Travel is my passion, in all its forms: 10 000 mile-long road trips, jungle treks, museum-filled city escapes, mountain climbs... Of course, I am happiest when I travel with my husband, but sometimes he has to go away for work, take care of his parents, stuff like that - and on such occasions I do solo trips. Luckily, I can combine travel with work: I am a freelancer and mostly write and consult for blockchain projects, so all I need is my laptop. Unfortunately, this also means that I almost never get to have a proper vacation: even after a whole day of hitchhiking or trekking I still have to sit down and type away late into the night. This whole "earn money while travelling" thing is less glamorous than it seems...

I am working on my own travel project - a platform for booking adventures and activities in off-the-beaten-track destination - but it's going veerrryy slowly because I have so little time :(...

Anyway, I'm interested in just about anything, from WWI history to gardening, and I love to chat and learn about how people live, so we'll find things to discuss and laugh about! But if you prefer to just do your stuff and not talk, that's also great. I'm a happy, honest, open, educated, well-read, easy-going person. My comfort zone is very large, I can sleep on just about any surface, so a mattress on the floor is fine)). I am tidy and always clean after myself, but I really don't care if your house is an epic mess. I eat everything (and I mean everything - fried insects, sausages made of blood...), have no allergies whatsoever, you can tell me anything, even really crazy weird stuff - I neither judge nor get shocked)). The only thing is that I am married, so I have absolutely no interest in hook-ups and stuff like that. Oh, I am not into clubbing and hard drinking when I'm traveling, either. Though I'm still Russian, so I never say no to vodka!

I enjoy cooking and will happily go to the supermarket, cook dinner for you, and wash dishes afterwards :).

Check me out on Instagram: @wallaby_travel

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Before I used to always stay in hostels and met lots of amazing people. However, in the past few years I've begun to notice that hostel guests do not talk to each other anymore - they just stare into their phones. For example, when I was in Xinjiang, I travelled for two weeks without seeing a singIe foreign person. And when I finally arrived at a hostel in Kashgar, all I wanted was to have a normal conversation. But they were all busy with their smartphones! So yeah, I guess it's the human connection on the road that I miss - hearing people's stories, learning about their jobs...

Interests

• books
• cooking
• yoga
• gardening
• movies
• reading
• traveling
• classical music
• folk music
• hiking
• history
• hitchhiking
• mountains
• art
• trekking
• museums
• climbing
• jungle trekking

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: early music (medieval and Renaissance), folk music (from traditional Russian songs to Qawwali and ragas), soundtracks to films, Alt J, Sigur Ros...

TV shows: Game of Thrones, Vikings

Books: Russian classics (yep, War and Piece, Crime & Punishment, GULAG Archipelago, etc.), books on history, science, history of religion - you know, educational stuff
Movies: I'm omnivorous - from Marvel movies to Lars von Trier

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Hmmm, I cannot choose between crossing into Afghanistan on foot, climbing a 20 000 ft (6100 m) high mountain, seeing wild gorillas in the jungle of Uganda, and doing the world's highest bungee jump ))))) Oh, and once I was interrogated by the Russian security services (yep, the FSB). And then there was this time when I got stuck in Egypt in the middle of the revolution. And then recently we went to this abandoned nuclear missile storage site... Crazy and ridiculous stuff just keeps happening to me, basically.

But you know what? The best is still to come. This September we will drive all the way from our home in Italy to the very northern tip of European Russia on the Kola peninsula, 4000 km away. The Arctic Ocean awaits! And once that is done? Well, I've read that you can see lots of unhabituated gorillas in the jungle of Cameroon...

Teach, Learn, Share

- Most of all, I'd like to know more about your life - what you do, where you are going next, what you think about your country, what was the most ridiculous thing that has ever happened to you...
- If you've ever wondered how blockchain and cryptocurrencies work, just ask me!
- If you are (by any chance) learning Russian or Italian, you can practice with me;
- I'd love to learn your favorite cooking recipe!
- We can discuss Putin - somehow most people want to talk about Putin when they find out that I'm Russian lol

What I Can Share with Hosts

- I love to cook and will happily cook a dinner for you - it can be Russian cuisine, Italian, Indian, Chinese...
- I have LOTS of funny and crazy stories to tell!

Countries I’ve Visited

Afghanistan, Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cambodia, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Egypt, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Kosovo, Laos, Lebanon, Macedonia, Malaysia, Malta, Moldova, Morocco, Netherlands, North Korea, Palestine, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vatican City State

Countries I’ve Lived In

Italy, Russian Federation