I'm Dima. I'm originally from Odessa, Ukraine, where I grew up. In 2012 I moved to London where I live now. During the last 10 years I've also briefly lived in New York, USA (6 months) and Porto, Portugal (6 months).

I am a very open minded person, interested in learning about different cultures. I'm very friendly and sociable person, one of my friends once said that I'm "excited about everything".

I'm in love with travelling and discovering new places. I've been to more than 35 countries, but every time I realise that what makes travelling special it's not places you go, but the people you meet. Everywhere I go I'm not a tourist or a traveller, but an adventurer.

I'm fluent in English, Russian and Ukrainian - right now I am also learning Portuguese and can speak elementary Spanish.

Work-wise, I run a small PR agency, and am interested in arts, design, fashion and music.

I am also a big fan of active leisure such as hiking, and especially surfing (I'm a beginner level though)!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

When I tell people that I go to different cities and countries and stay at total stranger's places they think I'm crazy.

When I tell people that I allow total stranger from different countries to stay at my place they think I'm crazy too.

Couchsurfing is a beautiful idea of enabling culture exchange and travelling. When you think about the fact that you can go anywhere in the world and you already have a friend and a place to stay there - that's surreal. I think

Couchsurfing is an utopic idea that somehow works in real world - and everyone who is using Couchsurfing kind of understand how it "should" work, so you can really say it's a subculture, or an utopic idea that is built by people using it.

In 2016-2017 I've travelled around South America for 6 months with my ex girlfriend. We've stayed with more than 30 Couchsurfing hosts, but we were using her account to send requests the whole time. That's why my account is so empty, but I'm an experienced couchsurfer and a big advocate of CS.

Interests

• design
• street art
• hiking
• surfing
• languages
• hitchhiking
• art
• beach
• culture exchange
• public relations

Music, Movies, and Books

My favourite book is "The Beach" by Alex Garland. Its full of spirit of travelling, as in it's essence it is about someone trying to find paradise on Earth - where the paradise is a community created by like-minded travellers. I think this has an interesting metaphoric correlation with the idea of Couchsurfing.

I also really like the book "Widow Basquiat" by Jennifer Clement, it's a biography of Jean Michelle Basquiat, who is my favourite artist, written by his wife.

My favorite movies are: City of God, Forrest Gump, Paid in Full and The Beach (based on my favourite book! and the main character is played by DiCaprio!) and the Endless Summer.

The Endless Summer is specifically cool. It's one of an extremely small amount of movies that have a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It's a documentary about a group of surfers who chase the summer season around the globe to surf, its amazing, and is an amazing inspiration for travel - if you also like surfing this film is like a Bible.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

A year after graduating university I went backpacking to South America for 6 months.
I've started my trip in Rio de Janeiro and ended up in Buenos Aires.
The whole trip was made by hitchhiking and couchsurfing (using account of my girlfriend at that time)
We also crossed two borders illegally on that trip - but that's a different story!

Teach, Learn, Share

When meeting me you'll realise what kind of person I am and what skills I have - I'm very open minded and friendly at first. I am happy to teach you whatever I can, and am really interested in learning about cultures and lifes of people I meet. When it comes to sharing - I can always share my genuine friendship, but I am happy to help with whatever you might need.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I love to make friends and make good company to people I meet, so the first and foremost thing I share with people who host me is the spirit of adventure, good vibes and friendship. I'm always looking to spend quality time together exploring where you live and it's surroundings, hiking, and anything else - so if you don't have plans I'm happy to explore and go on adventures together.

If you're busy, I won't disturb you, but would be happy to have dinner together and have good conversations.

If people who host me need help with anything, I'm always there for them!

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Austria, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Egypt, England, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Kenya, Kosovo, Lithuania, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Palestine, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russian Federation, Scotland, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Portugal, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States