I stand with Ukraine.
I am an experienced host and traveller hoping to meet interesting new people even in these strange times and learn or experience something new and fun.
If you are travelling with a friend/partner please at least add a photo on them,too.

Couple of years ago i lived in Minsk and now I often work in the former Eastern block. Particularly along the Baltic coast from Gdánsk to St. Petersburg, but also some new projects in the Balkans, Caucasus and Baikal this spring and summer. At least that was the plan.
All plans changed but hope to make it to somewhere nice as soon as possible.

It is nice if you know my name, but that does not make your message any more personal! I like super smart and flexible people with life experience who make me do stuff in the real world. See also my update on CS section below.

When travelling with friends/partner, please add some information and a picture of them as well.

I am not fast at writing with a phone. You can leave a telegram/whatsapp contact and i can answer all your questions. A one minute phone call often can tell you more of a person than a million text messages.

Instagram: dominikropke
+49 15733697719 telegram

PHILOSOPHY

"It is better to burn out, than to fade away."
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
"Two roads diverged into a wood, and I -
I took the one less travelled by.
And that has made all the difference."
"Everything was better, when everything was worse."

Host me one night and you get a second night for free.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

It is great if you have some or a lot of hosting experience, do not snore, do not mind me reading late at night,
can ride a bike to go around town, and most important are worth to talk to. You can always ask me for and about anything.

Update on Berlin:
Berlin is a city to do, not just to see. Nothing in Berlin is exceptionally beautiful, and if you are just planning to go around taking pictures for Instagram of the same 20 places everybody else has been you will never get a true Berlin experience. Take part in a lecture, visit a photography exhibition of that Japanese artist you have never heart of - Brandenburg gate will always be there and Alexanderplatz can not possibly get more horrible. What is the point to admire Berlins wide choice of cinemas and museums if you only see them from outside? Berlin is a great city because you can find something new here even if you lived here all your life.

Update on Couchsurfing:
Still i meet some great people here, especailly when i surf. When i travel myself i prefer to read a book than write long requests that never get an answer. Rarely i get a good requests anymore and a couple of people have failed to show up after making a specific appointment. I think it is due to the fact that some people get like 50 messages from guys (some of them very decent, i am sure; others less so). Guys are highly encouraged to send me a request. Please understand that i prefer guests with life and hosting experience, closer to my own age and ideally people willing to speak in Russian with me (i am fluent) and guests i can meet again on my own journeys; due to professional reasons mainly in the former Eastern Block. Last but not least: Who does not like making out? If it happens consensually - great; but please let it not be the main motivation for being on CS. I made friends here that i visited many times over the course of years and they show up on my doorstep again and again, too.
If you are a really great person but not matching those ideas of mine of a good guest - write me anyways. Life has proved me wrong many times.

Interests

My interests are literature, philosophy,chess, politics, trekking, history, soccer, my friends and family, riding a bike in Berlin, and the human condition in general.

Music, Movies, and Books

Books I like include Animal Farm, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Faust and The Master and Magarita, which picks up the Faust theme all over again.
Besides Orwell, Nietzsche, Goethe I like Hemingway, Wilde, Borges, Gontscharovo´s Oblomov and Lermontov´s A Hero of Our Time. When I was younger I liked Hesse. Zweig is my favourite storyteller. Wikipedia and The Economist. Memories of great people.

Music: Bob Dylan, The Smith, Red Hot Chili Peppers, David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, Leonard Cohen and some contemporary rock bands. The Wall is my favourite album.
Movies: Trainspotting, Fight Club, Seven, American Beauty, The Breakfast Club,Reservoir Dogs, Dead Poets Society and many films by Kubrick and Woody Allen.
Billy Wilder! Everything he ever touched is awesome.

I like to try new stuff, but i am stuck in the 19th century. So please send me the link to a cool book, song, talk or event or whatever, this way i also know you read my profile.

Teach, Learn, Share

"We need to make books cool again. If you go to
somebody´s place and they don´t have books,
don´t fuck them."

"Wer die Enge seiner Heimat begreifen will, der reise. Wer die Enge seiner Zeit begreifen will, der studiere Geschichte." Kurt Tucholsky

Countries I’ve Visited

Albania, Armenia, Austria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Iran, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, Palestine, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Scotland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan

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