This is a shared profile of Marta and Alek, a young married couple from Poland. We're both doing a PhD in philosophy, Marta is writing about relations between Cartesianism and Baroque art and Alek about philosophical motifs in Dostoevsky's prose. We're living in Warsaw right now, though Marta is from a tiny village in Cracovian jura, close to the famous Ogrodzieniec and Pieskowa Skała castles, a place which affords plenty hiking possibilities in the picturesque rocky landscapes. Alek was teaching philosophy in high school and now he works as an activist, addressing the difficult situation of both Polish and international humanities. Marta recently published a book on Kierkegaard and is now enjoying her research stay in Ljubljana.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

We are PhD students, living off our moderate scholarships. Yet, we don't want this crude fact to hinder our experience of the world - and travelling is one of its crucial aspects. We are both eager hitch-hikers, which allows us to visit places off the beaten track. The Balkans and Caucasus are among our favourite traveling destinations. There are two major things which drive us in our trips. One of them is art; it can be a special exhibition, a graffiti, or a fresco in a lesser known Orthodox church - we cherish these experiences and take them home, reliving them in memories, conversations and theoretical work. The second is people and the possibility of sharing in their experience of their country, history and every-day life. And there is nothing like couchsurfing to get to see new places and meet people. We are easy going and unimposing and we don't expect our host to organise time for us, although a possibility to have an afternoon coffee or a late-evening chat is very appreciated :)

Interests

Philosophy, Literature, Art

• arts
• humanities
• writing
• books
• literature
• cooking
• coffee
• traveling
• socializing
• hiking
• track and field
• history

Music, Movies, and Books

Our top thing to watch ever is The Wire! Marta is a fan of Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Bela Tarr, though these dark movies don't reflect her everyday mood :) We both love Clint Eastwood films, especially Mystic River.

We read voraciously, Joseph Conrad, great 19th century Russian novelists and Coetzee are among our favourites. And there is Hegel of course, though that's a whole different story...

Alek currently listens to a lot of jazz and blues from New Orleans, like . Marta sticks to her high school favourites: The Doors, Karen Dalton, Velvet Underground. She also enjoys film music: currently a movie track from Sicario.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Our journey around Romania. It's a long story...

Teach, Learn, Share

We love to share our experinece of the world with others and learn about their own. Couchsurfing gives us an opportunity to get to know things about different parts of the world that we could never learn from newspapers and internet - and it is this kind of knowledge and life experience that is the beating heart of the countries we vist.

What I Can Share with Hosts

We like to cook for our hosts in the evenings, if they have time of course.

Countries I’ve Visited

France, Georgia, Greece, Macedonia, Romania, Ukraine, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Slovenia