I used to be a fair weather hiker. I only wanted to hike when I knew it wouldn’t rain or get too cold, when I knew I wouldn’t get too muddy, when I knew I’d be able to get a good view from where I was headed.
All that changed when I started travelling. I realised that if you wait for the perfect hiking conditions, you’ll never go hiking at all. When you’re travelling, you only have a limited time in each place and you have to make that time count.
When we came home from Taiwan at the end of 2013, Luke told me that 2014 was my year. By that, he meant it was up to me to choose what we would do. Moving to Taiwan was his idea and though I chose to follow, it wasn’t an easy decision for me. Although I loved our year away in Taiwan, I felt homesick often and that feeling was always exacerbated by the stresses of teaching.
I loved the travel, I loved weekend road trips, I loved the independence and having our own home, and I loved Luke. But I wasn’t happy as a teacher and I didn’t want to be crawling through the week, desperate for the weekend. I wanted to make changes to our lifestyle. By the end of 2013, we were both ready to leave Taiwan.
Though I don’t think about it as 2013 being Luke’s year and 2014 as being my year, there’s no doubt that this year I was the one who put forward the idea of an alternative travel lifestyle as freelancers and house sitters. Thanks to Luke’s trust, our combined determination and perseverance, and the incredible generosity of strangers, 2014 has been the happiest year of my life.
We had no idea how much it would cost to travel in Poland. We signed up for the Angloville programme on a whim, got accepted and booked some flights. We didn’t plan our travels beforehand, except for a sketchy route.
Fortunately for us, Poland turned out to be a cheaper travel destination than many other European countries. It’s worth noting that our travel budget is so incredibly low because we spent 5 days of our 20-day trip on the Angloville programme where we received free accommodation and food.
If you ask someone whose never been to Poland what it’s like, they’ll tell you it’s all industrial and drab. And sure, in certain areas it is, but for the most part Poland is beautiful. What people don’t know is that Poland is home to quite an array of different landscapes: cobbled cities, snow-capped mountains, golden sand beaches, forests and lakes. This 2-3 week backpacking route around Poland encompasses all of those cityscapes and landscapes.
“A vegetarian travelling to Poland? You’ll struggle to find anything to eat there. They only eat meat, more meat and bread.”
When I told people at home that I’d be travelling in Poland, I got only negative replies about how I’d have nothing to eat. I’d probably starve if I didn’t eat meat, they said. It turns out that people are either misinformed or altogether uninformed about the Polish diet. It turns out that the Polish eat a lot of vegetables and being vegetarian in Poland isn’t so hard. They have salad with every meal and you rarely see a plate that doesn’t have shredded beetroot, cabbage and grated carrot heaped on the side. In fact, Poland has the highest rate of fruit and veg consumption in Europe.
Angloville is a culture and language exchange programme. The project supports advanced English speakers to improve their English through 1:1 conversations with native English speaking volunteers. Read on for our Angloville review.
We’re Charlie and Luke — UK travel bloggers, adventurers and storytellers. We travel slow and write about sustainable travel. We want to make responsible travel choices and help you do the same. Get to know us.
