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1 Sep 2025
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Description
Hi!
We are Ann & Kex (his name is Wolfgang, but everybody calls him Kex) and we emigrated from Berlin to this beautiful island of Öland in 2008. We run a touristplace with a 2D-café and a gallery. The tourist season is very short (june - sept) and we work toghether in the café during the summer. Kex is skilled in crafts and offers all kinds of handyman and gardening services through our company. Ann is an artist and involved in the local art scene.
Our place is 5000 m² with a big garden and four typical swedish wooden buildings. There is always work to do on our place, which we - beside our regular work - just can´t make completly by our self. Luckely the best time to paint our buildings with the typical swedish"falurött" is springtime and autumn. That´s why we are looking for help on the most beautiful times of the year: middle of april to middle of may or around september to oktober. In return you get our fully equipped holiday apartment free of charge and enough time to discover our wonderful island outside of the tourist season (Just imagine: a 20 kilometers long EMPTY sandy beach only 5 minutes by car from us!)
Anns children are adults and live in Germany. We lost Paula, our beloved mixpoodle, in june 2024 and still haven´t decided yet wether we will have another dog or not. We do have eight happy hens, everyone of them with an own personality. Ann is a pescetarian (vegetarian who eats fish) and our cooking focusses on fresh and non-convenience ingredients. We are interested in human rights, climate change and generelly try to live in harmony with our surrounding and care for our inviroment. We love to stroll around on fleemarkets and reuse things. Generelly we are not much into consumption, but we have everything we need (and much more than that, for sure). We are not religious or spiritual, but Ann does Yoga from time to time.
We are just .....kind of normal people, I guess. ;))
Types of help and learning opportunities
Gardening
DIY and building projects
General Maintenance
Interests
Carpentry
Events & social
Culture
Politics / Social justice
Vegetarian or vegan
Sustainability
Pets
Hiking
Sailing / Boating
Nature
Beach
Outdoor activities
Camping
DIY & crafts
Languages
Drawing & painting
Animals
Cooking & food
Plant care
Books
Gardening
Art & design
UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
We have had workawayers before (last time was in 2022) and everything worked out fine for both sides. We know how close you can get by working together. Originally from Germany, we have been living on this Swedish island for 18 years, far away from a big city but surrounded by fantastic nature. We love this decelerated life on the countryside.
We are open, tolerant and warm towards all people. We like to share our experiences and through our work with tourists we have a lot of knowledge of human nature and can tell you what it's like to start from scratch in a new country. We lived in Berlin for many years, saw the fall of the wall, went on motorcycle trips and had some excitements in our life. Our wildest years may be over, but it never gets boring. We can only enjoy our relaxed life because we are also goal-oriented and hard-working. We hardly beat around the bush, but say what we think. (If we are not too tired after a long day at work,) we like to sit with a glass of red wine and discuss until late at night. We even like to play board games and we have our own pool billiard.
We haven´t crossed the "Learning a new language" in this workaway offer, because we are no native swedes, but of course you may learn some words, if you are interested and we love to talk about our cultural experience ... ;)
Help
In spring, we need extra help. We're looking for volunteers from the beginning of April to mid-May. We'd love to find two Workawayers – if they travel together, it makes things even easier for us. You should stay for at least one week.
Most of the help we need is not physically demanding and takes place outdoors. In the garden, there's weeding to do, roses and shrubs to prune, and the lawn to mow. There's also painting to be done regularly. Our buildings are painted with the typical red mud paint, Falu-Rot, which is easy to work with and smells wonderful. In addition, many windows need painting. We'd appreciate it if our Workawayers had some DIY experience. ;) You should bring work clothes that can get dirty and paint-stained. The temperature is expected to be between 10 and 20 degrees Celsius.
We usually start the day with a cup of coffee while we discuss the tasks ahead. We then work for 3-4 hours, take a lunch break, and then work for another 2-3 hours. Our Workaways can flexibly manage their own schedules, as long as the work gets done.
Please note: We do not need Workaways for our business. All work takes place on our private property, and there is no contact with our customers or guests. Our business is closed during the Workaway periods we offer. No guests or customers will be present during your stay.
Languages spoken
German: Fluent
English: Fluent
Swedish: Fluent
Accommodation
Our workaways would share our fully equipped holiday apartment, which is placed on the roof floor above the café. The 65 m² offers a kitchen, a bathroom, a sleeping room with 2 beds, a sleeping"castle" and two sofa bed in the living room. There is a heating/cooling system, but no tv. You get access to our wireless network and you may use our washing machine. Pictures and details can be seen on our homepage- ask us for the link (german & swedish).
We will eat most meals together, especially when we are working together; otherwise, we will provide you with the necessary food (e.g., for breakfast). We are looking for two or maximum three persons, a couple or friends would be perfect, as you share the apartment, but no kids. You may bring your friendly dog.
What else ...
This wonderful island is known for its beautiful and rough nature. There are plenty of wild orchids, birds, deep forrests with - yes - elks, sandy beaches (which you gonna have almost for yourself during may), a lot of rocks, many cows and sheeps. Borgholm is the biggest town nearby, about 50 km from us. There is an old castle ruins and only a few hundret meters from there is the holiday residence of the swedish royal family situated.
If you like to hike or ride a bike, there are plenty of paths for you. There is a bus, but only a 3-5 times a day. If you would like to come by flight and/or train, you may take the bus from Kalmar directly to our garden gate. There is also a bus line from Stockholm to our small village (because of the summer tourists). The nearest beach is about 2 km from here and you can walk to our well sorted grocery store too (2 km). In 2022 we bought 3 bikes for our workawayers to use. A car would be good to have anyhow. There are so many nice places we could suggest for a picknick or a walk. We do not have dancehalls, hotels or bars on this island, but gocarts and minigolf is popular. We do have some good restaurants, but if they will be open at all depends on the time of the year. There are a several lighthouses on the island and beside the one on the southern spit there is an ornithological station.
Kalmar is on the mainland and 80 km from us, contected by a long bridge. It has a very nice old town, an art museum and an interesting county museum, a a cathedral and a moated castle.
If you are vegetarian or vegan you will find our grocery store regulary offers tofu, fresh vegtables and fruits, oatly milk, vegetarian meat ... we have hens and (probably - too early to say) a rooster: so there are fresh almost eggs every day!
During the pandamic we were the lucky ones: in Sweden we do not had a lot of hard restrictions. Most people are vaccinated three times, as we are too. And we expect our workaways to be fully vaccinated against covid too!
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Space for parking camper vans
There is plenty of space for a campervan or caravan.
Can possibly accept pets
You may bring your friendly dog ;) Any other animal? Ask us!
How many Workawayers can stay?
Two
My animals / pets
Happy hens (6 months)
At the moment we have 5 adult hens and 3 younger one (still does not know if rooster or hen). They live a luxery life in a winter- and summer-henshouse and during the summer they are in our big cafégarden all day long. If you like hens, we are repetely looking for hens-sitters during our holidays. Please get in contact to hear abaout the next planned oportunity.
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Feedback (6)
The Swedish island of Öland is pure nature and simply beautiful with its extensive beaches, Trollskogen, the rauks ((Byrums Raukar), stone beaches, Wood mills and so much more ! You are fully connected with the nature.
Ann & Kex are both so warmhearted… read more
Both of them are such kind and warm-hearted people!
Kex is a really good chef which means the food I got was always delicious! Even though they are not eating vegan they always made an effort to cook… read more
We both felt very comfortable from day one during our entire stay of three weeks, like a big family! :)
We were accommodated in the apartment "Under the rainbow". Such a lovely decorated… read more
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The Swedish island of Öland is pure nature and simply beautiful with its extensive beaches, Trollskogen, the rauks ((Byrums Raukar), stone beaches, Wood mills and so much more ! You are fully connected with the nature.
Ann & Kex are both so warmhearted… read more
Both of them are such kind and warm-hearted people!
Kex is a really good chef which means the food I got was always delicious! Even though they are not eating vegan they always made an effort to cook… read more
We both felt very comfortable from day one during our entire stay of three weeks, like a big family! :)
We were accommodated in the apartment "Under the rainbow". Such a lovely decorated… read more
The work was… read more
We had a regular schedule that was adapted to both of us, which made it easier to plan our free time. As we went for walks with her dog she tried to find extra variety in the routes and showed me around. During our excursions together she… read more
