Tag: housesitting

Ljubljana + Predjama

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Our first impression of Slovenia’s capital, Ljubljana (“lyoo-BLYAH-nah” is a basic phonetic guide for those curious), was of a quaint city with an idyllic atmosphere. The Ljubljanica River weaves through the “old town” part of the city, where trees and cafes line the bank. It feels like just the right mix of nature with historical architecture with modern conveniences. The people are friendly and seemed to appreciate our poor attempts at speaking Slovenian, but thankfully, almost everyone speaks English, so they are willing to jump in when they realise you aren’t a local.

We decided this was the perfect place to bring along the dog for a day trip, as many shops and cafes here are very pet-friendly. After one or two spew-stops for the dog on the drive there (she gets a little car-sick), we arrived and made our way to the old town centre, where the bustling markets were in full swing. The day was swelteringly hot, so this meant frequent stops to keep the dog hydrated and shaded were a good excuse to try a gelato here, and a coffee there.

Just as we were considering calling it a day because we didn’t want to keep the dog out in the heat too long, a thunderstorm and torrential rain began, seemingly out of nowhere. Normally a bit of rain wouldn’t stop us, but we were completely unprepared and this was extreme enough that all the streets cleared out immediately. Market-goers fled into their nearest cafe, and those who still needed to get somewhere hopped from door-frame to door-frame down streets with no awnings. Unfortunately, we were the latter. At some point, probably about the time we realised it wasn’t letting up and we were soaked to the bone, Matt and I turned to each other and agreed, “What’s a few more drops?! Let’s just commit”, and promptly strolled through the downpour. We laughed at the people crammed right to the door in every cafe we passed, and they looked at us like we were insane. A large group gathered under the safety of a cafe marquee clapped and cheered us on as we walked by, looking like drowned rats resigned to our current predicament. Thankfully, we had a towel in the car to dry off the dog, and we sat in our wet clothes the whole way home, looking forward to a nice, warm shower.

Matt gave up on wearing shoes as they were soaked through.

Because our day trip was cut short, we thought a second visit to Ljubljana (without the dog this time) would be worthwhile. It was the perfect day to see the city, and we loved ambling through the tidy, cobbled streets. I particularly liked the cute shops with locally made crafts and pottery. We also knew we needed to pay a visit to Klobasarna, THE place to get the famous Kranjska klobasa (Carniolan sausage) and of course, you can take a funicular up to see the castle on the hill sitting above the old town.

Mustard and horseradish are traditionally paired with the Kranjska klobasa.

Tourist Tip: If you want an easy and FREE way to get around the city, there are little electric cars that can take you around, courtesy of the city’s tourism board. ‘Kavalirs‘ (“gentle helpers”) are used for elderly and for visitors, and are environmentally friendly – nice one, Slovenia!

Prejama Castle: The fairytale castle in the mouth of a cave.

As a side excursion, we also visited the extraordinary Predjama Castle. It was a little bit of a detour out from where we were, but after spotting photos of it on Instagram, I knew we needed to go here. It was well worth the trip, and many who visit the castle also explore the nearby Postojna Cave (you can also get packages for entry to both here). We wish we had had time for both, but we barely had time to discover all the hidden passages in the castle as it was. Predjama Castle is made unique by its location. The medieval castle was built in the middle of an 123m high cliff-face, with secret tunnels and cave systems running behind and underneath it. Legend tells of its unassailable walls withstanding an attack from the Holy Roman Empire, meanwhile the inhabitants would sneak out through the secret passage and replenish food and water. The attack lasted just over a year, ending with the unfortunate death of its owner, Erazem Lueger, who was betrayed by one of his servants and blasted with a canon while he was on the toilet.

Celje + Šempeter

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The quiet town of Celje from the Celje Castle tower.

Our first house-sitting experience was up in the Slovenian hills looking down on the small town of Celje; home for the next 3 weeks. Though it’s Slovenia’s third-largest town, it has a population of less than 40,000, so it feels like basically everyone knows everyone, and each other’s business. The town itself is quaint and historical, and we walked down and back up the steep hill most days accompanied by the dog we were looking after.

One of our biggest hurdles has been making sure the internet is suitable for our work needs. Being able to work via internet is a huge advantage for us in regards to making it possible for us to do this whole ‘house-sitting’ thing, however, we have come to realise that, unfortunately, you cannot rely on the internet being fast enough for our needs, and you cannot rely on the house-sitting host to always fully understand what “fast upload speed” means. That being said, we (I mean Matt, really) have always figured out a solution in the end. Our house-sit in Slovenia ended up having internet only marginally better than dial-up, but thankfully the cell data plans were big enough to accommodate our usage.

One of the highlights of Celje is the castle on the hill behind the city. You can get a lovely view of the castle from the Savinja River, or basically anywhere in the town, and vice versa. This is probably the main draw-card for visiting the castle, though the history, architecture and torture chamber exhibit are also interesting. At certain times of the year, there are interactive experiences, festivals and concerts held here (more info here).

She’s sulking because she was upset at Matt being “locked up”.

Celje was once occupied by Roman forces, and therefore much of their older history is intertwined. Sites of Roman ruins can be found around the city, and a guided visit to the Pokrajinski Muzej will bring you below the current town, to the remains of the Roman town once there – you can even walk across the section of Roman road that was uncovered. While the historians and experts are trying to raise enough money to reconstruct what they can from the rubble, there is apparently enough leftover pieces of debris (often large pieces of marble with carvings in them) that they have started using them as public seating around the town. A few other things in the area that are worth a visit are the public treehouse in the park/forest across the river from the town centre (especially if you love a good nature walk), and the Stari Pisker is a great place to grab a good burger or meat dish.

An easy drive from Celje is a town called Šempeter. If the Roman ruins in Celje were your jam, then you’ll probably enjoy this too. Just off the main road is a Roman Necropolis, some of which was discovered in an orchard in the 50’s, and some pieces were found in the Savinja riverbed. We made this stop on our way to the Pekel Cave, where we took a guided tour that led us between the stalactites and stalagmites, up a large flight of stairs and spat us out at the top of the hill that the cave is under.

Beginner’s Guide to House-sitting…We’re the Beginners

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Just a couple of crazy kids leaving little old NZ behind for the next 6 and a half months.

What started out as a crazy idea that popped into our heads one day, finally lay at our feet. We had heard of people going overseas and getting odd jobs to pay their way through countries, or even free accommodation in exchange for a few hours of labour (usually manual or language tutoring), but neither of us can seem to remember quite how we came across house-sitting. This offered free accommodation in exchange for the care of one or more pets. We knew that if we wanted to travel it had to be budget-friendly, as we are saving for a house back in NZ (those Auckland house prices – amiright?!), so we wanted whatever we did to not affect our savings. After long discussions, research and calculations, we came to the conclusion that house-sitting could not only let us continue putting money aside into our savings, but it could potentially, *hopefully* allow us to actually put in more than we can normally save at home! We weighed up the cost of flights + food + activities + accommodation for any side trips we may want to do between house-sits + storage for our belongings at home vs. our rent in Auckland + our usual weekly expenses. With Matt free-lancing, he wasn’t tied down with work, and, having a design-based job myself, we made the decision that he would train me up and I could help him out with the basics. It was all kind of ideal.

We’ve had a lot of people ask us about how house-sitting works, so if you’re interested, here’s what you need to know:

  • there are many different websites you can sign up to and apply for house-sits. Most of them have a fee to join, but for free accommodation, it can be well worth it. Some of the sites we came across are: Trusted Housesitters (NZD$130 p/yr, but we found a discount voucher online), Nomador (3 applications free, then/or approx NZD$40 per quarter), Mind My House (NZD$20), Housesit Match (approx NZD$112), etc.
  • we didn’t sign up to all of the sites we came across, but the one we’ve had the most success with, by far, is Trusted Housesitters.
  • some of the sites are more specialised or commonly used in one particular area. For example, Trusted Housesitters seems to have a lot of choice for France and the UK, Nomador seems to have more USA and Australia, etc.
  • when setting up your profile for house owners to view, make sure that you include details about yourself and interests, relevant history (specifically pet or plant care), and if you can get references this will also help your case.
  • while this is a great way to save money and travel at the same time, please don’t forget that you still have responsibilities and that these people are putting their trust in you to look after their pets. Often their pets are like family members, so duties can’t be shirked.

I hope this quick intro on our 6 month house-sitting stint has been helpful or inspired you to think about doing something similar. It really is a great way to see the world in a cost-effective way, plus you get to meet lots of great people, make new friends and even have some nice little interactions as passers-by want to pat the cute dog you’re walking.

  • It’s a hard life