on the farm again

after four days in a "camping village" about 45 minutes north of rome we headed to the island of sardinia to embark on our second help exchange adventure. the little reality pause of the camping place was nice - gave us a few days to get our shit together while simultaneously doing next to nothing. the lovely gretchen visit also seemed to center me a bit, so i was feeling quite good by the time we arrived in civitavecchia to board our second overnight ferry. apparently the italian national line is much fancier than the croatian, as was evidenced immediately by the fact that we were transported to the 4th floor of the ship in an elevator, rather than a rickety outdoor staircase hovering over the harbor. once on board alex and i indulged in a rather average-tasting but high-costing dinner, had a glass of wine, hot shower, and climbed into our slightly rocking but rather cosy little sea-beds for a nice 5 and a half hours of sleep. we were awakened just before 6 to the sound of an on-board announcement in italian, then one in english so heavily accented that it was nearly incomprehensible. we were set to arrive at 6:30 though, so we headed for the exit. it was still dark out, and as the elevator door opened onto the car storage level of the ship, we walked wearily towards what seemed to be the exit, feeling rather like we were leaving the belly of a beast only to head into some sort of heavily fog covered hell. it turned out to just be sardinia though, and after a bit of a wait the sun came up and our bus across the island arrived, allowing us something of a tour across a misty but intensely beautiful landscape looking something like a cross between the scottish highlands and new mexican high desert. once we arrived in the very mediterranean bosa (where you can legally paint your house any color but white!) i called carl, who shortly arrived to pick us up in his former english taxi, a huge pale yellow thing that looks like it's from the 50s. carl himself is quite a sight to behold, with a shock of white blond hair and a shaggy beard, he looks like a viking who stumbled into some sort of neo-hippy colony. he told us we'd actually be staying in their house in town, which is a 5 (maybe 6?) story apartment with one room on each floor, creating a dizzying and amazing house including a lovely rooftop terrace. tomorrow another helpxer is arriving, meaning we'll be sharing the 3 bedroom wonder with a fellow traveller. the actual farm is just outside town on a lovely hillside from which you have a full view of the main section of houses, the river that flows through out to the ocean, and the castle that tops it all off. amazing. after a bit of settling in yesterday carl picked us up this morning and showed us the upper field, which contains the plethora of olive trees. he showed us the little rake things you use to get the olives off the branches, and after a bit of instruction we were off, successfully de-oliving one large tree, in total harvesting a hefty basketfull. we then went back down to their outside kitchen area for lunch (did i mention how nice the weather is here?), at which point we met his partner carey and got to know their two adorable little toe-headed kids evelina and padraig, whom they for some reason refer to as bubble and weasel. while carey and carl are both very friendly, they're old hats at the whole helpx thing and it seems that we will be treated more as the hired help than as friends come to stay. the fact that this sort of hired help gets to stay in a first rate house in a cute little town and only has to work about 4 hours per day makes it all seem okay though... whew. i'll let you know once the week begins and the harvest is truly underway!