ABOUT ME

IG: @arturas.niko

FB: Arturas Nikogosian https://m.facebook.com/arturasnikogosian

I am a freelance photographer/videomaker with an engineering background and a huge love to travel.

Currenty travelling through Asia with my girlfried. Now - Indonesia, and very soon - JAPAN (super excited).

My biggest Couchsuring adventure was travelling for 2 months in Canada/USA only using this platform. This was years back, when CS was more popular (and free...) and now, after a little break I decided to get back to it and check the vibe.

Apart from just travelling, I have lived in a few different countries:

- studied in Scotland, Canada and China,

- lived and worked in London,

- volunteered for an NGO prosthetics organisation in Bolivia

- traveled to South Asia, Central America and United States, where I hitchhiked and used Couchsurfing a lot.

I love to try new things and enjoy life. Apart from photography and videomaking, which is my hobby and work, I also love kitesurfing, swing-dancing (that's how I met my girlfriend:)) and cycling.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

My first CS experiences inspired and gave me courage to travel the world. I truly believe that through cultural exchange we enrich our lives, share different perspectives and similarities or even make friends for life. It's crazy how many great people I met just because of this platform, and years later we are still in touch!

Interests

My current biggest interest is actually my job. I think bringing the camera with you helps to pay attention to the things you usually wouldn't notice and therefore this helps to discover same places again and perpetuate the greatest moments of life.

Guitar has a function of calming me down and escaping once I catch myself rushing. I've been practicing the instrument for a few years now and getting interested in music creation.

By pushing myself out of the comfort zone I learned some more random things, like swing dancing, rock climbing or scuba diving.

• culture
• photography
• film making
• environment
• dining
• cooking
• movies
• traveling
• socializing
• music
• guitar
• cycling
• scuba diving
• engineering
• languages
• kitesurfing

Music, Movies, and Books

80s, 90s, rock classics, disco/dance music, electronic, jazz, blues, old school rap, some pop, techno/house music... List goes on.

Some of my favourite bands that come to my head at the time of writing: Dire Straits, Pink Floyd, Queen, Jungle, Coldplay, Eminem, Foals, Bonobo...

Movies/Series (again, what comes to my mind now): Breaking Bad, Money Heist, The Office, Friends, Squid Game, Queen's Gambit, Black Mirror...

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Only one?? Ok.

Watched Acatenango (volcano in Guatemala) spitting lava while camping on another volcano. (SO. EPIC.)

Teach, Learn, Share

I can teach photography, videomaking, kitesurfing (if you have a kite and some wind:) ), lindy-hop (swing-dancing) or maybe cooking some epic Lithuanian food if you have enough ingredients:)

What I Can Share with Hosts

Apart from the obvious of sharing my experiences in living and travelling accross different countries, I can teach you lindy-hop (with a help of my gf) or some photography/videomaking stuff:)

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Bolivia, Cambodia, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Denmark, El Salvador, England, Finland, France, Georgia, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Latvia, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Poland, Scotland, Singapore, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United States, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, China, Croatia, Lithuania, Scotland