool. Wait, you have to tell me a little bit more about this. How does that work? you're just picking them by hand? No. Oh, no. No. So we lay nets down under the trees.

Okay. And we have these large poles with kind of, there's a motor on one end. And on the other end is like this large kind of fingers, like a cone. It's called a French name, Kupepe, because really, really these fingers are just moving back and forth. So you shove this pole with these vibrating fingers into the tree, and they shake all the olives down onto the net, and then you gather them all up in the net.

And then filter out all the big branches and leaves. And then when the olive press opens at the beginning of next month, we'll take our whole harvest of olives down there. But it's pretty impressive. We got 50 kilos of olives from one tree. That is impressive. And so I hope that you'll get a little bottle of olive oil as a reward later on.

Oh, I've already got four liters. So there's no shortage of olive oil around here. So you've got a big backpack, a little backpack, and then four containers of olive oil. This olive oil is going to have to come with us. You guys mentioned the nuns before. Are there any other experiences that really stand out in your mind as like just being really speciality? Oh, I remember one. In Northern Ireland, we helped an elder man.

And he is amazing artists. And also he plays piano. many different instruments and was very nice experience. He has so much to share and we have so much like age gap. He's about 85 years old and was pretty nice. He was making an art exhibition and we helped turns the house in this art gallery. We turned his living room into makeshift art gallery because he was presenting some of his works. That is amazing.

We were in a very beautiful location, you know, hanging out with this very beautiful soul. He would tell us memories of the Blitz over breakfast that he had his whole life as an artist moving from England to Northern Ireland. and just about how he fit into the community. Small fishing village in Northern Ireland. That sounds so nice. And then you had time to explore the village. Oh, yeah, and walked along the coast. One morning we saw a baby seal,

and we had just been to visit the seal sanctuary, like the week before. So I called them. I'm like, there's a baby seal here in the beach. She said that's perfectly normal. Just don't go too near it. You know, why don't you walk back out there tomorrow and call us again, you know, send us a photo if it's still there. That sounds like Baywatch for Seals. Right.

What advice do you have for people who are going to be trying work away for the first time? Do you have any other tips that we haven't mentioned yet? Just to keep an open mind about everything, be open to new experiences, but also if you are uncomfortable someplace, don't feel that you have to stay. You know, and honestly, the best thing is communication with your host. You know, if you are unhappy, talk to them about it. I've known some people who are unhappy and just leave in the middle of the night. They just sneak out. Yes.

That's not our style at all. But really, some of the other volunteers we met have become some of our best friends that we've made on this trip. Oh, yeah, for sure. And also one tip is look for hosts that are local. or people that live in a place for 10 years or more, because then you can have more cultural exchange. There you learn a little bit of language, local language, customs, food, everything. That's a great idea, yes. I guess I will just reiterate what you just said, safety first.

And most of the experiences that you have were great. But there are some not good ones out there, but most of them are pretty. good, it sounds like. Mostly fantastic. And I mean, people always want to hear about the bad ones because that's, those are fun stories. Really, no, it's fantastic. The things we've

seen, the people we've met. Do you guys have an end date for your workaway journey? I have to go back to Brazil to work on that film next summer. So until then, you'll be floating around Europe. And Northern Africa.

And Northern Africa. All right. Well, thank you so much for chatting with me, you guys. Where can people find out more about you? Oh, Alini has a Facebook page called Crossing Meridians. And there she documents a lot of her travel experiences as well as just interesting facts about the places we've visited. Also, I try to tell how we're going to experience in each different place we visit. Okay, so you share photos and a little bit, you write a little bit about each experience.

Exactly. Very cool. All right. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to talk. And, yeah, and I hope we see each other soon. So I will be following you on Facebook to see the next locations that you have coming up. Thanks for having us, Sarah. Good night.

Thanks, guys. Bye. I love what Daniel and Alini say about getting to know a place beyond its museums and its best restaurants. Culture is also about getting to know its people and their history and the traditions of a place. And Workaway sounds like such a brilliant way to facilitate this kind of exchange. Visit postcardacademy.co for a roundup of everything we talked about today, including links and photos. And while you're there, you can sign up for my newsletter if you'd like for more stories and travel.

recommendations. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe if you haven't already and tell a friend about it. That is the best way to grow the show. That's all for now. Thanks for listening and have a beautiful week wherever you are. Do you ever go blank or start rambling when someone puts you on the spot? I created a free conversation sheet sheet with simple formulas that you can use so you can respond with clarity, whether you're in a meeting or just talking with friends. Download it at sarahmicatel.com more.