From: Germany
Individual account
Ireland, Nepal, Spain, United Kingdom
07/01/2019 - 15/10/2021
Travelling
Hey there! :)
I'm Lisa, a 26 years old professional horticulturist with woodworking skills.
Am from Germany, and have been away now for nearly 2 years. I started in Ireland on the 7th January 2019 with traveling. Later I got to Wales, where I had lived until March this year, for half a year I had a permanent position at a local plant nursery in Snowdonia. Just two weeks before Corona broke out, I decided to carry on with traveling in UK, because the numbers of cases seemed at that point still quite low in this country, and doing workaway again.
I was then self isolated for 9 weeks at a welsh host near the english boarder, while lock down happened in March.
My intention of doing workaway was to meet nice people, learning new skills, train my old skills, and exploring the landscape and historical old artefacts.
I love to be outside in nature, like my job and hobbys show. Sometimes I'm going on festivals, especially with Folk Rock music, Irish Rock and Pirates Rock.
In my free time I like to meet friends, write poetry and do some adventures outside, like caving and climbing.
I love social evenings with a glass of wine / tea, playing some board games infront of a fire, having nice chats and laughs, or just relax sometimes in my room. :)
Am every time looking after a nice adventure, and at clear nights to sleep outside with my sleeping bag.
I grew up in Dresden, east of Germany, next to the Nationalpark Saxon Switzerland. Beautiful sandstone rocks are there. Since I was a 5 years old girl, my father took me with him to Via ferratas, and since I was 10 years old, I have loved to go hiking in the higher mountains, like the Alps. Mountains are inspiring places for me. There, in the nature, people can find silence and freedom. But the sea is also beautiful and means freedom, I have felt that during my four years living in Kiel (North Germany at the coastline).
All in all I would say, I'm an open minded, honest and friendly person. The world is an important place to learn about myself and the others.
I'm also a quite independent person. Before my travel I had lived the last four years in the north of Germany, far away from my parents and the rest of the family (9 driving hours by bus were between us). Also the household is no problem for me. I enjoy cooking aswell and do that a lot. Not a matter if with meat, vegetarian or vegan, I have plans for every thing. :)
I also want to do a bit street performance because of the good atmosphere. In Germany, I worked sometimes at medieval markets, contributing in the performances, doing some kind of acrobatics. I haven't much experiences in performance on the street, the last day in Germany it was my first time I had done.
DIY and building projects
Eco Projects
Hospitality/Tourism
Charity Work
General Maintenance
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Life at a Farmstay
Helping around the house
Animal Care
Gardening
In Germany I did an apprenticeship in horticulture with the specialty "ornamental plants", learned in Kiel Botanic Garden. After that I was for one year employed as a horticulteur at the same place.
Before I had done my apprenticeship I already got an inside: A volunteering ecological year in another Botanic Garden in my home town Dresden.
So all together six years of gardening experience, mainly:
-weeding
-potting, digging, watering, planting
-propagating
-taking care of plants in general
-also can create flower arrangements
for vases, tubs, hanging baskets etc,
and love that
Unfortunately don't have much experience with vegetable, as this is in Germany an extra specialiced apprenticeship. My specialty are ornamental plants, and additionally exotical plants from different climate zones, as I got teached and worked in the Botanic Gardens.
But would really like to learn more about vegetable, and am sure that I will see many connections, as I know well about the backgrounds how plants work.
- also gained some insight of tree
climbing (tree climbing license
with hand saw)
-have very good experience with
chainsaw on ground (have a chainsaw
license and regular practise, also with
cutting trees)
So I would be happy to volunteer a bit with tree surgeons. I would need to lend some chainsaw trousers and boots.
Am also able to do other kind of soft landscaping work, like:
-strimming
-mowing
-hedge cutting
-experience with pruning adult
fruit trees
-very good with chopping firewood
by axe, am very fast in that
Also household is no problem, I have lived since six years far away from my parents.
Haven't much experiences with dogs and cats, but I love them and if you would give me an advice, I'm sure to take care of them. :-)
- Also a little bit practice in agriculture.
Two weeks on a farm as I was 16 years
old showed me to milk cows, how pigs
live and how to work with some
machines. Sometimes I helped friends
on their farm (without animals) and
they showed me how to drive a
tractor.
-just finished my driving license
(November 2018) before I
started my traveling, and since then
haven't driven anymore, so I would be
quite unsure with driving on the busy
streets
-Since I do workaway, I also have some experience with preparing rooms for guests / housekeeping, as I have done it at 4 different workaway hosts.
Now, after more then one year of traveling, a lot of people said that my english is very good. I would say it's enough for communication and deeper conversations, and words I don't know I try to describe.
Languages spoken
German: Fluent
English: Fluent
Welsh: Beginner
Spanish: Beginner
French: Beginner
More details about my language interests
Am interested in learning some scottish words, and to get better in welsh :)
26
Informations about my current location/plans:
Currently I am in Scotland since begin of August. I stayd on Mull for more then two months at Calgary Beach, and in October/ begin of November on Skye.
Now am staing near Castle Douglas.
It would be great to find a host with at least one or two other workawayers as company.
Am happy to work sometimes much more then 5 hours a day, if there is a small wage in exchange, as I try to save my money for next year summer flying to Spain and Nepal, hopefully after Corona is over!! :)
Any other interests:
I'm interested in beekeeping (no previous knowledge), because would really like to have my own bees in future and helpful to learn about them, also two pigs and some hens, maybe some dugs aswell. So am very happy to get more experience, knowledge and tipps of taking care. Also permaculture is a big field of interest.
Timber Frame Building work is also something I would love to learn more. :) Maybe I can use it later for myself.. :)
DIY is something I would like to train/learn as much as possible, to be able to life an independent live, also skills who help to life in the wildness /surviving skills.
I'm interested in fishing aswell, but have nearly no experience with it (just some drepressing, with catching some sea weed!)
If you have a sailing ship, I would be very happy to learn more about it! I was sailing on a bigger ship with two masts once for a week, that was amazing, and as I lifed at the german north coast I saw all that amazing ships every time, but never learned a lot about them! (How to take care, how to fix, etc..).^^
At some point I hope to will see the northern lights in Scotland. :)
Smoker
Driver's licence
Allergies
Special dietary requirements
Prefer drinking not too much pure milk, because feel after that bit umwell.
