CURRENT MISSION

To conquer the world!

ABOUT ME

Two people living in Ghent, Belgium together with five friends. Femke is interested in graphic design, the taste of different cultures (quite literally), playing the piano and always ready to meet new people. Bjorn is interested in politics, philosophy, literature, playing chess, and the world in general.

PHILOSOPHY

- Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. (Mark Twain)

- Adapted quote by Thoreau: I wish to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I can not learn what it has to teach, and not, when I come to die, discover that I have not lived. I do not wish to live what is not life, living is so dear; nor do I wish to practice resignation, unless it is quite necessary. I want to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily as to put to rout all that is not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Surfing hospitality waves since 2008!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

We couchsurfed in Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Russia, England, Spain and Montenegro. Sometimes people invited us into their homes while hitchhiking and this one time in Montenegro, a guy asked us spontaneously whether we wanted to go for a drink and spend the night in his house. Good times!

Interests

About everything that life can offer.

• literature
• design
• graphic design
• drinking
• politics
• chess
• piano
• surfing
• sailing
• tourism
• hitchhiking

Music, Movies, and Books

Bjorn: I am a chronic reader. I'm especially fond of Russian writers like Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Turgeniev, Chekhov, et cetera. I consider reading books the same like tasting wine. Take a good look at the cover, the year it is printed and smell the paper. In the same way I'm saving a good book for the appropriate occasion. So, many of my books that I have, I have not read yet. But, hey, a wine cellar is not stacked with empty bottles, is it?

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Hitchhiked to Iran from Belgium in the summer of 2012.
Hitchhiked to Transnistria from Belgium in the summer of 2013.

Teach, Learn, Share

Always ready to guide people through Ghent.

Countries I’ve Visited

Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mali, Mexico, Montenegro, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russian Federation, Senegal, Serbia, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Belgium