Second Thoughts

Even though we had discovered what we felt might be our "Perfect Place", we felt that we should travel further east along the Pyrenees to check out the sun-kissed region adjacent to the Mediterranean Ocean.  This department is called the Pyrénées-Orientales (eastern Pyrenees) and was recommended to us by our friends in the Ariege for its warm, sunny climate, great fruit trees (especially cherries) and proximity to beaches.  We knew, however, that we wouldn't likely be able to afford any property there.  Nevertheless, we started to contact HelpX hosts in the area.

We had a hard time finding a host situation that was suitable (not camping, sane-sounding hosts, tasks that weren't back-breaking, a location that wasn't so remote that we couldn't explore, hosts that didn't have terrible reviews, etc.) but we decided to contact a couple who had a beautiful, but remote hideaway and good reviews.  Without realizing that I had the calendar wrong in my head, I  accidentally made arrangements to stay with them for 3.5 weeks (1.5 weeks longer than we normally stay) to fit with our desired departure back to the Netherlands.

I wrote a couple of emails to the host to ask for directions to their place and get some more detailed information, but never received an answer.  Then, about a week before we were supposed to arrive, I wrote to ask if it would be ok to shorten our visit with them to 2.5 weeks, as our current hostess needed just one more week of help to finish off her Bunkhouse project.  I also added in my email that I hadn't heard back from them after my last 2 emails.  Here was the response:

"Yes, I did get your two emails: the first didn't appear to need a reply and the information about the bus stop hardly seemed urgent...I think we can cope with your arriving on the 17th. If it's going to be delayed further than that, I don't think it's really worth the upheaval of having you here for less than 2 weeks."

We didn't care much for the tone of this email and decided that we could surely find something better and someone more welcoming, so we wrote back that since we had clearly gotten off on the wrong foot with these hosts, perhaps it would be better if we found somewhere else to stay.  Back to the HelpX webpage to find somewhere else....