Hey! My name is Dan and I'm an easygoing Australian guy who moved to Canada in October 2013. I currently live in the wonderful city of Toronto but I also spent 18 months in Montreal.

I'm a fairly seasoned traveller and I prefer to live abroad for an extended period of time rather than just pass through somewhere as a tourist. My first overseas adventure was in 2008 when I lived for 15 months in England. It was such an amazing experience and ever since then I've dreamt about exploring more of the world. I've spent time in around 10 European countries and seen a lot of Canada, the US, Egypt, Japan, Singapore, Eduador & Chile - and that's not to mention seeing most of Australia.

Aside from travel, I really enjoy playing acoustic guitar, watching documentaries, discovering unique cafes & restaurants around town and being outdoors somewhere in nature jogging, hiking or cycling.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I love the CouchSurfing community and mostly use the site as a way of meeting other travellers, whether they are travelling around my home country or I'm travelling through their country. I tend to use the Groups to arrange activities / meetups or to offer advice about Australia. Although I'm not able to host at the moment due to my living arrangements, I have hosted in my previous location in Australia which was a very positive experience.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

September 2012 - I organised a social outing with four CSers travelling through Sydney and drove them to Palm Beach where we hiked up to Barranjoey lighthouse.

October 2012 - I met up with some new CS friends in Kyoto and Nagasaki while I was travelling through Japan.

December 2012 - I hosted a couple of awesome travellers on New Years Eve

January 2013 - I went on a trip to the Blue Mountains for 4 days with one of the Couchsurfers I hosted the previous month

Interests

I've been playing acoustic guitar since I was 13, I'm pretty good at it today! I used to play professionally in a covers duo and I've recorded a few albums of my own tunes as well.

I have a particular fondness for photography and an Instagram project of mine has even led to some of my pics being published in Lonely Planet and in newspapers & blogs around the world. It's a pretty funny story about how that came to be but I'll save that for another time :)

One of my favourite pastimes is watching documentaries. In Toronto we have the Hot Docs Cinema which is one of the only cinemas in the world that specialises in documentaries. It's like heaven to me

• writing
• photography
• documentaries
• coffee
• working out
• walking
• boating
• traveling
• eating out
• music
• live music
• guitar
• hiking
• beaches
• mountains
• jogging
• roadtrips
• drinking tea
• boot camp

Music, Movies, and Books

I enjoy most music, but my favourite genres are acoustic-based folk/rock/blues, Celtic folk, classic rock, Australian music (in general), and late-90's American indie.

Some of my top artists include The Waifs, John Butler, Keith Urban, Fleetwood Mac, Tonic, Ben Folds, Christy Moore, Shawn Mullins, Sigur Rós, Springsteen, Cold Chisel, The Mavericks and Great Big Sea.

I don't read too many books but when I do I tend to appreciate non-fiction or believable fiction.

As for movies: give me a documentary, foreign or independent film any day.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

The most memorable trip I've been on was a 17 day tour of Egypt, starting at Cairo and working our way around the whole country. It might sound simple, but I had always wanted to climb a sand dune, and I was able to fulfil the dream on this trip.

We were staying in Aswan and took a boat to a Nubian cafe on the opposite side of the Nile. The majority of the tour group chose to relax and sample some very tasty Nubian coffee made with ginger & mixed spices, but a few of us who were feeling slightly more adventurous made the journey to the top of a nearby sand dune instead. It was an incredibly hot day and our feet burned to a crisp during the long, steep trek, but it was so damn worth it for the view from the top of the dune. Below us we could see the Nile, followed by miles of green, fertile ground, Aswan in the distance, and endless desert off until the horizon. We had an awesome time “skiing” with our bare feet back down the sand dune, and upon rejoining the group at the cafe, I realised my dream was complete :D

Teach, Learn, Share

I have my TESOL Certificate so I'm open to teaching English - and I can also teach guitar

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, Egypt, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, Canada, United Kingdom