A tribute to Couchsurfing.org

It's time to look back on our trip (apart from also looking forward...) and time to write this post that has been in my head for a while now.
By now our regular readers should have heard of Couchsurfing. To cite their website: "CouchSurfing is a worldwide network for making connections between travelers and the local communities they visit".
And that's exactly what it was for us. Our trip would never have been the same without this wonderful project. Instead of staying in hostels and meeting the same beer-drinking travellers all over the world, we had the chance to meet locals, make friends and experience diverse lifestyles.

Without Couchsurfing, we would never have:
- learned that one can live without a fridge
- learned that one can live without a shower
- experienced the way people in St Petersburg and Moscow go to work every day
- had a bonfire and barbeque while watching the sunset at midnight
- experienced the limitless and unconditional hospitality of Russians
- seen a futuristic electronic housekey in South Korea
- seen Kuala Lumpurs nice sides
- participated in a Capoeira class in Arizona
- cohabited with a little dog with a dress in New Orleans
- walked into the most interesting buildings in downtown Chicago
- had a great time during the snowstorm in Washington
- stayed in a luxurious apartment in Rio
- made friends all around the world that we would like to see again.

Now many of you will ask: but is this SAFE? Well, we stayed with more than 30 people all over the world and yes, it was safe. Of course we didn't connect with everybody in the same way and some people are weird, but we never felt unsafe and all experiences were good and worth remembering.
Now that we are on our way back to a more "normal" life (but what is normal, anyway?) we are looking forward to giving back all this hospitality to other people travelling like we did.

For those who don't know how it works and are curious to know, go to www.couchsurfing.org

Porto Alegre - Elinka e Alberto

At Porto Alegre we had Elinka and Alberto. She is a singer and musical consultant, he studied history but works as a computer programmer. Elinka during whole time she hosted us - four days - had to do a blog presenting a musical group. The whole time she spoke with us and on the phone and little did, even going to bed at 6am. They live not far from the center on the third and last floor of a building not very taken care of. Even if living together already for some time, they had several boxes around. At the lobby they had two TV sets which didn't work very well. The lobby connected to a long corridor with doors for four rooms, bathroom and passageway to the kitchen. Our room is the most organized: there is a sofa-bed to which Elinka added two wood pads and an extra mattress to make a real bed. In one of the rooms - the dining room - Elinka gives classes of voice and singing. In another room - the office - there was a desktop and two laptops on just two tables and lots of pandemonium. Their room is also a mess of clothes. The bathrooms has hot water in the shower, which is a box (like in São Paulo and Curitiba). The flush doesn't wok the first days, being necessary to manually lift the rubber in the water container. Also the ceiling light doesn't work and the only working light is necessary to turn on over a high closet. The kitchen was another disarray: lots of dishes and cutlery going around. When we arrive there is a huge pile of dishes to wash. For the rest of the days we don't give opportunity to repeat the situation. Finally, the washing machine leaks in the front, water that they collect in a basin not big enough for the amount of water coming out.

They have two cats - Lord and Prince - which made their business in their boxes by the kitchen every morning while we have breakfast.

Elinka and Alberto take us out couple of times and, even with all the mess, we are feeling well at their place. Of course they do not have a cleaning lady. They also do not have a car.

Florianólis, Patricia and her two children

In Florianópolis the house is in Campeche, only five minutes by foot to the beach in a area of detached houses. Patrícia lives with her two children and a german shepherd in the garden. The children are 14 and 16years old and students. The younger one also plays videogames while the older one works. Patrícia is event organizer but she doesn't like the company where she is working. She is 45 years-old and not long ago she did her first solo trip to Patagonia. Her car is a Fiat. The house has two floors, with a open area on the ground floor with the dining room, living room, kitchen and a office in one of the corners. On the first floor, after climbing a cement staircase without handrail, there is Patrícia's room, the children room with two single beds and a bathroom. We sleep in the room of Vitor and Pedro and we use a bathroom on the ground floor. Again, hot water only in the showers. The kids sleep in the living room and use the bathroom upstairs.
There are few kitchen utensils and only a small frying pan where we prepare the onions and potatoes for the "bacalhau com natas". The gas stove runs out of gas while we cook, Sunday night. A short phone call and in less than ten minutes there is a motorbike arriving with a new bottle of gas. But in Brazil we never buy an extra bottle, in case.
Patrícia lends us two very shaky bicycles we use only once to go to the supermarket. She take us to visit semi-desert beaches like Matador or Lagoinha de Leste.

Curitiba, Milana and Dalmo

Milana and Dalmo are our hosts in Curitiba. Both journalists and studying for public worker examinations, in order to have a more stable future. They live not far from the center, walking distance from the "eye" of Niemeyer. Their large apartment is on the fifth floor on a quite recent building. The living with two sofas and a TV, a bar dividing the space of with the kitchen. There are three rooms, one of them transformed into a office, a toilet and a bathroom. Is the first apartment in Brazil we sleep with hot water plumbing, warmed by a boiler in the kitchen. Our room had a single bed and an extra mattress, which I use to sleep on the floor. The "office" is mostly used to hang the clothes to dry. They have a car, a Fiat, and a cleaning lady once a week.

Sao Paulo - Vlad e Vanessa

Alda from Boston introduced us to Vanessa and Vlad by email. Vanessa is accountant at C&A and Vlad is teacher of economics in a university. The apartment is at the city center, close to the university where Vlad teaches. On the 18th and last floor (in Brazil we always stay on the top floor) of a building with four apartments per floor. Downstairs it is necessary to cross two gates before crossing a security guard and continue to the elevators. Like in Rio de Janeiro. The apartment is small. The lobby is the living room. There is a small kitchen, a room and an office, where we sleep. The shower, like everywhere else in Brazil, warms the water electrically over our head. All other taps only serve cold water. The simple washing machine washes with at cold. We sleep in a air mattress. There are three cats - Bolacha, Biscoito and another one. They have a car, a renault clio.

Rio de Janeiro, the ghost Xiopan

Rio couchsurfing experience is bizarre. We are received by the house maid who take us to an apartment style loft, fully equiped where we stay. On the floor there is the air matress with satin bedsheets, silver color and brand 'playboy'. In the kitchen there is all kind of food for breakfast, except fruits. "I'll get them tomorrow" says the maid, "you don't need to buy anything". Her name is Lena and is a small women. The apartment has only one big living room without separation for the bedroom. It has two bathrooms, one of them big even with small jacuzzy and which entrance is one of the doors of the closet. The entrance of the apartment is to the kitchen, even though there is one door that goes to the living room. In the kitchen there is a door to a small veranda with the washing machine and dryer only for us and a small toilet for the maid. The apartment has television, sound system and wii console.
On the second day we expect a Turkish boy to join us which didn't come. The apartment is only for us and there is a freshly made carrot cake with chocolate sauce brought by Lena. In the big toilet there are 'playboy' magazines, in the TV cupboard erotical movies and in the fridge a lot of beers.
At the end of the third day the Turkish appears, also a small boy. Little after while he is still trying to explain for how long he has been in Brazil and what he does for living, while he is changing the story from 2 to 6 years and back, the apartment owner, Xiopan, appears. She takes a plastic orange, squeezes and it becomes a penis and she laughs. We go to her apartment with sea view. We meet her soons: a 17-year-old girl who is going to have dinner with us, white; two black younger boys, clearly adopted. Lena doesn't get out of the kitchen. Xiopan and the daugther do the service. At the end of the dinner a picture: "say sex", says Xiopan. She is lawyer for a court.
That night the Turkish leaves the light on when he goes to bed and, at 6am he turns on the dryer machine which wake us up.
We don't see Xiopan anymore. The next day we leave, telling Lena. Xiopan phone us saying she was sorry for not being more available for us and that she planned to do kayaking with us.

Washington, Margaret, Brad, Christina and Marc

They are the family that hosts us in Washington area. They live in Alexandria, Virginia in a 3-floor house. The parents are around 50 years-old and the sons are 16 and 13. Margaret and Brad are both graduated on health and they worked for one year in the Thai-Cambodia border dealing with the refugees. Is the most comfortable couchsurfing place we found so far and we sleep six nights there. Not as an option but because we arrive at the beginning of a historical snow storm which stops all the public transports and schools. Margaret is very energetic and at home is always cooking or willing to go out to do some activity. We go with them to a SuperBowl party at some friends place and the day after to their church to watch the beginning of the SuperBowl game. Only once we go to Washington, taken by Margaret, but the excess of snow makes the walk very tiring and uninteresting. The museums are closed. We walk twice by the streets of Alexandria, we cross-country ski on the streets full of snow. I help to clean the snow around the house and from a roof; Eva makes bread and I make hot wine. From Friday to Saturday night it snows around 60cm and Tuesday night and Wednesday some 30cm more. Without a better solution we rent a car from Thursday to go until Miami. The familiy house is big. The ground floor has an office and a living room on the left of the entrance, a dining room, the kitchen and another living room on the right of the entrance. On the top of the stairs there was a bathroom, the parents room and the rooms for each of the sons. Some more stairs and there was our room, a space for games and a paiting room. Around the house they have a small green house, a tree house and a garage.

Brookly, Lisa and Wistlepig

Brookly is elected as our district while staying in New York City. Lisa is our host together with Wistlepig, a young dog. The aparment on the ground-foor of Carol Gardens neighbourhood is nice and full of things. Lisa, even though she works as a nanny and in a kindergarten, she likes handcrafts and does crochet, paints, clays. The entrance of the apartment is to the kitchen which has a small toilet on the side. To the left there is an arch going to the living room with a corner table, a sofa-bed and books, sewing table, etc. A second arch from the living room goes to the storing area. The apartment belongs to someone that makes a cheap rent in exchange that he keeps his storage in the house. A door from that storage are goes to Lisa's room where there was the bathroom. We are feel comfortable and we cook once and we take breakfast at home. The nearby supermarket was simple but good (even with portuguese bread). On the last day something happens with Lisa's family and neither her or the dog sleep at home and we could not say goodbye.

Boston, Alda

In Boston is almost a last minute couch. The morning we are leaving Chicago we send few more requests for Cambridge as there was no reponse for Boston. Alda immediatly answers. She is Portuguese doing PhD in airports and studying temporarly at MIT. She shares apartment with Baris and his girlfriend at the top of the stairs of the two storey building. There is a kitchen/living room where we sleep the first night in a futon, a bathroom which sink did not work well, Alda's room quite empty where we sleep the second night and Baris couple's room. Alda kept offering soup and tea but we only taste the latter. Her apartment is near MassAv.

Chicago, Hannah

Hannah would not stop to talk from the moment she met us until we say goodbye. She had finished nurse education and was looking for a job. Meanwhile she is volunteer for a poors people clinic and teacher at hebrew school. She is Jewish but not very involved - she works on shabbat. Her apartment in Northwest Chicago is old and full of things. At home she has four bicycles plus two at the cellar. It was a one bedroom ("messy, don't enter") apartment, with a living and dining room together, plus a bathroom and a kitchen. In is a first floor with a small porch. We have an air matress to sleep on, which developed a hole after the first night and, after spending the second night pumping air time to time, we patched with a bicycle patch. Hannah cycles everywhere and likes second hand things. She shows us a huge second hand clothes shop where we buy things for the American winter and also she offers pairs of gloves and a jacket.

Moscow - Elena and Alex

Elena and Alex have a kid, Dmitri, year and half old. They like cycling and in their last mail they said "from Monday you can stay as long you want, but we mightn ot be here on weekends". "Here" is Moscow. They lived in nice suburbs building, about 45 minutes from the center after tram and metro. The appartment was almost in western standards even if they used the big room for sleeping instead of living. Again the usual mess, no order whatsoever and almost no free space on the kitchen to put things to eat. This lack of order also means lack of cleaning of all kitchen appliances. Since some time we are used to this.

We stayed in Dmitri's room, in a IKEA sofa, quite confortable. Unfortunately better beds always mean less contact.

Monday they said we could arrive after 15:00 but at 15:20 they send an SMS that from 16 to 22 they are not there. As there was no time to arrive before 16, we were stuck until 22. They were nice when we met and we talked a while. Alex works on IT field, is big and beautiful; Elena finished her PhD on Maths modelling. Alex goes to work around 9am. we were tired from the train and wanted to sleep.

Next day at 10:30, when we finished to dress up, Elena says we have to leave in 15 minutes. Eva still tried "but we can leave afterwards...". "No, you leave with me". And Alex should be home around 20. At 19 a SMS: "will you be home before 21?". Understanding we replied that we arrive only at 23. He thanks and we arrive late so he can go to cycle. Time to leave next morning is 9+-15minutes, after we questioned. And "would you be interested to sleep at our Datsha tomorrow?". He wanted to go there and we had to follow, no way to say no. "There is a pool and you can do banya" he added to try making more appealing. "Ok", next day we carry all day stuff to bring to datsha as we can't return home before.

Her parents there are very nice and we had good time.

Thursday we leave datsha at 10 and Elena takes us to see a monastery called NewJerusalem. At 12:15 we arrive home to leave the bag and then she says that Alex will be back at 22:00. tuck outside again, we contacted Jolanda, Eva's brother's friend, to take us to some art show. At 22, while we were going to train station to buy ticket for next morning train, an SMS "we will be home only at 23. sorry". Luckly we were not yet going home. At 23:30 we were going home. Not feeling bad at all about the late time but in any case we warn them that we estimate to arrive around midnight. The tram we take, even if the good number, is going to "depo" and takes a different way. We have to stop a car and go home for 100R more. At 0:15 we arrive, Alex is sleepy and opens the door. "Good night" was the only changed words. Friday morning when he wakes up we are ready to leave. "Bye, maybe see you in Switzerland" we said ironically.

Couchsurfing

Ha dias em que me parece abusar do couchsurfing. Vezes em que a ligacao entre as pessoas nao se cria, em que o host esta num sitio e tu noutro. Como se estivessemos os dois a partilhar uma casa e ele nao fosse mais que outro host com quem nao falo.

Couch Surfing around

For three times already we have been Couch Surfing during this trip. Was in Budapest, then in Zamosc and now in Lublin. Tomorrow we will go to Warsaw, again meeting someone new.

Couchsurf.com and hospitalityclub.org are two nice websites where people can share their couch for others to surf on. It makes the trip much cheaper (usually sleeping is about 50% of the budget) and at same time you meet someone local who can show you around or give you tips.

We were lucky already to meet Gary in Budapest who show us around and let us use the public transport without paying; Michal and his brother (plus the whole family including 3 other brothers, parents and girlfriend) in Zamosc, who made us feel in family again; Adam in Lublin, with his parents, who had everything prepared for our arrival, with maps and information about the city for us. Thanks to all!

For sure not always we will be using couchsurfing, as we also need sometime for us and also because it takes time to find a person. We like to read their profiles and have something (besides traveling) in common.

But yes, I recommend a lot to try it. Myself I received people (including over Xmas last year, Ray from Singapore) and was at peoples place in Europe, Asia and South America.