Generosity, the universal gift

Lots of people love to travel, and we do it for lots of different reasons.  For some it's to exchange a cold climate temporarily for a warmer one, others to go on a shopping spree, to see historical sites of interest, or simply to take a week out with the phone switched off and a bag full of novels to delve into.  As we've started to get into the thick of our travel, we've had to really think hard about what we like and don't like in travel.  When we meet various people they often say "oh, you must go and see this, or visit that place".  We appreciate their well-meaning intention, but often it's things that they like, and not necessarily what makes our wheels spin.  We decided towards the end of our time in France that we didn't really enjoy visiting cities much, particularly on this trip.  For one to be worthy of the stress of traffic, parking, figuring out that city's no-doubt-unique one-way street system, or its public transport, there has to be a particular attraction or reason to visit.  With our new trip-planning standard we revised our itinerary and in one brash move Turin and Milan were mercilessly slashed off of our list (for Italy we were still left with Venice, Bologna and Florence!).

For us, travel is largely about people.  The people we meet in the street for 30 seconds, and the people who welcome us into their home for a night or two, starting what often becomes a lifelong friendship.  So far on our travels we have seen some amazing sites that we will no doubt remember, but it's the people who will stand out in our recollections.  Recently, at the end of our time in Italy, we had the privilege of staying with an Italian family on their farm in the hills North of L'Aquila, where they produce organic meats sold to specialist Delis in Rome.  They welcomed us with open arms as if we were already friends, and indeed it didn't take long to become so, as we talked and laughed and joked with typical Italian gusto.  They cooked us dinner one night: salad, mushrooms, swede and steak (HUGE and delicious) - all from their garden and farm; We cooked for them the next night, an English dish of Somerset Chicken (Chicken with sauce made of apple cider, milk and cheese).  The chicken was also from their farm, killed especially that morning!  They couldn't hide their delight in discovering a new and strange but clearly delicious English dish, as they wolfed down 2nd helpings.  We had a lot of fun playing with their 4 kids, as well as taking a trip together up the mountain above their house to see the view that ended up just being clouds, but was a fun drive nonetheless.  We also discovered the local Creme Limoncello - amazing - needless to say we had a couple of very fun evenings!  We had equally amazing times staying with people in France too, enjoying delicious home-cooked Ratatouille with one family, breakfast-ing on the roof terrace of a traditional French village house (in a stunning and quaint village) with another, and being welcomed in, hosted and fed by lost family after just turning up at their door with no notice.

Our Italian host family (man in the centre is the Dad, the other two males are friends) enjoying Jean's Somerset Chicken, and the Mum is holding up some Scotch whiskey given to her by one of the friends.

Cooking a local pasta speciality the next day, with one of the children eager to get eating.

[Aside from the lost family] You might assume, quite reasonably, that we were paying to be hosted by these families.  In fact, the stays were all completely gratis.  We're connected by a web-community called "Couchsurfing" (www.couchsurfing.org).  Through this web-community, hosts welcome "surfers" like us into their home simply because of the love of doing it, and having encounters with other cultures they wouldn't otherwise have.  These experiences make me think about the gift of generosity.  One of it's amazing attributes is that it's a gift that gives back.  When we have been so generously given warm hospitality, food, shelter and more, they say how much they've enjoyed it and how much it's meant to them.  Many who have kids have said they value having their kids exposed to people from other cultures and parts of the world.  On our second, and very dramatic day in Albania though, it's made me realise that generosity is a true universal gift.

In terms of intrepid travel, Albania is definitely right up there.  As a country that we, and probably most people in the West know little about, it makes for a perfect place of discovery and exploration - things I really love.  As a bonus, it's also a country with few properly paved roads, and many dirt tracks that make for fantastic 4WD experiences.  To describe the full Albanian experience requires a dedicated blog post, so for now I'll stick to one story.  The plan for Day #2 was a drive from our arrival/port city of Durres, to the town of Berat, with some dirt roads in between.  I was following a trail posted on a trail sharing site with some notes, so had some idea of what to expect.  However what we soon discovered was that after a few days of heavy rain, a "moderate" difficulty trail become a "difficult" difficulty trail!  The first couple of challenges (typically muddy, slippery, rutted hill climbs) were achieved with success and I was buzzing!  The buzz was temporarily ceased though when, after failing the first attempt of another hill climb, I reversed back down and slipped into a drain.  Time to test my self-recovery skills!  The Hi-Lift jack was put to good use (see photos below), and with a collection of rocks gathered and placed under the stuck wheel, we were away, and succeeded on the second attempt.  The next hill took 3 attempts to ascend, and the heart stopped more than once as we slipped on the track from left to right, right foot pulsing on the accelerator and tyres scratching for any bit of grip in the wet, heavy clay.  I was getting a bit more than I bargained for!  (There are some videos below too, but from inside the cabin they don't show how treacherous it really was).

When I've read of other peoples intrepid travel, I've always been jealous of their stories of chance-encounters with local people.  It seems this often happens when the travellers are in some sort of need or spot of bother.  I didn't particularly want the latter, but I really did want the former - to have our own encounter with some properly native and relatively untouched people.  Today was my day for this wish to be fulfilled...

We stopped at the next fork in the track, unsure what direction to take.  We were physically and mentally quite tired, after recovering the one time, and moving some rocks and dirt to prevent getting stuck another couple of times.  There was a small collection of simple houses nearby, and we caught the attention of one of the ladies of the houses.  We exchanged communication by gestures, as well as words that neither party could understand, and she went to great lengths to show us what way we should be going (not the path that we'd started down by 10m or so).  Before long her daughter came out who could speak a few words of English, so that was nice.  We were relishing this encounter, and were trying our best to explain where we came from.  New Zealand, and "Nova Zealanda" (as they say it in Italian and French) didn't register.  When we drew a map of Australia and New Zealand, Australia registered ("Australis" I think is how they said it), so we decided to settle for that, and we were Australian for the day, as painful as that was! ;-)  The mother came out again with a couple of pomegranates (which grow in abundance where we've been).  We were very grateful (particularly as Jean had been longing for some!), and decided to return the generosity by offering her some jam.  That was very gratefully received, but then the mother came out again, this time with a bag which contained a loaf of home-made bread, two tomatoes and a huge block of goats cheese (feta)!  We were incredibly thankful, but decided we should end the game of one-up there!  It was lunchtime (for us anyway) and were hungry, so we motioned to ask if we could eat the food in their house (and I really wanted to see inside their house).  "Po", Yes that was fine, and they welcomed us in.  The mother put a long rug down under our feet and pulled a small table over for us. There was also another older lady with her granddaughter who came into the house to watch us eat too!  The food she had given us was left in the plastic bag on the table and another bowl containing chopped tomatoes and chopped cheese was put in front of us with two forks. Then came a bottle of water which she poured into glasses for us, more bread, a plate of cooked cheese, and a bowl of grilled green peppers in olive oil. It was a feast!  We ate and did our best communicating with the daughter in broken English, plus lots of gestures among all.  They brought us some photos of their family to see, and we got out our laptop and showed them some photo’s of our wedding (weddings seem like a big thing in Albania), our last house in Palmerston North, and typical North Island scenery.  We made a move to get going but we were ushered into the room next door, another lounge type room lined with more couches and a TV, where they showed us some photo’s of another daughters wedding (at least that’s what we think it was). The lady tried to give us all the bread to take with us but we managed thankfully to leave with only the smaller portions. We jumped in the car and started heading along the top road, the lady walking along for a good 300m or so to make sure we were going in the right direction.  The track, thankfully, got easier from there, and we slowly made our way back down to the next village.

The experience was all that I had hoped for, and it made me think that generosity really is a universal gift.  By that I mean, everyone can be generous, even those with very little.  Generosity has the amazing ability to break down barriers - culturally, religiously, politically - and instead build bridges of harmony and interdependance.  In our Western culture it's hard not to get caught up in self-focused drive of holding on to and gaining material wealth wherever possible.  It's so important to be reminded, and I absolutely this mean for myself too, that when we are generous what we gain is so much more than what we might be losing materially.  I am really thankful for this experience that we had, equally for the cultural discovery, and for the reminder of the gift of generosity.

Recovery from the ditch on the way

The lunch spread put on for us - we particularly loved the cooked peppers and the home-made bread.  The lady on the left was the mother of this house.

Sharing a glimpse of life on the other side of the world

4WD on the way to Albanian mountain village (from story above) - The easy parts

The not-so-easy bits.  The video really doesn't show how slippery it was (and this wasn't the worst bit!)

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Below are some more photos of our time in Italy

Our first couple of days in Italy were spent in it's Northern industrial belt.  Very uninspiring scenery, unless you like industrial and commercial buildings.  Horticulture too is big industry, and we were pretty impressed by these beauties when we stopped to buy some fruit!

In Venice, we visited a shop that made "frozen crepes", which is gelato with various ingredients delicately folded inside - delicious!

Venice!

Visiting the Lamborghini factory in Modena

University of Bologna - spot the odd one out!

Bologna's streets are lined with these beautiful porticoes, which we think are a brilliant idea, keeping you dry in the rain and snow, and cool in hot summer.

Visiting the Ducati factory in Bologna.  The tour guide made a big deal of Mike Hailwood's race-winning bike (Mike Hailwood is a Kiwi).  He was clearly a very popular rider for the company.

Heading into the hills of Northern Tuscany, we came across many villages like these, clinging to the hillside.

Result of some wild food foraging after a day 4WDing through the forests of Tuscany.  We used the mushrooms for a risotto-style dinner (after checking very carefully they were edible), and the chestnuts for a sweet chestnut desert.

The town of Lucca was one of our favourite places we visited in Italy.  Here some boys of the town were playing football in one of the "piazzas"

Florence!

Classic Fiat

The Leonardo Da Vinci museum, re-creating some of his ideas and inventions - small, but very interesting museum

One of our goals was to buy some local olive oil in the Chianti district of Tuscany.  We found this local producer from a sign on the road.  It was a truly authentic experience.  He welcomed us into his house and gave us bread to sample the oil - it was DELICIOUS.  We didn't know simple olive oil and bread (and salt) could taste so good.  After an initial order of 1L, we increased it to 2L, it was that good (and so reasonably priced!).  We also sampled his Chianti wine, and bought a bottle of that too, also delicious.  At the end he was beaming, clearly so proud of his produce that we were enjoying.

Vineyards of Tuscany

"Danger - People eloping"

Driving through Chianti fields

The humble Fiat Panda (this one a 4x4).  These old ones still abound on the roads in Italy (particularly in the southern parts), and seem pretty indestructible.