The Last Post

     It is now 1 week short of 3 months since we left Turkey, and here is our next, and last blog post. I actually can't quite believe that the months have gone by so quickly, and that just 2 days ago we'd left Europe exactly 2 months ago. Yikes.
And why write now? Because I couldn't leave this blog unfinished, and writing this last post has been on my to-do list for weeks.
So here we are where we left off, Harry and I about to go to Greece to harvest olives.

GREECE

At the Acropolis, Athens

     We went to Greece to harvest olives and it was an amazing experience! As I think back through our experiences of the past year+ spent abroad, this one experience definitely stands out. We book-ended our stay in Greece with a few nights in Athens, days which were quickly filled with seeing the great ruins (including the Acropolis, the Olympic stadium, the temple of Olympian Zeus and so many Greek-Roman busts and statues of emperors and gods in the Archaeological Museum). We even managed to be in Athens on a national holiday that annually starts with a demonstration and ends in a riot! We then headed south-west to the Peloponnese region to work for room/board harvesting olives for olive oil with WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms). On the beautiful, quiet coast of Kyparissia, we harvested olives for 9 of our 14 day stay on the farm. The harvesting is done by whacking the trees with a 3-pronged trident, knocking the olives onto nets, then collecting and sorting out the leaves from olives, and finally, taking sacks of olives to the local press to be turned into olive oil. But, thankfully, the process was aided with some very useful machinery: the 'tickler' (a metal stick with a generator on one end and rotating, soft rubber projections on the other), and the 'masseuse' (a large metal frame around a set of rubber, rotating projections, on which branches full of olives could be laid, to be separated from the leaves and stripped of their olives). For me, having not done physical labour like this, the work was intense. But I grew to really enjoy the physical movement and the chance to focus on a single thing with a clear goal for the end of the day. In our days and evenings off, our wonderful hosts showed us some of the nearby sites, some of the beautiful beaches and provided us with some stellar meals. A huge shout-out and thank-you to our hosts for making us feel so welcome, treating us like family and providing great food and a beautiful place to sleep! We loved our time in Greece, and would one day love to go back, to either partake in a harvest again, or to travel up and down the coast camping on the many, many beaches and enjoying the delicious, fresh Greek food and wine.

The beautiful Kyparissian Coast

Christi using the 'Tickler'

Harry and our co-WWOOFer Kuba with the 'Masseuse'

The real boss, Googles

The company we worked for, Honest Toil Olive Oil, a family owned and run farm, selling (the best) organically grown, unfiltered, olive oil in the UK.

     After Greece we spent 2 days in Austria for some difficult goodbyes and to pick up our luggage, and then we left Europe!

A quick visit to the Christmas Market in Vienna

CANADA
     We flew to Montreal for a few days with Molly and Sam, and then we all drove to Ontario where we spent a really wonderful 2 weeks for Christmas with family and friends. Then on to Kelowna for New Years and then to Kamloops, where we are now.

From a very cold stay in Montreal

A visit to the Toronto Christmas Market with good friends

   
     We were pleased with our slow transition back, seeing some new things along the way, spending time of the farm for Christmas- in Canada but still a haven from real life- catching up with family and friends, and slowly (physically) getting closer to Kamloops; quite literally inching into 'reality' as we acquired a few responsibilities in Kelowna, in the form of a truck, and in doing all the necessary paperwork/payments of settling into life in B.C. Once in Kamloops, we gratefully stayed with my sister and her family for the first couple of weeks. It was so great to see them and build that special relationship with my nephews! And suddenly- about 10 days after arriving back in Kamloops, we had confirmed a job for me, a job for Harry and an apartment we could move into mid-month!

     We moved, got settled, and now we are here to stay-- for a little while at least.

     The year abroad truly went by so quickly, and though very difficult at times, the experiences and memories that go with it are incredibly, incredibly valuable-- we have gained so much; for ourselves, as a couple, in relationship with others and in understanding of cultures and people around us (...just to name a few things).
We are so grateful for having had this opportunity.
And we are so grateful to all of you who have read this blog, prayed for us, kept in touch, who visited us, and to those of you who are now welcoming us back as we settle in Kamloops.

Our ride; we have already replaced the truck for Joni, our newest team-member for adventures

And wherever we are, there are always mountains to be skied!

Or hills to be hiked!

Much love,
Christi and Harry Gillett

The view this evening from our balcony

The Bosphorus and the Aegean

Hi everyone from Greece!
We’ve been here a week now, and we’re loving it - but first, Istanbul.

Istanbul is such a huge and diverse city, one week was not near enough to get a handle on it. And even if we were only there for one week, we experienced so much that one blog is not near enough to sum it all up. Instead of trying that impossible task, I’m going to write here a few excerpts from our travel journal to try and give our dear readership an idea of what it was like.
• Adana Kebab – spicy lamb with bulgur and onion (tossed in sumac!)
• Fresh grilled fish on bread with pickles + pickled cabbage, served to us by guys running around yelling, cooked for us on a docked boat rocking in the wake of passing ferries.
• Sarkici = singer (like the girls we saw singing in the park)
• “To be able to see the Bosphorus, even from afar – for Istanbullus this is a matter of spiritual import that may explain why windows looking out on to the sea are like the mirhabs in mosques...” – Orhan Pamuk
• 1st things 1st : a good filter coffee @ Coffee Manifesto
• Dolmus travel totally reminds me of Colombia. Rippin around through the busy streets in a crowded little van, passing our money up to the driver, feeling pretty much like a local.
• ...GIANT Turkish breakfast (Kahvaltī) How giant? 22 distinct food items + unlimited çay. All with a sea view, and live entertainment from the balikçilar.
• Layers of history are really apparent here, including the present. This means guys washing their feet for prayers in ancient fountains beside tourists putting rented skirts on over their yoga pants, and modern restoration over mosque-ification of a twice rebuilt ancient church constructed with relics from even more ancient buildings from previous civilisations. Beautiful, thought provoking, and too much to take in in one go.
• This is tomato sauce, but what’s really important is the guy who comes around and pours melted butter over your döner and pide.
• The sultan had a whole pavilion to store his turbans.
• Roasted lamb intestine with spicy tomato sauce on toasted bread. “Don’t think too hard.”
• The washer: squirts water at a perfect angle....

A big thank you to our amazing tour guide Lisa, without whom our experience would have been much different and not nearly as rich.

From Istanbul we flew to Athens, our stopover before starting on the olive farm. When choosing a city to be a stopover, Athens is probably the very worst choice. Oh yeah, we said, I guess the Parthenon is here! And the Olympian Temple of Zeus! And Hadrian’s Gate! And 10 000 other very significant archaeological sites! And the food is so good and so cheap! We’re gonna need a bit of time... Not to mention the demonstrations taking place while we were there, blocking our access to parts of the city, an actual quote from a waitress: “There is a bank machine that way, but oh that’s too dangerous. Can you pay with card?” We did manage to make the most of the few days we were there, and see some really interesting stuff, and eat some really great food.

Tune in next time to hear about our experience picking olives and drinking straight glasses of fresh oil...

-Harry

Istanbul!

Today we are in Istanbul! 

Surprise!

On the Bosphorus, I'm front of the Maiden's Tower.

     We realized a few days ago that we both forgot to: 1) Update several of our readers about our last blog update (thank you Jim for so consistently following us!) and 2) to update our blog upon leaving Innsbruck!

So how did we end up here?

     At the end of October both Harry and I finished our jobs, spent as much time as we could with our friends and coworkers, and in the mountains, cleaned our apartment to be the shiniest it has ever been, and packed up all we are taking back to Canada in our 3 suitcases, 4 backpacks and a large, plastic Ikea bag. We also had a wonderfully (not so wonderful) Austrian experience of packing that all onto a train, off to switch trains, on again and off again to Omi’s (grandma) house. We are now especially thankful to have a place for our baggage to sit for a month and to not have to carry it around Europe with us while we travel. 

With all of our luggage.

During the rest of week at Omi’s, we spent time visiting family and friends and saying our final goodbyes... And then we were off!

Visiting the 20 Schilling in Semmering with family.

   
     Our first stop, 5 days ago, was to Budapest. Being that the city is close to Vienna, it is a good city to fly South from, and that we have heard many, many good things about Budapest, we thought it’d be an ideal place to visit.

Budapest
     A very large city, in comparison to our little Innsbruck. And with only one full day to look around, we marked out all of our top sites on a map and set out on a meandering path that would take us each of these stops. We then spent the day navigating ourselves through Budapest, getting lost, stumbling upon little streets or neighbourhoods each with their own vibe, window shopping and peeking into shops and restaurants, and then also seeing the main sites like Parliament, the Chain Bridge and the Liberty Bridge, the market, St. Stephens Basilica featuring a relic of the hand of St. Stephen, and the castle. At the end of our walking, we ended up at the Gellert Baths to soak our sore feet and relax. That was heavenly. Our day concluded with a traditional Hungarian dinner of cabbage rolls and sausage and vegetable stew (not Goulash), and exploring one of the oldest and best known of the ruin pubs, Szimpla Kert. In Budapest the ruin pubs are a fairly recent trend of pubs opening in abandoned buildings, decorating with vintage or recycled finds, and consisting of several rooms where anyone and everyone can relax and share a drink. We very much enjoyed this experience as it was so much different than any other pub or bar we've ever been to and we left feeling that the ruin pubs are symbol of the city itself: a place with a patched together history, where something unique is waiting to be discovered.

Our tired bodies soon took us back to our hostel, where we needed to pack up our stuff and prepare to head to Istanbul.

Budapest from above

Istanbul

     At this point, I can confidently say that Istanbul has been an experience for all the senses: a new language, many, many, many new foods, a night-life that actually makes every restaurant packed in the evening, people everywhere enjoying life and each other and food, turning corners to find hidden streets with lights strung up and cute cafes, or the restaurant that serves the most famous of something  (be it Baklava, fish sandwiches, or Köfte Ekmek for example) and has a constant flow of people, the seagulls from the nearby Bosphorus Strait, the cats jumping along the red-faced roofs, the smell of the sea, kebab and fresh fish being grilled... and so much more.

 At the old Spice Market in Istanbul

    (posted from Athens, because of internet issues in Istanbul. Stay tuned, as there will be much more to come in a few weeks recounting the rest of our time in Istanbul and our time in Greece with a little bit of Athens, and a lot of time spent harvesting olives)

- C

The Last Week!

Looking up the Sill River towards the Bergisel ski jump and the mighty Serles. This view was along the way for both of our daily bicycle commutes.

     No matter how much preparation is underway, how many plans have been laid, or how many times you've had to explain how you're both sad and happy to be leaving, the last few days of an experience like our year in Austria always sneaks up on you somehow. One day you're folding laundry, the next that laundry's going in the "pack this away until we're back in Canada" pile. One day you're enjoying a coffee at the regular spot, the next day the barista is asking you if this is the last coffee you'll be buying (maybe it would have been free if yes was the answer?). 

In the last year we've learned that we're both quite the record keepers/ collectors/ hoarders. Our bulletin board was constantly changing, but here's the final iteration before it is taken down and the contents sorted away. 1. Panoramic photo of the Nordkette with labels and summit X's added in pen. 2. Pin from Talisker whiskey distillery visited on our honeymoon. 3. Made up facts from a made up encyclopedia. 4. Postcard from Ljubljana. 5. List of restaurants we want to visit in Austria. 6. Coffee loyalty card completed on a three day trip to Haywards Heath in England. 7. Free ticket to ride the Rax gondola when the girl in the ticket window thought we were part of the Mountain Rescue. 8. Ticket from the art gallery. 9. Postcard sent from Hungary by Molly, showing Garmisch, a town an hour north from Innsbruck. 10. Postcard from Ludlow. 11. Christmas shopping list: no peeking! 12. Innsbruck drawing given to us by Eliza Pinney. 13. Photo of an old alpine club, artist's business card, a self portrait with a good Tirloean name, and a random piece of old paper. 14. Favourite quote from a daily calendar.

     When we arrived in Innsbruck, we didn't know whether it was going to be for a year, or two, or just a few months if my visa got rejected.  However, here we are, after a year of skiing, working, hiking, coffee drinking, home making, and croissant baking, preparing to fly back to Canada. Why now? Are we giving up? Do we miss Tim Horton's? Are Austrians racist towards Canadians? Our official reasoning is as follows: We wanted to stay for a year if possible, and use the experience from that year to decide what is next for us. During the summer, as a year abroad approached, we thought and talked and prayed a lot about what we should do, and came to realize that when we think about our future and our home, that is always Canada. We love this little country dearly, but our hearts lie in the Great White North. Staying here another year, or even two, would have been doable, except for the more integrated we are here, the harder it will be eventually to leave. We both work in in the service industry, which was great for the year, but long term is probably not sustainable for us. So we would have (and kind of did) start looking for more career oriented jobs, which require a certain amount of time commitment. On the other hand, the longer we stay here and more integrated we become, the less connection we have with Canada when we return. This could affect us job-wise, but it manifests itself more in things like the fact that we have a nephew in Kamloops we've only met over Skype! We want to be around to do the aunt and uncle thing with him and his brother, and be part of a community that we can see ourselves as a part of for the long run. It wasn't an easy decision to make, but we are sure as we can be that we made the right one, and we're so excited in touch down in Montreal in December. 

Tasting snowflakes.

     Our last few weeks here have not just been moping around folding laundry and being surprised by baristas though, we've kept very busy enjoying what Tirol has to offer. We actually went skiing a few few weeks ago up on the glacier, and enjoyed a September powder day! There was only one T-bar open, but we shared it with just 20 other people and it was snowing so hard that we had fresh tracks every run! Speaking of powder days, any snowboarders out there will hopefully be very jealous to hear that I served Travis Rice at my restaurant the other day, I just about fell over when he came in and asked if we had an English menu. File that under Harry learns what it means to be starstruck. Shortly after our ski day, Christi flew to England for a quick trip. . . 

. . . I took a quick trip to England to see my friends Amy and Dan, because, why not? England is much closer to Austria than it is to Canada! And also, they are expecting a little one soon, so it made for am even more special to visit the in this exciting time! So thanks Amy and Dan for hosting me for the weekend and for the wonderful time catching up on the last few years. Can you believe, the last time I visited Amy was five years ago, a week after her arrival from Canada to live in England Incredible to see the differences and growth between then and now. The second part of my trip I got to spend with my parents in-law! They were, amazingly,  and totally by coincidence, staying a mere 45 minutes away from where I was on their own vacation. It was a delight catching up and getting to be a Gillett child, learning about medieval history and old English architectural styles. Thank you David and Katy for the good food, good conversations and the gift shop souvenirs. A quick and very special trip to England, my last banked holiday days, and I returned to two weeks of work. Which, by the way, I have officially completed.

     In this next week, we will be saying lots of goodbyes, probably eating out too much trying to visit our favourite places just one more time, and doing lots of packing and organizing. We have quite a month ahead of us, travelling back to visit family, and then starting on the month of travelling we've been saving for over the summer. After stuffing ourselves with food from our grandmas for a week, we leave our luggage at Omi's house and take the bus to Budapest. From Budapest we head to Instanbul to visit a dear friend for a few days, and then fly to Athens. Athens is just a stopover to an olive farm in the south west of Greece where we will be living for two weeks and working on the olive harvest. We're really excited for this, as its going to be a totally new experience for us, we'll be learning a bunch, and life on the farm sounds pretty idyllic. After Greece, we have a quick stop back in Austria for final goodbyes and to get our luggage, and the off we go to Canada! We will be posting photos from our travels as usual, and we will write a few short blogs while we're on the road too. So stay tuned!

- Harry and Christi

In the absence of a proper Thanksgiving turkey available from the grocery store, and the fact that for two people (plus a guest) a turkey would be way to much anyways, we made our own! A turkey breast roulade, complete with stuffing inside!

Some Innsbruck fall views.

25 years old, 377 days married, 373 days abroad

     These past couple of weeks have been significant for me, as the title indicates. I have celebrated my 25^th birthday, my first anniversary and it has been 1 year and 9 days since we have left Canada.

As well as this, I have been so incredibly busy with many, many good things. This has included celebrating these special events, meeting with old and news friends from Austria, and visits from both old and new friends from Canada! Plus working 7-day weeks between all of this!

     So I haven’t had much time to reflect on the milestones that I’ve reached in my life. I’d like to. The blog is a good place for some reflecting, but maybe I won’t reflect really until we’re back in Canada (which, by the way, is happening soon**), because the whole year has been a whirlwind. What I do know now, though, is that it has been a good year. The year has shaped me in so many ways. These two big adventures; of being married, of living abroad; have played such a role into making me into who I am at 25 years old. In countless ways my character, my faith and my relationships have been challenged and strengthened this past year. I am proud of what we’ve done and what we’ve accomplished. I am so thankful for Harry and his constant companionship, his loyalty, his patience, his tenderness, his cooking and our shared love for the outdoors. We’ve face many up and downs this past year while being abroad. Our new life together has simultaneously, and incredulously, shown us both our flaws and faults, and revealed our strengths.
    

     And now as we look towards packing up our lives in Austria and picking up some of the pieces, and starting new, in Canada, we are looking forward to and planning for what will be a new adventure. As we are starting now to financially, mentally and material-ly gear up for this transition, I can say with certainty that it won’t be easy leaving Innsbruck. The closer it gets, the more I see all the things I love about this city, its surroundings and this country- and how much my heart has latched on to things here. But in writing that, I realize that the growth that we experienced in coming here, will certainly happen all over again as we transition back home. Until then, though, we still have some time. And we will be making the most of the time, using all our afternoons, and evenings and days off to enjoy the city, the mountains, our friends and to finally do all the things we’ve been talking about doing throughout this past year.

**We are starting our transition back to Canada in November! We’ll be leaving Innsbruck at beginning of November, travelling for 5-6 weeks, and flying back at the beginning of December! 

- Christi

A sunny river-side birthday picnic.

A lovely visit from Harry's university friend and his wife. Thanks for saying hi as you head back home, all the best to you!

A grand reunion of long time buddies and wives! So nice to visit, show you Innsbruck and hang out all together- it happens far too little, and I am very much looking forward to the next get together!

Update from last blog: we succeeded on Frau Hitt!

Three Peaks

     Our experience in Austria has been shaped by many things, but one of the few constants has been the presence of the mountains. Innsbruck is a city defined by the Nordkette, which forms a 1000m wall between the city and the wilderness, and we can lay in our bed and look up to summits yet to be climbed (by us at least). Most of our free time is spent in the mountains, hiking, climbing, skiing, or drinking coffee at a mountain hut because that's just better than drinking in the city. Even what we eat is touched by the mountains, as Austrians believe any food from the alpine is better, so we have mountain-butter, mountain-milk, and mountain herb tea in our kitchen.

     For a change of pace in this blog, we're just going to relate the tales of three peaks that we visited in the last few weeks, three great days enjoying the mountains. Incidentally, we never reached the summit of any of the three peaks, more on that below.

Der Rax, 2008m

     The Rax is more a big plateau than a single peak, with an impressive south facing wall above the village where Omi lives. We hiked there in the fall, but returned recently with Christi's mom, Gerda, to walk the ridge, look at alpine flowers, and enjoy treats from the huts along the way. This is a very special mountain in the history of Christi's family, both her mom and grandma having spent many many days up there in earlier years. As we approached the first hut on our route for the day, we saw an older fellow digging a drainage ditch alongside the trail. Sure enough, he was a neighbour when Gerda was younger, and we stopped to catch up on the last 30 years. For the rest of the hike we saw places significant to Gerda's childhood, or stories she knew from Omi, or places that Christi had been taken when she was younger. We climbed a boulder that three generations of kids have posed for photos on top of. We looked down into the valley and saw different villages tucked into little valleys, heard the stories of their significance, all in the shadow of the Rax. We didn't go to the summit that day, because there was too much to see more interesting than a high point, and apple strudel awaited us at the next hut.....

-Harry

The three intrepid hikers.

Gerda and Christi with the Preinerwand behind.

Gerda and Harry with Karl Ludwig Haus behind, and the summit off to the right.

Gerda and Christi on the Waxriegelhaus boulder.

Huggin on a hill.

Alpine meadow on the Rax.

Frau Hitt, 2269m

     Days off line up rarely for Christi and I these days, so we sometimes try and pack a lot into the days we do have. A few weeks ago, we decided to hike from Innsbruck over the Nordkette and north towards the German border, to a town called Scharnitz. There are a few ways over, but one of them passes right under Frau Hitt, a prominent spire on the ridge that has been on our hit list for a while. Not only was this going to be an extra possible few hours on our trip, but there is little consensus on how difficult it is to climb or how well protected the climbing is,  so we set out with backpacks for a day of hiking, and rope, harness, helmets, and a bunch of other gear as well. To our disappointment, by the time we were on the trail making our way to Frau Hitt, clouds had moved in and it had started raining on us. We made the deal we would only try to climb it if there was blue sky above us and the rock was dry by the time we got there. Needless to say, we said hi to the Frau as we passed by in miserable conditions and continued on our way to Scharntiz with overly heavy packs (training weight I say).

     As we scrambled down the north side of the ridge, we slowly left the clouds and mist behind at higher elevation. Soon we were walking a forest path, surrounded by pines, cows and their giant clanging bells. A hearty lunch at an alm chased our blues away, and we continued northwards. The rest of the hike was very beautiful, as we detoured through a narrow canyon with a bright blue river flowing through it. Down low below the clouds, this was a beauty we could enjoy while the summits were inaccessible, and reminded us that there's more to the mountains than just their tippy-tops.

-Harry

Looking up to the misty summit of Frau Hitt.

Down the backside of the Nordkette, heading north.

In the Gleierschklamm.

Hey down there!

Habicht, 3277m 

     Most recently, we did our first hike that involved a night spent in a mountain hut. Some rare time off for me and a desire to spend a night in the mountains, combined with Harry's ever-lengthy list of summits and his keen sense of adventure, we were off to stay at the Innsbrucker Hütte, in the shadow of Habicht.
     Our journey started by taking the gondola up Elfer Berg (a smart idea for saving our legs, I'd say), and hiking over Elfer Berg into the end of the Pinnistal, where Habicht looms over the end of the valley. Though not the tallest mountain in the Stubaital, Habicht is characteristically the largest, most intimidating mass of stone. We hiked up the left side of the valley and over the lowest point of the ridge to where Innsbrucker Hütte is nestled into a lower ridge of the Habicht, seeming to barely have a solid foundation, but a lovely site, as the fog was getting thicker just after we arrived, followed soon after by deep, long rolls of thunder. The bad weather made for a cozy evening with good food, beer, card games and an even cozier sleep. Unfortunately, though, the bad weather was still hanging around in the morning. Waking up at 6am to get an early start up Habicht, one look out the window at the still dense fog, and another roll of thunder, quickly sent us back to bed, knowing there'd be no chance of summiting Habicht that day. Nevertheless, we set out early, but down the mountain, to the Gschnitz, in the next valley over and headed home for a nice, rainy, evening at home.
    And, though we didn't get to summit, we did still accomplish our goal of spending a night on the Alps in a hut-- an experience I'd highly recommend to anyone who has the chance. The rest that comes with being in nature, a good sleep, and a warm meal after hiking to get it were so needed and so satisfying.

-Christi

Hiking into the Pinnistal.

Habicht at the head of the valley, our trail heads up the left side and on to the ridge covered in cloud.

Hanging out by the creek before the weather came in. 

Innsbrucker Hütte, below the mighty Habicht.

Very thankful to arrive the hut with the promise of hot food, good beer, and cozy beds inside.