It's official! I arrived in Lisbon a few days ago and the struggles are officially real. What are you talking about, you might ask, I thought the Erasmus experience is like living in a dream. Well, let me tell you, everything has its bad side, especially if you are a procrastinating dummy like me. As the Sagittarius I am I tried to look for a way I can live the dream as cheap as possible. I even dreamed forward and I had a vision where I can stay, study and live in a foreign country not just for free, but with amazing profit. This is when I decided to pay that Workaway fee and start searching for a payed volunteering job. Martin Luther King wasn't the only one who had a dream, okay?!
If you aren't familiar with Workaway, it's a volunteering Network where you can write to hosts at basically any point of the world and they will host you in exchange of work. This can be very diverse. Some search for a babysitter, some for someone to help in their projects, basically everyone can find something fitting.
I had this wonderful imaginary scenario where I can simply go to my classes and in the spare time make some cash at a hostel where I meet so many charming international friends, my old friends start to finally call me Mrs. Worldwide.
So I wrote to the hostel that stood out to me. It looked awesome, their ethics were extraordinary so I was like okay I'm gonna work there. I wish. One thing that nobody tells you about sites like Workaway is that nobody ever responds. And you thought your friends leaving you on the seen is exhausting.
I started writing to every hostel in Lisbon. One and each of them. Nothing. These very special people left me on read.
I was begging them to write at least a "no" but no. Not even killing the hope that it could be possible. I just couldn't give up. I started writing to every individual that was on the list. I was so desperate I suggested a woman that I will teach her how to cook in a vegetarian way. FOR FOUR MONTHS. She must have thought I'm insane. No, I was just desperate. Or maybe a little bit of both. With a help of a friend I discovered that I am not the only Hungarian person coming to the FAUL. I started to talk to her and soonly after it turned out that I might be the only irresponsible Hungarian in the city with less than a month to the mobility and no place to call future home. She recommended me this site called Uniplaces. It had the cheapest places ever. I started to love the idea of a bed in Ey hostel for the extremely cheap price of 170 euros.
Call me stupid, but even after deciding I didn't book it. I was sleeping next to my card and never once reach to complete the purchase. After all, I tried. It failed because I had a little less than the required and shortly after the failure I received my first Workaway reply. They said that they are looking for a helper from the week I will arrive. This is a sign, I thought to myself. I replied right away. They did not. I was writing them every day for three days then I got all secret-agenty and started (trying) contacting them every way possible: Facebook messenger, Email, over the phone. Nothing seemed to work.
I finally booked the Ey hostel bed but it was more expensive and it was available only from March. How do I manage 18 days of uncertainty? I will discuss it in a different blog post so embrace yourselves for a part 2!
Now lets stick to this story.
As soon as I successfully booked the bed I started looking for cheap stay-alternatives. Okay, mostly free alternatives. I started contacting people on Couchsurfing with not much success. Shortly after, not even 24 hours after, the Workaway hostel contacted me. They decided to hire me or at least to ask every hiring question in the world. I answered right away. All my problems solved right? no. They didn't ever answer that they would wait for my arrival. I was patient, they are very slow texters I said to myself. But they weren't. The day before my flight I contacted them via phone and they told me that they already hired someone else and it was a miscommunication.
Pub hopping? More like hostel hopping for me.
As much of a calm nature I might have I started freaking out. What do I do until March?
Well, that's the music of the future.