Julia

Austria
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Profile information

Travel information
I am currently
At home
Activities i am interested in:
Renovation works, gardening, art project, childcare, animal care, house sitting, working and living at a warm and sunny place
My next destination:
Canary Islands, Spain - from Jan 2026 until Mar 2026
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Description
I love doing manual work, especially outdoors , I love the sun and warm weather. Manual work means for me: DIY projects, gardening, renovation work or creative projects. I enjoy cooking and eating regional products, avoiding ‘industrial food’ as much as possible. I had my own ‘self-sufficient-living’ project in Italy, but had to give it up due to relationship problems. However, it remains my greatest wish to live as self-sufficient as possible ... learn about it, practise it ... and I love children (my own children now grown up and don't need me to be in their immediate vicinity), they are always a source of joy and meaning in life.
Interests
Self development
Sustainability
Farming
Carpentry
Animals
DIY & crafts
Gardening
Plant care
Music
Languages
Drawing & painting
Art & design
Nature
Beach
Mountain
Sailing / Boating
Outdoor activities
Languages
Languages spoken
German: Fluent
English: Fluent
French: Intermediate
Spanish: Beginner
Italian: Beginner
More details about my language interests
I would like to improve my spanish - and french-knowledge. On the other side, I yould teach you in German.
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Skills and knowledge I'd like to share or learn
Some knowledge of:
Being an elderly companion
Languages
Art Projects
Gardening
DIY and building projects
General Maintenance
Life at a Farmstay
Eco Projects
Helping around the house
Animal Care
Hospitality/Tourism
House & pet sitting
More details about your skills
I am good with my hands and also have quite some experience with construction work, renovation work and design projects. I enjoy working in the garden (growing vegetables and similar) and processing the harvested produce into jam, pickled vegetables – or whatever else needs to be done to preserve it.
I spent most of my working life in front of and with computers, but then I decided to spend my life away from the screen and trained as an electrical engineer. However, I only used this knowledge for a few years because it mainly brought me back in front of the screen.
Then, for seven years, I pursued my own self-sufficiency project in Italy, with lots of olive trees, some fruit trees and my own vegetable garden – which I unfortunately had to give up because of the partner with whom I had built it up.
I enjoy spending time with children (my own are now grown up), learning about foreign cultures and getting to know new people, and I like cultural and linguistic exchange.
Age
58
What else ...
I like to work outside, to renovate, make the garden produce some more vegetable or fruit, create something, design something ...
Some more information
- Smoker
- Driver's licence
- Allergies
- Special dietary requirements

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13 Mar 2026

Left by host (Eco-projects at our little ...) for Workawayer ()

Hi Julia, I want to answer you, as:

You wrote: “Most recently, there were four workawayers #redacted# at the finca, and there were problems from day one”.
Me ask: You arrived on 12th of february and you left on 25th of february. If something you didn't like, why didn't you tell me when you were here, but only wrote this bad feedback?

You:… read more

(Neutral )

25 Feb 2026

Left by Workawayer () for host (Eco-projects at our little ...)

The hosts stated that they believe in the best in people and would evaluate and treat them accordingly, and that praying before meals would raise the ‘energy level’.
On the other hand, the hostess hardly ever joined in the communal meals, and the host mostly stared at his mobile phone while eating toghether.
Most recently, there were four… read more workawayers #redacted# at the finca, and there were problems from day one because one of the volunteers found it unhygienic and conducive to illness that the cats there were allowed to be at the dining table and also on the worktop in the kitchen. The tea towels (for drying dishes, as there is no dishwasher) were also all old and very dirty, which the new volunteer complained about.
This volunteer threw these dirty towels outside, the hosts saw this as an attack on their way of life and shouted loudly that they would now call the police and that this volunteer must leave the finca immediately (it was around 9 p.m. and the finca is located about 5 km above the nearest village – there are no buses or taxis there! )
I tried to calm the situation down and talk to everyone involved, but it didn't help: this is our house, we make the rules, you have to do what we say, and not tell us how things could be done better (that's what the hosts stated).
Finally, I decided that I too would leave the finca the next morning together with the other volunteer. He had been assured that he would be taken to the nearest bus station, so I thought I would go with him.
No, I was chased off the property with my belongings like a mangy dog. The same as the other one. No bus, no taxi available. No one who could or would take us 5 km out of the mountains to the nearest bus station.
Also: the host (she) yelled at me to leave her property immediately. I don't know why, I didn't destroy anything, I didn't make a mess, I don't eat much either... I just told her in the morning when the other volunteer had to leave also, that I also gonna leave ... But than began the battle. She threw my backpack away, she tried to push me with physical force to leave her property, she shouted at me, "go away, just go away".
I am not sure, what I have done wrong.
Those hosts are treating their volunteers like #redacted#.
How can you kick out someone in the nowhere, where you can't get a taxi or something - and before telling, that you will bring them (us) to the nearest bus station?
They try to absorb you, getting your working power for more or less no real food, #redacted# for sleeping (a cave, without daylight, without fresh air, aswell as it is a construction site all the time, where you stay in dust and other construction dirtyness)
II can only advise everyone not to accept this Workaway placement.

(Negative )