CouchSurfing

I wrote up a huge blog post today so I've decided to split it up into miniature blog posts. Here's the first one.

When Hilary and I started planning this trip we had gotten really in to CouchSurfing. For those of you who don't know what that it, it's a website (couchsurfing.org) which is worldwide and dedicated to travelers who need a place to stay and would rather stay with locals than in a hotel or hostel. The idea of it is to spread hospitality worldwide and to get a better understanding of other cultures through human interaction. It's trying to take the 'tourist' out of traveling in a way. This is something Hilary and I both can relate to since a big part of this trip for us is more about understanding the different people and cultures around the world rather than just going to see all of the typical country sights.

Back in Seattle, Hilary hosted a few CouchSurfers and I met up with some who were traveling through for dinner and a drink in the city. I couldn't really do any hosting since I was pretty homeless at the time... We had really good experiences with our CSers and were excited to try it out in Europe. Well, we are now in Europe and we are currently staying with our first CouchSurfer, Jit. He has been amazing. Super generous and an overall great guy. I have found most people are in CouchSurfing. We also have the next month set up with CouchSurfers in Belgium, Netherlands and Switzerland. All of them seem like really amazing people and I'm really excited to meet and explore with them.

I talked to a few friends about how Hilary and I were planning on doing CS and most looked at me like I was insane. They didn't understand how that could be safe. For this reason, I didn't even tell my family (sorry mom & dad) about this. I knew they would be overly concerned and I wasn't close enough to them to talk them through it and help them understand the community. Hilary on the other hand was able to actually host CSers at her parents' place and had time to get then used to the idea. They are now really excited for us. As long as we are smart about how we use CS it is a really safe and great community. There are references and reviews that people leave their hosts and surfers so we are able to read through those and make sure everyone we stay with is legit. The best way to understand what CouchSurfing is all about is to log on to the website and explore. There's a link to my profile on my facebook account. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to travel a little differently than the norm. This could be in the states or out. Surprisingly, a lot of people use it for traveling between states in the US as well which I think is a great idea.