Hello everybody, my Name is Ben and I'm 22 years old. Allegedly a bit ahead of my age, but who cares. There's 16 and 40+ year old people in my life that I consider friends, if we get along, we get along. It's obviously a bit of a cliché phrase but that doesn't make it any less true: Age is just a number.
Glad we got that out of the way.

I was born in Oslo, Norway to a Norwegian father and an Austrian mother, moved back to a small village in my maternal country when I was 4, where I spent the rest of my childhood/youth.

Moved to Vienna right after finishing school and have been living here ever since.
I think I created my CouchSurfing account before I even had furniture in my flat, and it's lead to some great experiences and a couple of friendships I'm glad I didn't miss out on.

Over the last two years I have had less time to host unfortunately, which is also due to the fact that the quality of interactions on this website has almost exponentially declined. People who send copy-paste messages and don't even bother to get my name right will be ignored by me on principle. All others are more than welcome to get in touch and I will do my best to accommodate you and. should that not be possible, at least give you a proper introduction to my city! :)

I have a vast range of interests and love to talk to people who are passionate about something, no matter what, I'm happy to learn!
I make most of my money as a freelance musician so it probably doesn't come as a surprise that music is by far my biggest passion.
I can talk about it for hours on end, I play a couple of instruments at least well enough to impress an amateur. I have a pretty broad taste in music and am always happy to discover something new through recommendations.
I have become a lot less idealistic about the world in the last couple of years, but music is what will always keep me going. It's a universal, fascinating language and you couldn't learn all about it in 100 lifetimes.

To summarise: If you're a musician, we will probably get along :-)

Another big interest of mine is public transportation. I have a huge thing for metro systems in particular, most noteworthy the London Underground, which I even did a big paper on for the Austrian pendant to my A-levels.

Besides the mentioned topics I am also very much into history, politics, geography and psychology. I like to keep in touch with the world's current events and love a good discussion about pretty much anything.

Except for a few constants, my interests tend to change every other week, some nights you will find me sitting on the couch at 4 in the morning with 20+ tabs open reading about the role of the London Underground during WWII, a week later I might have phase where I become really fascinated with the pets of Benjamin Franklin's grandfather, you get the idea.
I love my Wikipedia "hyperlink orgies" as I like to call them and this is how I will spend a significant amount of my nights.

The only two things I really do not give a damm about are celebrities and gossip.
Everything else is fair game and some of the most inspiring acquaintances in my life have been people whom I've had nothing in common with whatsoever at first sight, so don't be shy to contact me, regardless of how much or little you identify with my interests.

If you are passionate about something, we will get along!

The things I value most in people are honesty and politeness and I do my best to live accordingly.

PHILOSOPHY

Be nice to everybody until they give you a reason to act otherwise.

Death to Chivalry, Long Live Politeness!

I know only that I know nothing

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Because I love the concept, the people on here, how it has improved my weekends and my travels, and it is simply the best thing the internet has to offer.

Interests

Music, Urbanisation, Public Transportation (Especially the London Underground), Trains, my Piano, my Guitar, Choral music, Languages, Psychology, History, Geography, Musical Theory, Politics, Psychology, Human behaviour in general, the list goes on and on...

I like to have discussions about pretty much every topic, I have very strong opinions on certain subjects but I am more than happy to exchange ideas and trying to understand different viewpoints.

Sports: I love to ski and play Badminton, also some Volleyball and Handball, even though I haven't done that for a long time now.

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies/Series: Hot Fuzz, The Truman Show, American Beauty, Airplane, Groundhog Day, Lord of the rings, Gran Torino, As it is in heaven, Amadeus, The Commitments,..... /(Shows that I have completed, doesn't necessarily mean I loved all of them): How I met your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, Californication, Game of thrones, Malcolm in the Middle, The Newsroom, True Detective, Modern Family, American Dad, Supernatural, House of Cards, Workaholics, The West Wing, Sports Night, Hannibal, Black Books, South Park, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Rick and Morty forever a hundred years, Community, The Wire, Archer The Office, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul Lilyhammer,.... way too many.

Music: The Rolling Stones, Queen, Johnny Cash, Blues in general, Classic Rock,, some Rap, (tough I'm very picky when it comes to that) more recently Alt-J, James Blake (really admire the guy), John Hopkins, Steve Winwood London Grammar,....
and a lot of classical music, especially Mozart, Grieg, Desprez and Monteverdi.
I pick out a little of pretty much every genre except for Metal I think.

Books: Harry Potter, Dan Brown, Khaled Hosseini, George Orwell, The Tortilla Curtain, a lot of German/Austrian literature like Erich Kästner and Michael Ende, history books.
I used to read a lot of fiction, but for the last years I have mainly been reading articles, and scientific stuff, as opposed to classic books.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Flying over Newfoundland with the setting sun on my way from London to Boston.

Being part of an international EF group, the best three weeks of my life.

Interrailed through Europe 2 times

Playing my own gigs with my band

Standing on top of the Marmolada, a glacier in the Dolomites

Cycling through Austria and South Tyrol a few years ago.

Working in an old cinema with projectors that were built before World War II.

Hiking through Norway, spending time in a hut in the south of Norway on a small island at the coast.

Watching the sun set over Barcelona in Park Güell

Copenhagen. It's just such a great city, one of the coolest places in Europe right now.

Making a bride cry during her wedding ceremony with my piano-playing.

Teach, Learn, Share

Hmmmm..

I can teach you stuff on the piano if you are a musician and know the basics. I could teach you a lot about music in general if you're interested.

Also, if you're interested in history and I'm showing you around in Vienna, I can tell you a lot about that.

Ooh and I can teach you how to make 100% homemade Chicken Nuggets!

Things I want to learn: Everything I don't know how to do yet.
Whatever you have to offer, I'll be happy to give it a try.

What I Can Share with Hosts

My place, my instruments, my experiences, my opinions, my friends, my favourite places in Vienna, my music, ... oh and I should be able to give you a fresh towel as well haha

Countries I’ve Visited

Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Austria, Norway