HOME SWAP EXPERIENCE - GERMANY

Well here I am in Germany for another travel adventure and hopefully for the improvement of German. This trip will prove to be a bit different in that I shall be living in the homes of complete strangers! Yes. Can you imagine allowing someone you’ve only had email contact with, through a home exchange website, complete access to your precious home…and while you yourself won’t be there! I first registered with www.homelinkinternational.com with the expectations of doing simultaneous exchanges during July and August, that is, I would be in different parts of Germany while the German owners would be living in my small Valencian home. Surprisingly no one wanted to be in Spain in the height of summer..or at least they didn´t want to be in my humble abode. So not having the avalanche of enquiries expected, I then proactively approached the HomeLink members who met my criteria…nothing ventured, nothing gained. Some had already made their summer plans or my place was too small for their needs. But I did start to communicate with two couples who didn´t wish to hold me to an exchange but were happy for me to stay in their homes cost free. Seems too good to be true, yea? So what are the benefits of this growing holiday sector? Well no faceless hotel rooms. You will be living like a native and hopefully meeting local people and shopping at local stores. For someone like me, on a special diet, it´s much more convenient to cook what you want, when you want and stick to your own budget. You have all the comforts of a home and perhaps garden. I did take some special food items but I was told not to buy things like olive oil, loo roll, washing up liquid etc etc. Compare that to a self catering apartment where usually nothing is provided. I’ve been in such apartments where I’ve had to spend the first day buying such mundane items as dishcloths. And the home exchange owners just leave all their personal things there. So trust is important. I felt this made me especially careful with their possessions being so aware that such a trust was given to me. Well the first retired couple were to have their single parent daughter looking after their home while they were away on holiday. As she spoke Spanish and English and would perhaps welcome some company, they invited me to be in lovely Niestetal, 8 kilometres from Kassel in the heart of this land. The daughter, who’s Berlin flat would then be empty for a few weeks, then offered me a week there while she remained at her parent’s. The second enquiry was from a couple looking for a cat sitter but not really interested in a Spanish exchange. I was a bit anxious recognising from the emails how much this cat meant to them (I have been known to kill friend’s plants!). Perhaps the cat instinctively caught on to this as I was informed ten days before going there (Bad Nauheim) that the poor cat had died. Why would they still want me to live in their home then? The couple insisted in honouring our arrangement. So here´s what happened….