Carlisle
Our final Sit brought us to Carlisle,
England and in some ways it was the perfect conclusion to the first part of our
adventure. We arrived by train and our host, Peter, picked us up and drove us 10
minutes to their home providing an informative narrative. Peter and Lindsey had an
immaculate and comfortable home tastefully decorated and they had a friendly cat name
Fliss.
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| Fliss |
The bus stop was minutes from their door making visits to Carlisle convenient.
Carlisle has a population of about 70,000 with comfortable shops and
restaurants and ample energy. Lindsey prepared a delicious dinner. Afterward we
talked while drinking wine. Their home was as comfortable as any place we
stayed during our six months and Fliss perfectly behaved. Upon their return from holiday, we
shared some coffee and tea and they told us about their holiday of dancing and
we conveyed our pleasure of living in their home, experiencing Carlisle and
caring for Fliss. We all hugged while they thanked us for taking care of their
home and Fliss, while we encouraged them to visit us if they ever come to the
States.
Some thoughts on the Sits.
What a wonderful way to see the world! As the Sit part of our journey has ended, it's nice to reflect back on those Sits.
John:
Our Adventure began as an idea to live
outside of the US and evolved into taking care of homes and pets in Western
Europe for six months, travel back to the States for a wedding and rent an
apartment in Eastern Europe and travel Eastern and Central Europe until our tenants’
lease expired on May 1st. We were excited to see places in Europe,
place ourselves in situations we had never been and meet some wonderful people.
The Pet Sitting process involves buying
a subscription to websites where pet owners post opportunities to stay in their
home to take care of their pets while they are on holiday or away for business.
The Sits can be for a few days to a few months. Some are posted days in advance
of their departure while others are months in the future. Barb was able to
reserve about 45 days of the 180 available before our flight to London. Our
intention was to have Sits for as many of the days as possible to minimize
hotel costs but learned quickly to allow adequate time between Sits for travel.
Getting from our second Sit in Ward End England to meet with our Edinburgh host
taught us a lesson. The time constraints were too tight traveling from Ward
End, England with a departure time of 3:30AM flying to Edinburgh, Scotland to
meet our host by noon, the same day.
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| France |
While we were well prepared for the
eight hours on a sleepless flight from Orlando, FL to London we had some
difficulties moving from city to city using multiple forms of mass transit on
average every four to five days over the course of six months. But we made
commitments to our hosts and knew the end date was November 29th,
the date of our flight back for the wedding, so we persevered and the
experiences in the cities and towns and the meeting of our hosts will be
remembered for a very long time, especially our hosts. By the time we reached
our final Sit in Carlyisle, Barb had secured Sits for 147 days of the 180, on
average we traveled every 4 to 5 days, we had been to a dozen cities with populations
from 4,300 to 8.8 million, we were entrusted to mostly cats but almost a dozen
dogs and two chickens. Two of our Sits were in homes over 400 years old and one
was a new, modern condo.
We learned we preferred traveling by train over
flying. The train stations were busy places during the day ranging from
futuristic type malls to waiting rooms with small shops and vending machines.
But each had display boards of the schedule of trains for the next several
hours. The infrequent travelers all seemed to gather around the displays gazing
or giving periodic glances to find their connection location and details. We
almost always had time before boarding our next connection and enjoyed buying
sandwiches and snacks for the next section of the trip and share a meal or a
coffee with my lovely partner. Only once was there a security check to board a
train. This greatly reduced the hassles of traveling by train compared to
flying.
Bus travel is usually the least
expensive and as comfortable as trains and with none of the flying hassles. The
downside of bus travel is because of traffic, travel time is at risk of being
extended. The other negative is some of the destinations are bus stops as
opposed to stations. Think about the sometimes random places you see a bus stop
sign and imagine not speaking the language, hungry and needing to get to a
hotel or make another connection. One of our bus stops in Biarritz, France was
in a housing development with only a pizza place and houses. We asked a pizza worker
for a taxi company number, preferably English speaking. We didn’t have to
travel far but there was a minimum $15 charge to get in the vehicle, so it cost
about $30 to travel a few miles. But if you don’t encounter traffic delays and
you end at a bus station, as opposed to a stop, the seats are comfortable and
the views from the bus are the best.
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| Bakewell UK |
While still in the states, after
securing our first Sit, during the interview with our host, we agreed to come
the day before their departure. We would have dinner together and stay
overnight in their spare bedroom. After the interview, while discussing what we
each understood, we both expressed hesitation and some angst about accepting
the kindness of strangers before ever doing anything to earn it. We both agreed
we would approach it as a learning experience. While it was mildly
uncomfortable, our lovely hosts, Michaela and David, were warm, friendly and so
genuine we were both at ease instantly and glad to be spending time with them.
For the next 12 or so Sits, that approach was, by far, the preferred process
and, as it turns out, allowed us to meet some wonderful people with delightful interactions
that will be some of our fondest memories. While I usually felt slight angst
planning to meet our next hosts, I was able to reassure myself recollecting prior
meetings and the moment I started talking to our new host I was enjoying myself.
I noticed how I felt just prior to our first Sits compared to the
disappointment when our London Sit arrangements did not allow us to meet our
host.
Barb: When I first read about pet sitting, I thought "Yeah, sure. It's one of those things that you read about but very few people actually get do it. It sounds too good to be true." A little research told me it was doable. Do your homework, prepare and go after it. There are legit websites and real people that would love for you to come and pet sit for them.
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| Bear in Munich |
13 Sits. So many wonderful memories. Sure there were issues from time to time but the majority of our time was wonderful. Amazing countries, amazing homes but the best part were our hosts. As we previously said in our blog post "New Friends" we have been lucky to meet some really fantastic people. They were welcoming, accommodating and respectful. They loved their pets and only wanted someone to care and love them while they were away. They were open minded enough to open their home to strangers and trust that we were everything we said we were.
The Sits got us to Europe. We have learned so much since landing in London back in May. If we decided to do it again, there are some things we would tweak but I think we did really well our first time out. 83% of our time for our first 6 months was spent doing Sits. When our journey ends in April, we want to look at pet sitting in the States. It's a wonderful way to see the world!
(If anyone would like more information on pet sitting, please message us privately and we would be glad to share what we know)
Cheers!
Barb and John
