Hang out in our bakery and play with our kids in the magical little village of Zitsa, Greece

Infos

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  Description

  Hello! We (Kostas & Anna) are a family of 5 (including our cat Muzi, plus a handful of uncounted stray cats & dogs that we unofficially take care of) living above our bakery in the beautiful little village of Zitsa (population 300) in the northwest mountains of Greece, about an hour from the west coast. We have 2 littles - Kiki, who will be 9 at the end of Oct., and Thaleia, who turned 5 on Apr. 24th. We also have a sheep farm with about 200 sheep, various farm dogs & cats, a turkey, some ducks, and chickens.
  
  Kostas is the baker of the village (and one of the best, and most famous, bakers in Greece!) - his family has been running the only bakery here for 32 years and he took over from his father about 20 years ago. Kostas' mother helps him in the bakery, and before having their first baby, Anna worked full-time alongside her husband as his assistant baker. Kostas & Anna met via Couchsuring 14 1/2 years ago, but it was not love at first sight! After meeting for only 1 day, they got to know each other, and fall in love, slowly, via texting, e-mail, instant messaging and Skype while living 7 time zones apart for 8 months. But when they met each other in person again, it WAS love at first sight and a week later Anna agreed to leave her life in the US to follow her heart. She was an environmental lawyer there, but finds life in a village much more appealing (especially with how connected the world is nowadays!).
  
  And 2 1/2 years after moving here to Zitsa, Anna opened the first bookshop in the village which then closed as a bookshop business and re-opened as a free private library and creative space. The bookshop was created to be a Literary & Cultural Community Center and many Workaway volunteers have spent time helping there in the past few years. The library is now a free private library that is accessible to anyone and everyone, whenever they want. It is also where volunteers stay!
  
  We have a passion for meeting new people and love hosting travelers in our home. Our family has a vineyard from which we make our own wine, and we use the milk from our sheep farm to make homemade cheese, yogurt, and a traditional pasta (a lot of the milk is also sold to a diary company in the city of Ioannina about 25 kilometers away). But one of our favorite activities is sitting around with new friends, sharing fresh bread, homemade wine and cheese, and talking about life. We love hearing what people's passions are, as well as sharing stories of our own. We believe life is beautiful and challenging and interesting and meant to be full of love.
  
  Come join us and explore the life here!!

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  Types d'aide et opportunités d'apprendre

  Enseignement

  Jardinage

  Baby-sitting et jeux créatifs

  Aide à la maison
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  Echange culturel et opportunités d'apprendre

  We LOVE our way of life, and our village, and are eager to share all of it - we feel life here is very authentic and meaningful and that the most important things are love and family and nature. We also have hosted over 1,400 travelers in our home over the past 13 years and each one has a story to tell, so we can share that too! Most volunteers end up feeling like part of the family and often end up calling us their “Greek family.” We feel the same way. Any of the people who have stayed with us could show up on our doorstep at any moment and be welcomed with warm hugs and lots of good food. You might even learn a few words of one of the hardest languages in the world!!

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  Projets impliquant des enfants

  Ce projet peut impliquer des enfants. Pour en savoir plus, consultez nos directives et conseils ici.

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  Aide

  What we really need help with right now is someone to spend time with our daughters a couple of hours a day (so Anna can have some time to work from home) which often includes hanging out in our cute village bakery (volunteers will not be asked to do any work FOR the bakery, but rather just be there when the kids are there). For us, the bakery is a lot more than just a business - it is often our social life and where a lot of our best memories are made. A couple of years ago we started offering bakery workshops in which we teach people how to make traditional pies (pita in Greek) that are unique to this area of Greece. People from all over the world come to learn our generations-old recipes and about the real life in Greece. After the cooking and baking lessons, we share in a large Greek lunch, eating the dishes the guests have made and some of Kostas’ famous sourdough bread, drinking Zitsa’s famous naturally sparkling wine, and enjoying the sweet pita for dessert. As we revel in the amazing flavors of the local dishes, we chat and learn about each other, sharing stories and life wisdoms. The bakery workshops are SUCH a fun experience and you would get to join in as our daughters are often there, playing and sometimes teaching, and it would be extremely helpful if you could “manage” them while we lead the workshops. You would also get to join us in the big tasty meal afterwards :)
  
  The work would be 5 days a week, 5 hours a day, with the work day divided up between a couple hours in the morning and then a couple hours again in the late afternoon/evening. There is a siesta in the middle of the day, so people are usually resting from about 15:0015:30 to 19:30. You can choose which 2 days you want to have off (they don't have to be weekend days, and in fact, week days might be better as there is no bus service on the weekends, so if you want to explore more of the area and don't have a car, you would most likely need to take a bus to Ioannina and then go from there).
  
  Breakfast will be provided for you each day from the yummy stuff Kostas makes fresh in the bakery each morning. Lunch and dinner we can cook together or, if we have other things going on, you can cook in our home (we will provide all ingredients - you will not have to buy any food). WE NEED PEOPLE WHO ARE SELF-SUFFICIENT AND CAN MAKE THEMSELVES AT HOME AS WE ARE NOT ALWAYS AVAILABLE TO PREPARE MEALS - WE WOULD LOVE PEOPLE WHO CAN COOK FOR THEMSELVES (AND US SOMETIMES!) OR AT LEAST FEEL COMFORTABLE COMING INTO OUR HOME WHENEVER THEY WANT TO GRAB A SNACK OR INGREDIENTS TO COOK :)

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  Langues

  Langues parlées
  Greek: Courant
  Anglais: Courant
  Français: Débutant

  Cet hôte propose un échange linguistique
  Yes, we love learning new languages in this family, and helping others learn ours!! We also love having volunteers speak to our kids in their native languages so the kids can become more familiar with other languages :)
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  Hébergement

  Volunteers stay in the library! It is a very large space, though the pull-out couch bed is a little small for 2 people. There are 2 fold-out cots and also a chaise lounge that’s comfortable for sleeping 1. The library has 2 bathrooms with hot and cold water. Out the back door is a small garden with a table & chairs and some flowers - a really nice place to sit and relax. There is no place to cook in the library but our home kitchen is completely open to volunteers (and we might put in a cooking area in the library soon - a volunteer could help with that!). There is no WiFi in the library but there is in our home and the bakery which volunteers can also use any time that we are not sleeping (and if we are sleeping, you can sit outside the bakery and use the WiFi). There is also now our workshop space which has WiFi and is available 24 hours a day.
  
  We still host a lot of travelers (usually bicyclists traveling around the world!) so at times you will share the library with them. Don’t worry, there’s PLENTY of room - we have had 13 people there at one time! But we don’t expect that to happen again. However, while you, the volunteer are there, if you EVER feel uncomfortable with a traveler we will immediately ask them to leave OR have you come and stay in our home while they are there (if they are unable to leave for some reason). The comfort of our volunteers is always a priority over the travelers we are hosting, though I can say that we have never, ever, ever had a problem.

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  Autres infos...

  As mentioned, Zitsa is an amazing place. In the village itself, we have a couple of markets where you can find fresh fruits and vegetables, meat, fish, basic home goods, and treats. The village also has some cafes and restaurants, a spectacular free art gallery, a small gym with machines and free weights, schools, a regional autism center, and a famous monastery. In mid-Aug. there is the Zitsa wine festival which is known throughout Greece.
  
  Zitsa is about 3 1/2 hours from Thessaloniki by bus, and about 6 from Athens. The west coast and beaches are a little over an hour away. The closest city is Ioannina, which is 25 kilometers. There are 4 buses to Ioannina every day except weekends (so no buses on Sat. or Sun.), though it is usually quite easy to hitch or find a local who can give a ride. The Ioannina airport has also recently started having international flights so it’s possible to fly right into Ioannina now instead of flying to Athens or Thessaloniki first.
  
  Nearby is also the famous region of Zagorohoria, and not far is the world-famous Meteora.
  
  Zitsa is a perfect place for an artist looking for a retreat in a quiet, beautiful setting, an outdoor adventurer looking for new places to explore, or someone interesting in learning intimately about a new culture!

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  Informations complémentaires

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    Accès Internet

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    Accès Internet limité

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    Nous avons des animaux

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    Nous sommes fumeurs

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    Familles bienvenues

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  Possibilité d’accueillir les digital nomads

  While there is no WiFi in the space where volunteers stay, there is WiFi both in our home, the bakery, and the workshop (where we teach baking & cooking classes) and volunteers would be more than welcome to to be in our home & bakery whenever we are awake (usually from 5am to 11pm each day) OR in the workshop 24 hours a day. In the house there is a large table where someone could set up a computer to work, and also a small office with a workspace and printer, though Anna works up in the office a few hours a day - when she's not there, it's free for anyone to use.

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  Espace pour garer des vans

  About 3 kilometers from our home (and the center of the village) we have a 200-sheep farm where volunteers can park a camper van. There really is no limit to the size. We just built a small house on the farm for ourselves which has running water (hot & cold) and electricity so volunteers could park their camper van next to the house if they wanted. Inside the house there is a full kitchen and bathroom with shower and volunteers would sometimes have access to that.

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  Possibilité d'accueillir les animaux

  We can accept any pet except a cat as we don't want the living/library space to become unavailable for those with cat allergies.

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  Combien de volontaires pouvez-vous accueillir ?

  Deux

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