I'm a life-long nomad. Born in Cyprus, I was raised in Germany and various parts of the UK. After finishing my undergraduate studies in London, I lived in Russia and Estonia for about a year each before moving to Vienna, where I'm based now. As well as living in different countries, I also try to go on backpacking trips and holidays as often as I can.

My love of travel is inextricably intertwined with my love of languages: in addition to my native English, I've studied French, German and Russian to the point where I think I can say I'm fluent now... and I'd like to add a couple more to that list in future!

On top of travel and languages, I'm really into music, literature and film, with fairly eclectic tastes in all three. I'm also interested in international affairs, politics and modern history – topics that I've explored in my university studies and that I like to geek out about in my free time. I'm a pretty laid back, easygoing guy – possibly to the point of laziness – but at the same time I'm outgoing and sociable. My ideal guest or host is someone with whom I can while away a few hours in quality conversation. The best conversations, I think, are the ones where you learn something or get a new perspective.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I've surfed in Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, the Czech Republic, Vietnam and Bulgaria so far, and have had nothing but good times! Plus I hosted a few times when I lived in London, which was a lot of fun too.

Interests

• literature
• politics
• music
• history
• languages
• philosophy
• travel
• film

Music, Movies, and Books

I'm kind of an audiophile, with fairly eclectic tastes ranging from jazz (Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Kamasi Washington), post-rock (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Silver Mt Zion, Sigur Rós) and contemporary classical (Nils Frahm, Steve Reich, Max Richter) to hip-hop (J Dilla, MF DOOM, Blu, Immortal Technique), electronic music (Burial, Flying Lotus, Four Tet, Boards of Canada, Bonobo) and various shades of indie (Neutral Milk Hotel, Broken Social Scene, Yo La Tengo, Sufjan Stevens, Pavement, The Hold Steady), as well as some of the mandatory rock classics (The Clash, The Smiths, Pink Floyd, Radiohead). If you want to see what I've been listening to, check out my last.fm profile (http://www.last.fm/user/Eitental).

I also love to read: at the moment I'm still trying to work my way through the literary canon, but some of my favourite authors so far are Vladimir Nabokov, Franz Kafka, Haruki Murakami, Kurt Vonnegut, Nikolai Gogol, Jack Kerouac, George Orwell, Bret Easton Ellis, Joseph Heller, Will Self and Fyodor Dostoevskii.

It's hard to pick out all-time favourite films, but titles worth mentioning include The Big Lebowski, Being John Malkovich, Synecdoche New York, Pulp Fiction, Inglourious Basterds, Oldboy, Memento, Inception, Anomalisa, Waking Life, Dazed & Confused, Boyhood, Brick, Upstream Color, Un Prophète, Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, Into the Wild, Inherent Vice, 28 Days Later and Children of Men.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Celebrating the summer solstice at Stonehenge - with around 30,000 people - in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2013.

Teach, Learn, Share

I'm a qualified English teacher, so I can always help you with your English, plus I might be able to help you with German, French or Russian. Likewise, I'm always grateful for anyone helping me with my languages.

As I wrote above, I'm really into music, cinema and literature. As such I always like to recommend people new stuff that I think they'll like and I'm keen to hear other people's recommendations.

I also love to cook. I don't claim to be a pro, but I'm always happy to have a go at rustling something up for a guest or host!

Countries I’ve Visited

Albania, Armenia, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Viet Nam

Countries I’ve Lived In

Austria, Cyprus, Estonia, Germany, Kosovo, Russian Federation, United Kingdom

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