CURRENT MISSION

To be furiously happy :)

ABOUT ME

There are many things I love intensely, and one of them is traveling. I love to travel because of the people I meet; because it gives me the opportunity to learn from them and from their culture, as well as to unlearn my birthplace's worldview; because of the beauty all around, and because at this point I've grown quite used to a nomadic lifestyle, which often feels more natural than staying sedentarian.
Although I'm quite young (I'm currently 28, and I started traveling when I was 15), I've been hitchhiking around the world most of the time during the last ten years, which has brought me to more than 80 countries and many wonderful adventures.
Around the age of 18 I began to experiment with the idea of traveling completely without money, and I loved so many aspects of it that it eventually became one of my favorite things to do in life. Some of my trips include hitchhiking by land and water to the other side of the world from my home without money (from Spain to New Zealand across France, Italy, Slovenia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand), hitchhiking without money from the United States to Argentina in two separate trips, traveling from Spain to India in a motorhome with a family of 10 other friends, hitchhiking the west coast of Africa, and many more...
As you might see in my profile picture, I move in a wheelchair, but that's really a very minor impairment for travelling: I can go through stairs easily, I've been through jungles, deserts, snow and mountains, I've travelled on top of trucks, stow away on boats, and done professional climbing... so don't worry if your house has no elevator! :P
You can also watch the movie I made during one of my trips if you want to know more, called "Little World" (http://monpetit.vhx.tv).

When I'm not traveling I have many other interests like urban exploration, adventure sports, writing (I've writen two published books, you can find them here: www.albertcasals.cat), reading, philosophy, acting, games, crafting, programming, technology... and, of course, meeting interesting people from couch surfing!
During the last 4 years I've also been living quite a lot with an intentional community that I consider my family, and more recently I've been sharing most of my sedentarian time with my best friend Andrea (Andrea CaL in Couchsurfing), so if you come to my house you'll most likely meet us both.

Update: I'm currently staying in Glasgow until December with Andrea, so we can host again! You're welcome to send us requests! :D

PHILOSOPHY

==The Short Version==
As Chamfort once said: "To enjoy and to give joy, without suffering or making suffer. That's all there is to morality". Add a touch of Fouccault and Deleuze to stir things up and we're good to go ;)

==The Looong Version==
I like philosophy quite a lot (partly because I studied it in university for three years), which to me means that I like to question and to think critically about almost everything. I like it because it helps me unlearn my prejudices and false beliefs, which in turns gives me more freedom to live in the way that makes me happiest.
I believe that everyone tries to maximize happiness consciously or unconsciously (otherwise we would have no will or motivation to do anything). Therefore, since that's what I'm going to be doing whether I want it or not, I choose to do it with as much awareness and beauty as I can. I think happiness and unhappiness, or pleasure and pain, are a matter of perspective: the exact same circumstances make one person happy and another unhappy. I also think that we can change what we are, what we believe and what we feel, including the way we see and experience reality. Therefore, it seems much easier to change our perspective to feel completely in peace and happy in any possible set of circumstances, rather than to attempt to change reality in hope of making every circumstance adjust to our expectations.
In the end, the essence of my philosophy lies in experiencing as much happiness and beauty as possible by making yourself into your freest self, your happiest self, by getting rid of judgement and prejudice and becoming everything you can become, which is the same as to create yourself as a living work of art, a gift of love to you and to the world.
I think this path is different for everyone, but in my case it has lead me to many unusual beliefs and practices that often clash with most current society's worldview's, especially regarding love, gender, property, money, spirituality and authority. I'm sure we can talk about those and many other things if we meet! :)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Every home where I've lived has always been open to couch surfers, and any home I live in will continue to be! :D

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've hosted and surfed, and I'm extremely happy I did so!

Interests

Here are 30-something things I truly love.
- Games
- Quirks
- Dreams
- Human warmth
- New psychedelics
- Adventures
- Stories
- The unknown
- Climbing
- Acting
- Travelling
- Hitchhiking
- Debating
- Writing
- Exploration
- Science
- Technology
- Art
- Fantasy
- Science fiction
- Philosophy
- Logic
- Rationality
- Geekness
- Intelligence
- Oddity
- Transhumanism
- Curiosity
- Novelty
- Relationship Anarchy
- Love
- Freedom
- Happiness
- Life

• cats
• culture
• writing
• books
• technology
• movies
• video games
• board games
• reading
• traveling
• music
• sports
• rock climbing
• logic
• philosophy
• science
• hitchhiking
• urban exploration
• art
• games
• game design
• polyamory
• relationship anarchy

Music, Movies, and Books

MUSIC: I've always found that recorded music doesn't interest me as much as it interests most people. Therefore I'm not an avid listener of recorded music, although when I listen to it I listen mostly jazz, classic, ska, rock, punk and some electronic music. Live music, on the other hand, is a profound pleasure to me, and I will listen attentively to almost every musician I have the chance to hear. Improvisation, in particular, has always deeply fascinated me, and I think I've never felt tired of listening a musician improvise.

MOVIES: I've seen hundreds of movies throughout my life, which makes it hard to select some as my favorite. So, instead, I will name ten movies that deeply moved me the first time I saw them (whether I was younger or older when that happened): Into the Wild, Jeux d'Enfants, November, Ernest et Celestine, Martin Hache, The Dreamers, Shortbus, The Lion King, Kinsey, Wolf Children.

BOOKS: Here's where things get harder. I've probably read one or two books a week since I was 5 years old, so it's not easy to choose a handful of favorites, especially considering that books cover anything from philosophy to fantasy or science fiction, including graphic novels and more.
Therefore, I'm going to name my 5 favorite writers and quickly run away before I spend the next year thinking about this question: Patrick Rothfuss, Catherynne M. Valente, Ursula K. Le Guin, Iain M. Banks and Epicurum. Make of that what you will, Literature, you merciless mistress.

ANIMATION: Since I love animation and japanese anime with passion, I've decided to create another category to name a few animated series that touched me when I first saw them. I'll go with five: Fullmetal Alchemist Shintetsu, Death Note, Shingeki no Kyojin, Puella Madoka Magica and Adventure Time, with Baccano! as an extra mention due to general beauty and narrative awesomeness :)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Hard to say with so many wonderful experiences. A night under the stars in a beduin camp on the desert? A trip across the Peruvian mountains on top of a truckload full of watermelons? The eyes of a three year old Nepali girl after having been playing together for an entire day without sharing a word of the same language? Trainhopping onto Mexico's Death Train? Unfreezing our motorhome's engine with a flamethrower on top of a Turkish frozen lake? Living and surviving a 4-meter-wave storm on the Caribbean in a motorboat? Hitchhiking to the other side of the world, from my home in Barcelona to a stranger's house in New Zealand, without using any money at all? Or perhaps writing and later finding that others, sometime, somewhere, were inspired to live more freely because of it?
I feel truly blessed for having lived such a beautiful life, but I guess in the end the most beautiful things were not the various adventures or experiences but the love I've been able to share with others.

Countries I’ve Visited

Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Belize, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, England, Ethiopia, France, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mauritania, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Northern Ireland, Norway, Pakistan, Palestine, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, Senegal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syrian Arab Republic, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan, Viet Nam, Wales

Countries I’ve Lived In

Colombia, Scotland, Spain, United Kingdom